Review by Zachary Coleman
“Arenas, arenas” multi-instrumentalist/singer, Tyler Joseph, told his new bandmate and drummer, Josh Dun, as they were sitting in his college dorm room years ago. “Arenas, arenas,” Tyler told the hometown crowd at the Twenty One Pilot’s first-ever headline arena show at the sold-out Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio on September 18, 2015, during their Blurryface World Tour. Little did the duo know, Arenas and even larger venues would be their lives for the next nine years. What was once a dream in a college dorm room turned into a reality for the band. Throughout the last nine years, Twenty One Pilots have received 42 awards including the Grammy for “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance” for their breakout hit “Stressed Out.” If you haven’t watched the acceptance speech from Tyler and Josh for that award, I suggest doing so because it is probably the most memorable speech from the Grammys in recent years and not because of the words being spoken. The band has also embarked on five more arena tours across the world including the Clancy World Tour. The Clancy World Tour started at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on August 15, 2024. It recently came out that on the opener night of the tour, Tyler tore his ACL jumping off his piano during the opening song. However, there have been no canceled tour dates, just no more long jumps for the singer. It shows how much the band and their team wants to show the world, especially their hometown, this show they have been working on throughout the past year. Tyler stated in a web series video he spent more time on the tracks for the Clancy tour than on the actual Clancy album.
One thing especially unique for leg one of the Clancy World Tour, is the band introduced a unique VIP like add-on for ticket holders. The add-on is called the Fan Premier Exhibit or FPE which are three letters consistently repeated throughout the band’s discography meaning different things since Blurryface’s release. The Fan Premier Exhibit is a museum showing the history of the band for fans to walk through starting with the most recent album cycle, Clancy. Attendees got to view things such as music video props and costumes as well as a run sheet of the band’s latest visit to The Tonight Show where they performed their newest single, “Routines In The Night.” Attendees then entered the Scaled and Icy album cycle that took place during the very end of the lockdown the world was in. Fans were able to see behind-the-scenes exhibits of Trash the Dragon as well as backdrops and costumes used during their Livestream Experience celebrating the album. Fans continue through the Trench and Blurryface elements of the exhibit when fans get to the bikes used in the “Stressed Out” music video where fans could sit and get their pictures taken against a backdrop of the music video setting. My favorite part of the exhibit is when you round the corner and see a wall of Tyler’s handwritten lyrics for countless songs. I’ve already seen pictures of fans getting tattoos of the handwritten lyrics on them. The exhibit ends with items from the band’s first show such as the very first setlist. Once the exhibit ends, fans are asked to take a Polaroid picture to put in a case that will show all attendees once the tour has concluded. Fans are also invited to charge their phones at the campfire used during the Icy Tour and write notes to the band in a book and on letters to drop into a drum set. FPE turned into a fun fan experience to attend to before the actual show took place.
Doors opened at 7:00 PM on the dot at Nationwide Arena for all fans to enter as they waited for the band to take the stage. The show’s opener, Balu Brigada, went on at 7:45 and delivered a memorable performance to the crowd during their 30-minute set. Now, the crowd waits in anticipation for Twenty One Pilots to get on stage and do what they do best. A surprise pops up on the screens around the arena as the stage was getting prepped reading “This show will be recorded for a live album. We have placed over 40 crowd mics all around this place. So give us everything you got?” Two minutes before the band’s set time to get on stage, the speakers play “What’s your ETA?” from the band’s song “Midwest Indigo” to let the crowd know they are two minutes from getting on stage. Exactly two minutes later, the duo’s first single from Clancy starts playing. The stage is covered by a large curtain while the instrumental track to “Overcompensate” builds and in unison with the track, the crowd screams “Welcome back to Trench” as the curtain falls to reveal Josh Dun on the drums. As the instrumental faded into the next part of the song, Tyler Joseph makes himself known by walking onto the stage in his “Overcompensate” outfit from the music video and grabs a mic that is lit up like a lightbulb dangling from the ceiling of the stage set. The crowd knows they are in for one of the best shows of their lives.
After the first song ends, Tyler jumps into the crowd and the crowd holds him up as “Holding Onto You” starts playing. The crowd sings the whole first verse without Tyler saying a word. Tyler gets back on stage and during the bridge, Josh gets off his drum set to do his signature backflip off the piano. The bridge seamlessly goes into the intro to “Vignette” where Tyler grabs a keyboard from the stage and plays an extended instrumental on the fly. Tyler then leaves the stage and seemingly comes back to start playing what is normally a show-ender. The band plays “Car Radio” until Tyler jumps off the back of the stage to only appear in the 200-level seating immediately after to finish the song. To give Tyler time to get back to the stage, a video starts playing of fans outside the venue that day telling stories and then singing the Blurryface song “The Judge” allowing Tyler and Josh to come in during the second verse. During the bridge, Tyler inter-loops the chorus of “Cut My Lip” before returning to the original chorus of the song. The song led into the ukulele love song “The Craving” and in another seamless transition went into an acoustic style intro to “Tear In My Heart.” The band continues playing until they get to their first single from the last project, “Shy Away.” Both Tyler and Josh got on a small podium with a small electric drum kit and keyboard and played the first verse similar to the style they played during their MTV Unplugged performance which transitioned to the song being performed like it is on Scaled and Icy after the first verse.
