Blurryface Tour: Twenty One Pilots Live in Calgary

Last Friday, April 8, the dynamic duo by the name of Twenty One Pilots put on an incredible show at the Big Four Building right here in Calgary as part of the Canadian installment of their Blurryface tour, Calgary being their second last stop in Canada. The band, consisting of drummer Josh Dun as well as frontman Tyler Joseph, began to make music together in 2009, in their home town of Columbus, Ohio. They began with small intimate shows of around 100-200 people at local venues. Fast forward to 2016, they have now gained a devoted international following and released 4 original albums, with their hit single “Stressed Out” reaching #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

All of this aside, I’ve been listening to Twenty One Pilots for quite a while now and they are most definitely one of my favourite bands, so of course when I heard they were coming to town, as you can imagine, I was quite excited. So on Friday, I set out with my good friend Alisa as well as my mom, adrenaline rushing through my veins and heart racing, ready and excited to see the show.

We arrived at 8:00 pm, just in time to catch the opening act, Coleman Hell, an electronic indie folk musician (quite the combination, I know) based in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Before this concert, I hadn’t really heard of him but I can fairly say, as far as opening acts go, he was pretty good. Although I probably wouldn’t have chosen to listen to his music on my own (purely because electric banjo is not a genre I’m accustomed to), I think he gave quite a decent performance and did a great job of further hyping up the crowd for the amazing night to come.

The opening performance lasted about half an hour, the last twang of Coleman Hell’s hit song “2 Heads” fading out at around 8:30pm. After that, it was time to wait. This was definitely one of the lower points in my experience at the concert, mostly due to the style of concert. Other than music festivals, I hadn’t really attended a standing concert, and for the 30 minutes it took for the crew to prep for tøp, I quickly realized that standing concerts are not my favourite. Although of course I’m not a short person, and if positioned right, this style of concert allows for a closer and more intimate experience with the band, I was just not a fan of all the pushing, shoving, and beer sloshing that made that 30 minute interval feel like 4 hours. However, I endured it, and when the lights finally went out, red smoke slowly creeping onto the stage with the rhythmic first notes of “heavydirtysoul” beginning to reverberate through the building, it was all worth it. I think “heavydirtysoul” was the perfect choice for the first song. Not only was it the first track on the actual Blurryface album, but it also allowed for a high energy performance that was still able to maintain a sort of mysterious and foggy atmosphere onstage, hyping up the audience for all that was to come. However, with the uncontrollable yet understandable excitement of the crowd combined with the lovely, lovely, pillars that came as part of the venue (illustrated in the image below), I found this first song quite difficult to see, but of course, both of these things were not necessarily something that either I or tøp could control.

Next, they continued to play one of their more popular songs, “Stressed Out“. Now, most would think this made for a poorly thought out setlist, as usually the bigger hits are reserved for the end in an effort to keep the audience waiting and to end the concert with a bang. However, with Twenty One Pilots, this precautionary measure was simply not needed. Each of their performances, whether it be a widely renown hit like “Stressed Out”, a somber ballad like “Goner“, a cover such as Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love“, or even one of their older songs like “Migraine“, it didn’t really matter in which order they were played. Every single song was performed with such passion, energy, and experience that the song they played first wasn’t of any lower quality or character than the next, and of course, the audience knew every single word regardless.

As for their individual personas on stage, Josh and Tyler are a very unique and charismatic pair. Although their songs are mostly beat based, Josh was still able to engage the crowd through his wicked drumming skills, seemingly never ending energy, acrobatics, and natural ability to keep a solid rhythm in every song. Tyler, on the other hand, kind of made you forget that tøp is a two person band by not only flawlessly transitioning from singing to rapping to singing again, but also by rotating between ukulele, bass, synth and piano, all while maintaining his signature manic energy.

Overall, the concert was an experience that I will never ever forget. Every song was so beautifully executed and performed, the live environment not affecting the quality of the music one bit, every moment still playing over and over in my head. I think being able to see a band that you have loved and obsessed over is just such an amazing and moving way to experience music, and is definitely something that you will cherish for the rest of your life. Even if there were inconveniences like a *cough* crappy *cough* venue, or sore feet, or 7 foot tall people, at the end of the concert, when the air was full of smoke and confetti, the thud of the huge drums from “Trees” still ringing in my ears, people screaming all around me, I just felt so overwhelmingly happy and lucky to be able to experience their music live and see them take one last bow before heading off to make even more people happy.