Just before 9 o’clock on Thursday night, the answer to why several hundred younger folks had been camping outside of Xcel Energy Center since as early as last week was presented. Here you will read about the Twenty-One Pilot concert prompted for X camping this week.
The downtown St. Paul hockey arena was packed with around 14,000 people to see Twenty One Pilots (Tyler Joseph, vocals, instruments, principal songwriter) and Josh Dun, drums, trumpet, jumping off pianos. General admission was available on the main floor, and those who arrived early were rewarded with good seats at the front.
You might be wondering: “OK, but who are Twenty-One Pilots, and why do they have such committed fans?” How awful was the stench in the lobby after a week or more of people sleeping outside?
In regards to the latter, well, I did my best to maintain my distance, so we’ll just have to make do with our best guesses regarding the olfactory situation. Twenty-One Pilots are an American rock band who first got together in Ohio around the turn of the century. It was reduced to a duo by the time they released their debut single, “Holding on to You,” in 2012.
The couple creates music that spans a wide variety of styles, from hip hop to Americana, classic rock to disco, reggae to soul, punk to funk, and so on. Understanding that Joseph (33) and Dun (34) are millennials means understanding that they grew up with ready access to a tremendous amount of music, not even just what was played on the radio or MTV.
Joseph’s music can be approached from several angles as well. They appear to be full of big, catchy tunes that are ideal for stadium singalongs and young fans. If you dig further, especially into TOP’s earlier work, you’ll discover that he deals with some heavy subjects (such as religion, mental health, self-doubt, and suicide) in an approachable manner, not unlike Taylor Swift’s journal entries set to song.
#THEICYTOUR is here ψ pic.twitter.com/ExvMx6sbY6
— twenty one pilots (@twentyonepilots) August 19, 2022
The show (and album) opener “Good Day” seemed like a lost Beach Boys hit, but the band’s latest album, “Scaled and Icy,” adds an uncommonly cheerful, vintage pop vibe to numerous songs.
Before, when performing live, Joseph and Dun would occasionally use backing tracks. However, this meant they had to spend excessive time on flashy antics, such as performing backflips off of Joseph’s piano. A full band was added last year and was present for part of the event on Thursday.
Live musicians made a tremendous difference, giving the songs more heaviness and the duo far more freedom to stray off script, but the event still contained lots of shooting flames, pyro, and general clowning around.
Twenty-One Pilots’ fans spent Thursday night swooning and singing along to every song, proving that despite the band’s enormous creative leaps (often within the same song), they have created a strong connection with their listeners.
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