Twenty One Pilots enTrenched in Ontario

Dynamic duo Twenty One Pilots made pits stops in London and Ottawa on the Ontario leg of the Bandito tour promoting their latest album Trench.

Trench is the fifth studio album by Ohio natives Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, better known as Twenty One Pilots. It’s the band’s first studio album in three years, after the breakthrough success of their previous album Blurryface. Recorded in secret during a year-long public silence, it is a concept album exploring mental health, suicide and doubt, themes prominently featured in the band’s previous works and framed in the metaphorical city of Dema and the surrounding valley known as Trench. If that sounds a little far-fetched to you, consider that Twenty One Pilots, have created a matrix-like online environment for their fans filled with hidden clues and Easter eggs that will “make people think”.

Alternating between pop, electro-pop, rap, rock, hip hop, and even a few reggae beats thrown into the mix, it’s difficult to characterize the band within a single genre. They have been referred to as schizophrenic pop as a result and they like it that way, crediting their sound to the fact that they are self-taught musicians with many musical influences. All of this hype and intrigue has lead to an extremely devoted youthful fan base, known as the Skeleton Clique, in reference to the band’s use of skeleton iconography in many performances, graphics, and music videos. These kids dressed up in Trench-inspired colors of yellow and green, and lined up VERY early in both London and Ottawa to be sure to get the best GA spots. They would not be disappointed. This was one of the most well produced shows I have seen, and I have seen a lot of concerts.

The show, like the premise of the album, is an artistic journey into the visually opulent. A light show to rival Timberlake’s, confetti, moving stages, smoke, and even a burning car were just some of the treats the duo had in store for their adoring fans. I caught up with Olivia Baggley, 14 year old mega-fan from Ottawa, who had been surprised by her parents with tickets to the show just days before they rolled in to town. She couldn’t contain her excitement as she described the experience to me. Just before the band was scheduled to make their appearance, someone was on stage behind the curtain poking it to get the fans riled up before it dropped at 8PM on the dot. Once the curtain fell, the first glimpse of the band was Josh Dun, the drummer, appearing quietly but carrying a burning torch and wearing a balaclava. And with that, we were off to the races.

 

They immediately launched into the first song, alt-rock Jumpsuit, featuring singer and multi-instrumentalist Joseph standing in front of a burning car while yellow petals fell, just like in the video. Next up was Levitate, a rap rock trap song that was described by Rolling Stone as a “minimalist” track where “Joseph raps over warbled synths and Dun’s primal pummel”. The video for Levitate shows Joseph having his head shaved and rapping the song in a torch-lit mountain retreat filled with the rebel “Banditos” before being grabbed by one of the bishops, the leaders of Dema. Stay with me here.

Like the online world they have created, their live shows are a true spectacle for the eyes and ears. Yellow was the dominant colour: fans wore articles of yellow clothing or had yellow armbands, while everyone who entered was given a yellow paper to place over their smartphone lights. Hydraulic lifts carried Dun and his drum kit, as well as Joseph, during Fairly Local. Joseph then fell backwards into a sea of darkness behind the stage, eliciting gasps from the audience, only to appear seconds later in the 300 section right next to our mega-fan Olivia who described this as the pinnacle of her evening. Acrobatics, hydraulic scaffolding, pyro, confetti, upper-body nudity, and multiple stages followed. They endeared themselves to their fans even more by interacting with them between practically every song, at one point turning the cameras on to the security guards, having them dance, and the audience repeat the moves. They then closed the night on a sweet note with ballad Trees, which offered Joseph a chance to show off his vocal range.

And just when we thought that the scene was too much to take in, it was over, with Joseph reminding us that “we’re Twenty One Pilots and so are you — we’ll see you next time!,” leaving the crowd satisfied and, unlike the Canadian weather these days, without a single complaint. Twenty One Pilots makes a pit stop in England to perform in the European Festival before continuing their North American tour in Toronto on May 28 and 29 at Scotiabank Arena.

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