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After the roaring success of Vessel, Twenty One Pilots new album, Blurryface, was met with a huge wave of excitement and boy did it deliver.
Now, the band embark on their Blurryface Tour of the world and after a rocking start in Glasgow, their next show was in The Ritz, Manchester.
Twenty one pilots’ growth over the past 12 months has been something that I been following closely and I was surprised to see the amount of people at the venue. It was a fully sold out gig and you could tell.
There was barely an inch of free space in the standing crowd and the stench of people was overwhelming but as soon as Tyler Joseph (vocals and keyboard) and Joshua Dun (drums) walked out onto the stage, it was all worth it.
An opening of the energetic, Heavydirtysoul, got the crowd well in the mood for the remainder of the performance followed by another new track, Stressed Out. After this, the crowd was met with a pair of songs from the bands earlier record Vessel, Guns for Hands and Migraine, to add a nostalgic vibe to the atmosphere. Which, at this point, was absolutely electric.
Tyler Joseph, lead singer certainly knows how to get the crowd in the mood and this was apparent. He kept them engaged and excited with short conversations and jokes. After Polarize, the crowd were treated to a duo of ukulele songs from the new album, We Don’t Believe What’s On TV and The Judge, which gave everyone some time to recuperate after the heavy and hectic start.
After some more conversations here and there, the band finished off the show with a mixture of old and new, my personal highlight being Run and Go during which the audience were instructed to pair up and get on one person’s shoulders. It was gestures and interactions like this that kept it interesting and prevented a flat and boring performance.
Encores of Goner and Trees were a perfect way to finish especially during Trees as both band members climbed onto platforms with drums and surfed into the crowd on them. However, it was not by any stretch of the imagination, perfect. The microphone was quiet and at times it was difficult to Joseph over the hordes of fans singing every song word-for-word, myself included.
The lighting was also, at some points, dizzying and distracted from the actual performance.
Summary: A fantastic performance from the electro-pop duo. The skeleton clique was something to behold and the swathes of brightly coloured hair and balaclavas was a sight I will never forget. If you’re a fan of schizoid pop, then this is the band for you.
Bravo, Twenty One Piløts, bravo.