{"id":1107,"date":"2024-10-23T09:37:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T13:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/?p=1107"},"modified":"2024-10-27T14:08:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T18:08:19","slug":"love-the-music-you-love-twenty-one-pilots-nationwide-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/10\/23\/love-the-music-you-love-twenty-one-pilots-nationwide-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"Love The Music You Love: Twenty One Pilots @ Nationwide Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Behind every pretentious music nerd\u2019s self-proclaimed eclectic taste and snobby standards lies some \u2018guilty pleasure\u2019 musicians that young cultural critics rue to admit has a special place in their hearts. If one cares to peruse through my last.fm artist chart for the past few months, you won\u2019t be surprised to scan through and note expected names like JPEGMAFIA, black midi, and Magdalena Bay, but sandwiched right between relevant performers like 2Hollis and FKA twigs, you would find the Columbus natives Twenty One Pilots. Hell, my last.fm username, mayorofslowtown, literally references the eponymous nostalgic track off their 2011 non-DSP tape Regional at Best<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all my gatekeeping about anti-Blackness and East Asian fetishism in mainstream music, one may find it hypocritical that one of my most streamed acts is a Christian rock group consisting of two Midwestern white boys who blend Rebecca Sugar-core ukulele pop with reggae — and then RAP over it — but they are the sole reason why I am as into music as I am today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attending school in Columbus for a year and immersing myself in the local music scene reanimated twenty one pilots\u2019 influence for me firsthand. The numerous signs reading \u201cDO YOU REMEMBER  BABYSITTING ME?\u201d and \u201cYOU GOT ME THROUGH CHEMO\u201d peppered through the stands only illustrate this further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everywhere you go in Columbus, you hear people saying \u201cTyler Joseph went to my church\u201d or \u201cJosh knows my barber\u201d or bands saying \u201cthey\u2019re the lowkey reason we make music.\u201d Attending this concert, the two-piece band proves they haven\u2019t forgotten their hometown\u2019s influence on them in return. Recognizing the fiery dynamic they have with their fans highlighted in the sentimental intro video for Blurryface<\/em> track \u201cThe Judge,\u201d they chose to harness this synergy for a live album recorded throughout the three nights in Columbus, and I was lucky enough to attend the final show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the heart of Twenty One Pilots\u2019 music, they have always been about battle<\/em>: battling time\u2026 battling mental health\u2026 battling expectations\u2026 battling faith. Hosted in the Nationwide Arena, this cataclysmic fight approaches a peak as they box allegations in real life of falling off with the release of 2021\u2019s Scaled and Icy <\/em>or that their music only hits when you\u2019re a child. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concurrently, they brave the authoritarian regime of Dema\u2019s accursed bishops within the band\u2019s expansive lore. If you aren\u2019t a devoted loreseeker, you can still rest assured as they curate the setlist with enough non-diegetic songs to keep you satisfied even if you don\u2019t understand the significance of the yellow petals during \u201cJumpsuit\u201d or find yourself wondering \u201cWhat\u2019s a Blurryface?\u201d or asking \u201cWho\u2019s Dema?\u201d to many exasperated sighs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The greatest musical strength that the Columbus\u2019 brotherhood brings to the ring has always been their prowess in live environments. On this tour, before their decade-long storyline of prodigal son Clancy and his trusty Torchbearer concludes, they reminisce on all the reasons they continue to fight. The duo jumpstarts this climactic end by returning to the immersive, wild ambience of Trench <\/em>with opening track \u201cOvercompensate\u201d and the archetypal Twenty One Pilots song \u201cHolding On To You\u201d while backflipping off pianos.<\/em> Visitors hear vultures squeal throughout the electrifying \u201cVignette\u201d\u2019s keyboard solo and witness the world\u2019s sorcery as singer Tyler Joseph teleports across the stadium before emotionally screeching the final chorus of \u201cCar Radio\u201d (I have no idea when he could\u2019ve switched with the double).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first half of the setlist animated their whole discography (yes, even Regional At Best)<\/em> with comic-book-like visuals flickering across the stage. The crowd invested themselves in the chorus of \u201cBackslide\u201d like a congregation during a responsorial hymn before escalating into Joseph giving in to the music and shrieking over Josh Dun\u2019s insane drum fills. Indie rock banger \u201cShy Away\u201d was toned down and made more intimate for the show before transitioning to the creeping bass of Suicide Squad anthem \u201cHeathens.\u201d Clancy <\/em>highlight \u201cNext Semester\u201d was made to be played live and did not disappoint at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Tyler submerged into the pit and crooned the underrated, subdued backing vocals on \u201cRoutines in the Night\u201d — likely recording for a music video — the whole experience resonated like church while he weaved through to get to the lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going off of that, church is about more than the priest; it\u2019s more about the interaction with the gathering, and likewise — from the cathartic drum circle in the sea of adoring fans for their famous \u201cTrees\u201d encore to inviting a child to sing the glorious \u201cRIIIIIIDE\u201d — the crowd is integral to why these shows work. Little unplanned moments like the proposal in the pit amid \u201cThe Craving\u201d or the audience\u2019s spontaneous rendition of \u201cLeave the City\u201d before the encore make this more than just a concert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sappy first half wrapped up with \u201cMulberry Street\u201d featuring vocals from the loveable drummer — (I\u2019m so glad that when you look up clips of Josh singing now, it\u2019s not just a barely 2 minute compilation of the same clips anymore) — and a rehearsed singalong bridge with the whole stadium. As it faded to black for an intermission, they ritualistically transitioned to the more rebellious second act as the Torchbearer\/Josh Dun promenaded through the pit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharp, cinematic strings pierced the darkness until flames immolated the stage, revealing the decimated car and burning city of Dema. They broke the suspenseful silence with the teeth-gnashing bass-driven \u201cNavigating\u201d  and rebel fight song \u201cNico and the Niners\u201d as they welcomed us to the <\/strong>inferno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This redder chapter showcased their most insurrectionary tracks (without sounding TOO red like the gladly omitted seemingly anti-vax anthem \u201cNever Take It\u201d) like the suppliant \u201cGuns for Hands,\u201d the glitchy \u201cFake You Out,\u201d or the immature \u201cSlowtown\u201d — which almost brought me to tears. The main setlist culminates with Dun and Joseph\u2019s touching duet on the climax of \u201cPaladin Strait,\u201d bringing us to the current point in the storyline where the titular Clancy faces his demons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When fans enter the Nationwide Arena, they walk in expecting a concert, but they get so much more than what they paid for: a resonant churchlike experience, a match in a never-ending fight to survive, and a tour through the continent of Trench. People often forget this is a band that shares Billboard records with Elvis Presley and the Beatles, and they have their music\u2019s ability to connect with fans across all nationalities and ages to thank for it. This Columbus show serves as a reminder that guilty pleasures should never be guilty. Love the music you love with your whole chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behind every pretentious music nerd\u2019s self-proclaimed eclectic taste and snobby standards lies some \u2018guilty pleasure\u2019 musicians that young cultural critics rue to admit has a special place in their hearts. If one cares to peruse through my last.fm artist chart for the past few months, you won\u2019t be surprised to scan through and note expected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[24,27,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1107"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}