It was a rainy night as I headed to the Spectrum Center to see Twenty-One Pilots. Once I arrived, I notice the line of diehard fans wrapping around the building standing in the torrential down pour without umbrellas or shelter from heavy rain. The crowd couldn’t get in fast enough, so they could get up front, close and personal with their favorite band. As I was standing in the photo pit, looking around at all the people waiting on the black curtain to drop. The crowd was getting anxious as the extra-long intro music played, people started jumping up and down shouting out the band’s name. As I was looking around I noticed everyone in the seating area started doing the WAVE.
Now it’s time the curtain drops and here we go. The drummer Josh Dun comes out holding a torch with fire. The crowd is going crazy. With a car as a stage prop, Dun lit the stage on fire. All I could see was fire everywhere. Then, singer Tyler Joseph emerges through the flames and appears on the hood of the car wearing a ski mask, everyone is on their feet cheering. As the show progressed Tyler takes his shirt and puts it over his head covering his face and singing the whole song like that. Later on into the show the light truss started descending from the ceiling and the next thing you know Tyler is on it walking across to the other end of the arena to a stage that had a piano and a drum set. The crowd had been standing the entire performance, Tyler then instructs everyone to sit down and enjoy this part of the show. He began singing, the lights dimmed, and a giant oversized chandelier comes down from the celling setting the mood changing colors and shapes for each song played. Once they were done on that stage the light truss came back down and as Josh the drummer is walking, he takes off his yellow coat that he was wearing and revealing underneath a white t-shirt with CLT wrote on it. The crowd went wild.
After playing every song on their new album, mixed in with a few off the “Blurry Face” album and a three song encore and confetti goes everywhere, Twenty-One Pilots put on a unbelievable performance tonight and even if you are a casual fan, diehard fan or someone who had never seen them before and can sing every song word for word like the fans tonight in Charlotte. Twenty-One Pilots is well worth checking out when they come to a town near you, definitely a must see. Charlotte Rock Review gives them a 5-star performance.
