TWENTY ONE PILOTS AT NATIONWIDE ARENA IN COLUMBUS
Twenty One Pilots, the hometown favorites of Columbus, Ohio, recently took over the city for 3 shows in a row at Nationwide Arena as part of their ongoing “Takeover Tour”. Saturday night was the third and final show in Columbus and featured support from Jay Joseph and Half Alive.
Jay Joseph, who started off the show, is the younger brother of Twenty One Pilots frontman Tyler Joseph. At one point, he brought their dad on stage to help engage the audience by waving around his phone’s flashlight and getting the crowd to follow along, so it was cool to see that the whole family takes pride in music and appreciates Twenty One Pilots’ highly devoted fanbase.
If you know anything about Twenty One Pilots, it’s an understatement to say that they always have a high-energy live show, so it was cool to see the openers also be very energetic and engaging with the crowd. Half Alive even had some choreographed dancing and a segment where they quickly spray-painted a sheet with their band name, so it was overall a very entertaining start to the evening.
Before Twenty One Pilots took the stage, a brief video showed clips from the various Columbus venues they’ve played over the years and a screen stating “We Always Come Home”. Immediately, even someone unfamiliar with the band would be able to feel that this is a special event based on the sheer amount of energy in the room.
Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun each walked onto the stage from opposite ends and met in the middle, where they exchanged a glance at each other through their ski masks and sunglasses and then proceeded to their respective instruments to start the nearly 2-hour long set. The show is filled with theatrics, some old and some new. One of the newer elements of the live show since the release of Scaled And Icy is the full band they have to back them up, where in the past it has been just the two of them on stage. The familiar “Trees” finale with the duo on platform drums on top of the crowd while confetti blasts over the entire audience is still there, and personally is my favorite part of any Twenty One Pilots show. This is just one of those bands you have to see for yourself to really appreciate because the effort that goes into their live show is unmatched.