Twenty One Pilots
25th March 2017
Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Matt Henry Mendonca.
The lines are hundreds of people deep as the doors opened for the sold out Twenty One Pilots show at Vector Arena. There are red beanies and black painted hands as far as the eye can see as the ‘skeleton clique’ (or ‘clique’ for short) slowly troop through the door to witness their idols. Twenty One Pilots were here just last year – but have come back around promising a bigger and better show. Friday night saw them play Wellington and tonight is the last of their shows here in NZ before they head over to Australia for a further five nights.
Supporting tonight is Australian electronica act Safia. Formed in 2009 in Canberra, the trio scored their first big hit with Peking Duk’s track ‘Take me Over’. Last year they released their debut album ‘Internal’ which rocketed to the number two position in the Australian charts. Front man Ben Woolner certainly knows how to work the stage. When not behind his keyboard, he is out in front, making serious eye contact and blowing you away with his extraordinary skills in the upper vocal range. Michael Bell plays behind a full drum kit during the set while Harry Sayers simultaneously works a wireless synthesiser and drum machine – and for good measure Ben often plays guitar on their tracks as well. Songs such as ‘Bye Bye’ and ‘Counting Sheep’ easily had the crowd bopping along to their beats and their finale ‘Embracing You’ elicited cheers for Woolner as he bent backwards and let out a howl. Safia are definitely a band to add to the playlist.
By now the stadium has reached capacity, always an impressive sight when Vector is full to the very rafters. Admittedly there are a very large amount of children in the audience and there probably should have been more thought given to an age restriction for the floor section judging by the amount of young girls (and a few boys) who had to be pulled out by security and paramedics within the first few songs.
Chants demanding that Twenty One Pilots appear rang out through the stadium and were met with a distorted face projected onto a large black curtain. The opening notes of their track ‘Fairly Local’ morphed into ‘Heavy Dirty Soul’ as the curtain drew back and revealed Tyler Joseph on a hanging mic and Josh Dun behind the drum kit dressed in their trademark look of red blazers and black balaclavas. The decibel levels instantly rising by at least double as every young girl in the audience screamed. What was to follow was a show to rival even some of the biggest bands in the world.
By the third song of the set the duo had pulled off their first amazing feat of the night by having Tyler appear in the middle of the upper bowl – much to the delight of the audience members around him. Just to prove it not a stand in he ripped off his balaclava and grinned at the camera, the fans going mental. Back on stage the duo had had a costume change – Josh playing with a different coloured balaclava backwards over his face (how does he breathe??) and Tyler donning the trademark red beanie and long sleeve shirt. Tyler stepped forward and quietly sang the opening lines to ’Heathens’ one of their latest singles that was used in the movie ‘Suicide Squad’ before roaring into full rock star mode armed with a guitar.
The stage was set out with a myriad of big screens which played a series of images or combined to display hypnotic red and black patterns. The side screens delivered crisp clean visuals of the band members themselves, providing many shorter members in the floor section an opportunity to see the guys up close and personal.
Another costume change – Tyler donning his infamous long flowing flower print shirt emulated by many in the audience tonight – and he addresses the audience for the first time “Hello Auckland – it’s been a weird show so far, but that’s kinda how we like it. For example this is my Dad’s least favourite outfit – but he’s coming around”. Grabbing a ukulele he begins to play a favourite sing a long track by the name of ‘House of Gold’ which quickly transforms into their cover of Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t help falling in Love’. One of the unique aspects of a Twenty One Pilots show is that they don’t just play a set list of songs that follow one after the other – often they will play just a snippet of one and meld it into another track, or insert one song into the middle of another – providing an interesting element to their live shows.
‘Lane Boy’ saw the gas masked dancers appear in their white plastic coveralls – the breakdown in the middle of the song prompting the audience to crouch down on the floor and all bounce back up as the bass dropped and the CO2 cannons exploded. A short film played on screen from 2011 showing the humble beginnings of the band and allowing the guys time to disappear and reappear in the middle of the sound desk area (setting off a tidal wave of fans who excitedly tried to get as close as possible) to play a couple of ballads while dressed in skeleton onesies. The older members of the audience exchanging knowing glances as they recognised the song ‘Cancer’ a My Chemical Romance cover.
But Tyler and Josh had not finished wowing the crowd yet. Back on the main stage, Josh battled it out in a drum solo competition with a pre-recorded on screen version of himself – the recorded version losing and having it’s head explode rather spectacularly in a shower of blood. This was followed by Josh crowd surfing atop a small drum kit that the front rows happily supported. Not to be outdone Tyler clambered into a giant red zorb and took off at high speed for a couple of laps of the audience – the sight of it both remarkable and hilarious. Nearing the end of their set and Tyler seats himself behind the piano – at one point calling out to the audience to let a very obviously distressed young girl through to the front to be helped out by security.
Finishing with ‘Car Radio’ an absolutely massive hit, Tyler appeared, as if by teleportation atop a metal ladder high above the sound desk, a trick he pulled at their Vector show last year and still just as exciting. Calls for an encore had the floor itself shaking – but the duo made the crowd wait for their reward. Tyler giving an impassioned speech about how one day they will be too old to play a show and how the audience will be too old to come to a show but that they hope that everyone could see how they have poured their everything out and given the audience some eternal memories. The duo finished with the touching ballad ‘Trees’, which saw the two step out onto small platforms held aloft by the audience; both Tyler and Josh playing a single bass drum as red confetti exploded from the ceiling and showered the audience.
Eternal memories made? Check.
Were you there at Vector Arena for this intense live show? Or have you seen Twenty One Pilots somewhere else? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Fairly Local / Heavy Dirty Soul
- Migraine
- Hometown
- Message Man / Polarize
- House of Gold / We Don’t Believe What’s On TV
- Can’t Help Falling In Love With You [Elvis Presley Cover]
- Screen / The Judge
- Lane Boy
- Ode To Sleep
- Addict With A Pen
- Cancer [My Chemical Romance Cover]
- Holding Onto You
- Jump Around [House Of Pain Cover]
- Ride
- Stressed Out
- Guns For Hands
- Tear In My Heart
- Car Radio
- Goner [encore]
- Trees [encore]
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