Twenty One Pilots went on to perform their hits “Heathens” and “Next Semester.” Josh and Tyler then walked to Josh’s B-Stage in the middle of the arena as Tyler sat in the section 100 seating to watch his friend play the introduction of the band’s newest single, “Routines In The Night.” Tyler then launched himself into the pit without a mic mouthing the words to the single with a cameraman chasing him throughout the pit filled with fans. Tyler finally ended up in his separate B-Stage where he announced they were filming a new music video for the song. The band would go on to play a medley of old songs from their Self-Titled album to Vessel ending with “Mulberry Street” where Josh is drumming on the main stage to only disappear and instantly reappear in the 100-level seating to walk to Tyler and reveal the new stage design of the city of Dema that has appeared in music videos since Trench was released leading into their song “Navigating.” The set continues until Tyler Joseph is sitting at his piano and starts playing the chords to the song “Hometown” as a surprise addition to the already intense setlist. The song transitioned into the most surprising addition to the night. Fan favorite track from the band’s long but forgotten mixtape, Regional At Best, “Slowtown” was played for the hometown crowd. The song was only played a handful of times throughout this tour being the first time the song has been played on tour since 2012. Tyler and Josh built on the crowd’s momentum going into their songs “Fake You Out” and “Guns For Hands.”
The band switched things up by Josh jumping from the drums to pose with Tyler for the beginning of their song “Lavish.” The two then walked around the stage together as Josh took off his sweaty basketball-style jersey that read “Columbus” on it as he was trying to decide what area of the arena to throw the worn jersey to. The two bandmates then walked arm and arm in a straight line and as Tyler stated “We gather here today,” Josh threw the jersey into the pit. “What does it mean, what does it mean?” Tyler laughs to himself and grabs his bass guitar to play the band’s smash single “Ride.” Tyler goes to both b-stages and on his dedicated b-stage, he brings up two of his nieces to sing the final chorus of the song. The frontman’s blood runs through his nieces as they steal the performance of the song. Tyler runs back to the stage to be met with Josh on the keyboard playing the opening synth to the band’s final song on Clancy's “Paladin Strait.” To everyone’s surprise, Josh sang the backing vocals as well as the chorus to “Bandito” during the bridge of the song. After the duo starstruck the audience with the angelic performance of the song, both members left the stage as the ending of the music video for “Paladin Strait” played into the introduction of “Jumpsuit” leading the audience into the final chapter of the concert.
After the band played the heaviest song in their discography, Tyler started playing the synth intro to “Midwest Indigo” which perfectly transitioned into their most popular song, “Stressed Out.” Josh sang backup vocals on both “Midwest Indigo” and “Stressed Out” signifying the band will probably continue to use Josh more and more than just being a drummer for Twenty One Pilots. After “Stressed Out” ended, the audience let out a roar of cheering and applause stopping the band in their tracks. Tyler said this “may be the best show of the tour,” but that he would have to reevaluate and get back to us. Tyler then started explaining the last part of the show. In the center of the pit, there was a large red circle they needed to clear the audience off of. After some “peer pressure” from the rest of the audience in the arena, the crowd eventually got off the circle and the stage crew wheeled in a barricaded drum set and keyboard on the outsides of the circle. Tyler’s keyboard was having a hard time staying in place, so Josh went to help the stage crew. However, this set the crowd’s fuse off and they rushed the two platforms, losing Josh in the crowd. Josh eventually made it back to his drum set where the band would play their official show-closing song, “Trees.” Just like every show before that, but this time in the middle of all their fans singing the song with them rather than in front of them. After both Tyler and Josh got back on stage, Tyler ended the show by stating “We are Twenty One Pilots and so are you.”
Twenty One Pilots may put on one of the best shows I have ever seen, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the part the city of Columbus, Ohio played in the duo’s hometown show weekend. First off, Nationwide Arena raised a Twenty One Pilots flag to commemorate the duo’s three-show stay at the venue. During the Scaled and Icy album cycle, Twenty One Pilots filmed their music video for their song “Choker” at Big Fun Columbus toy shop. The Shop sold exclusive Jim Dun and Trash the Dragon mini figurines from the music video during the weekend as well as a postcard picturing Tyler standing outside the store. Lavash Café is also another music video location where Tyler and Josh filmed part of their music video for “Lavish.” The Mediterranean food stop took advantage of the weekend by offering Capri- Sun with Dom Pérignon Stickers on them as well as shirts and sweaters with the phrase “Walk in like you deserve it” written on them. Lavash Café quickly sold out of everything over the weekend and will be offering the merchandise online for those who missed out. All proceeds from the merchandise went towards Clintonville Resource Center Food Pantry and they raised almost $12,000.00 USD with their Twenty One Pilots themed fundraisers.
I’ve grown up traveling to Columbus, Ohio seeing Twenty One Pilots hometown shows for almost ten years now and the shows never disappoint. There were so many surprises for fans including the announcement of a future live album and a music video recorded at the hometown shows. It’s hard for me to write about this show because I want to write down every single thing that happened. There are no low points. No boring spots. There aren’t even songs that are performed like the album without an added element to them. There are things I didn’t write about because the creative genius that is Tyler Joseph is too complex to write about in a single article about a concert. I will say, you should go see the show for yourself if you’re able and not take my word for it.
Get tickets for the rest of tour here
Read the review for Balu Brigada Opening up for Twenty One Pilots here
