BWW Reviews: Large Crowds Welcome Back TWENTY-ONE PILOTS

Tyler Joseph spent one summer checking IDs at the Lifestyles Community Pavilion. Obviously, the Twenty-One Pilots front man took a lot of notes on what it takes to put on a great concert. The Columbus-based duo of Joseph and drummer Josh Dun sold out back-to-back nights Sept. 4 and 5 at the LC and left both of the 5,000-plus crowds happy, sweaty and exhausted.

"We promise we're going to give you everything we have," Joseph said to the Sept. 5 crowd. "The sun is finally down and we're finally home."

And home is a good place to be. Three hours before Twenty-One Pilots took the stage, a line of concertgoers three quarters of a mile long snaked down Neil Avenue past Vine Street waiting for the gates to open. A driver surveyed the line, rolled down his window and shouted "That's way too many people."

Crowds like that can be volatile and tricky to handle, especially for a two-person band but Dun and Joseph proved to be masterful entertainers. The band picked two solid warm-up acts in Vinyl Theater and MisterWives to rev up the crowd.

Donning black ski masks and hoodies, Joseph and Dun exploded onto the stage with a rollicking version of "Guns For Hands" to begin a 19-song, 90 minute set. The band utilized a far more elaborate light show to get their message across.

The only slight misfire was the inclusion of Nigel, an unseen robotic voice which sounded like a mix of C3P0 and KITT the talking car from "Knight Rider." Nigel served as the duo's host and helped introduce a quartet of unlikely covers. When Nigel asked to play a couple of songs from his era, the band launched into a rapid fire mix of "All I Do Is Win," "Bugatti" and "Drunk In Love" before going into a crowd pleasing version of Elvis Presley's staple "Can't Help Falling In Love."

Although Joseph didn't crowd surf like he had in a LC concert in April 2013, the pair performed their usual array of concert gymnastics. Dun somersaulted off an upright piano and Joseph did a tight rope walk across the LC's steel girders to perform "Holding Onto You" from a perch high above the crowd.

Before closing the show with an encore of "Car Radio," "Truce," and "Trees," Joseph made a vow to be back.

"This city always defined what a Twenty-One Pilots concert looks like," Joseph said. "We're always going to come back here."

And chances are another long of concertgoers will be waiting for them when they do.

Photo Credit: Amy Willard

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