Last night, twenty|one|pilots returned home to Columbus, Ohio to show their hometown once again what they are made of, and how much they love and appreciate where they come from. t|o|p played Columbus last year around the release of their most recent and breakthrough album Vessel. This time, toward the end of the tour, the band was able to sell out two nights in a row at the LC Pavillion. I opted for tickets to night two, being it was on a Friday. After decent sets by Vinyl Theater and MisterWives, the band stormed onto the stage and kicked off one of their most popular songs “Guns For Hands”, and the momentum never let up.
Even though this show was also still in support of Vessel, the differences this time around were most in the people. There were still pushy rude people in the audience, underage drinkers drunk and falling over before the show even started, but this time it felt like the fans were more familiar with the songs, especially the older material. While they blasted through all of the songs from Vessel with full momentum, there was also a part of the show where they played “Addict With A Pen” from the self titled but quieter debut, “Fall Away” from the hard to find second album Regional at Best, along with “Forest” and like last time, we were treated to “Kitchen Sink” which features a guest appearance from Tyler Joseph’s little brother Zack. About halfway through the show, Tyler stopped to point out that the families of both members were in the audience, and I realized drummer Josh Dun’s family was right behind my head in the VIP section the entire show.
Other highlights included when Tyler did a weird ukelele medley of rap and pop hits like “Drunk In Love”, followed by a rendition of “Can’t Help falling In Love”. They repeated some of the same things from last year’s show like where Tyler jumped on the stage roof and teetered the narrow entry way to sing half of “Holding Onto You” from the crowd entrance pillars. Or when a platform was floated out on the audience with a simple drum set that Josh played at the end of (if I remember) “Semi-Automatic”. Before the encore, the guys surprised us with their own version of the club mix of Lana Del Ray’s “Summertime Sadness”.
The encore was big and bombastic. First “Car Radio”. It felt like everyone in the place was singing and doing the rap parts with Tyler. Then came “Truce”, the dark but beautiful piano song that had us all acting as their choir. And then finally came the emotional outpouring of “Trees”, ending with big drums, cannons of confetti, and by this point I think the whole crowd was spent.
Josh and Tyler gave every bit of themselves and then some last night. You could tell that to them, there simply was no room for letting down anyone. It’s great to see a band come from Columbus, and then once they become known, still put their hometown up on a pedestal. A friend of mine went with us that had never seen them, and afterwards said it was the best concert he’d been to in his entire life. As long as the band keeps playing Columbus, I will keep going, battling off my crowd anxiety and stupid drunk people, so that I can experience something truly magical. Thanks guys for another memorable night.
The set list:
Guns for Hands
Migraine
Ode to Sleep
Screen
Covers Medley(“All I Do Is Win” by DJ Khaled, “Bugatti” by Ace Hood, “Drunk In Love” by Beyoncé, “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis)
House of Gold
Forest
Fall Away
Addict with a Pen
Kitchen Sink (with Zack Joseph)
Holding on to You
Semi-Automatic
The Run and Go
Fake You Out
Summertime Sadness (Lana Del Rey cover)
Encore:
Car Radio
Truce
Trees
Rob's Wall Of Music 