Just a couple of years ago if you asked someone about Twenty One Pilots their answer would most likely be “who?”. Yet today they are one of the biggest names in pop music, with their songs always hovering in the billboard musics top 100. Their extreme popularity showed its face on Tuesday night as fans queued along the canal in Buffalo, NY. These two boys sold out the show three times over as more tickets were released to eager fans. The line to get into the venue was so long that fans who arrived at 5pm didn’t make it into the venue until after 7pm after the show had already started. Chef’special, a fairly new band from the Netherlands, opened the show with their funk, hip hop beats. The crowd seem rather engaged with the band and they finished off their stellar set with their catchy song ”In Your Arms”.
Next to take the stage was Mutemath, and trust me when I say you really couldn’t find a better band to open the show. With an array of unique instruments and powerful that captivated the audience regardless of whether they had been fans before or not. After what have must been an exhausting day of waiting for the fans (may I add that Twenty One Pilots fans are known for camping out for days for shows) the show was about to start. All through the crowd people covered in black paint, white sunglasses and red toques were ready for a show. As the volume of the hum over the speaker got higher so did the energy in the crowd. All of this energy erupted like a volcano as Tyler and Josh took to the stage clad in their black masks and opened with “Heavy Dirty Soul”. With the second song the boys removed their masks and from this point on echoes of every single lyric could be heard throughout the large crowd and was most likely carried over the canal.
Halfway through the show, the band disappeared from the main stage and showed up on a smaller stage in the middle of the crowd to play some of their older tunes. The fans in the middle of the crowd were in tears, in shock at how close they were to Josh and Tyler. Back on the main stage, Chef’Special and Mutemath joined Twenty One Pilots on stage to play a few covers. They cranked out 4 well known songs: “Twist and Shout”, “My Heart Will Go On”, “Love Yourself”, and “Jump Around”. Tyler then disappeared from the main stage again and none of the fans knew where he would show up next. A few minutes later he was standing on top of a transport truck that was parked at the venue and fans ran over to get as close to him as possible.
Playing the final hits of the night on the main stage, a giant red hamster ball was rolled onto the stage for Tyler to jump into. During “Guns for Hands” he ran in the hamsterball on top of the crowd and they were going wild. Thinking that was the end of the madness, the boys returned to the stage for an encore. The boys closed off the show with an older tune “Trees”. The amount of production during the song was insane with lights flashing, drums banging and confetti falling. Their show is one of the biggest stage productions in the business and they make it a truly enjoyable experience for every fan in the crowd, whether they are on the barrier or way at the back.
