twenty one pilots (yes, spelled out and lowercase, thank you very much), is not a name that requires much introduction. Thanks to the massive success of their single Stressed Out off of their 2015 album Blurryface — which today has reached 1.7 BILLION streams on Spotify alone — gone are the days of being mistaken for being a 21 member band of licensed aviators. No, these days, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, the duo behind the genius of twenty one pilots, regularly pack arenas of devoted fans like it’s just another Tuesday. While filling these spaces may be the easy part, those in attendance have no idea what’s in store for them, because when the band puts on a show, they put on a SHOW.
The Icy Tour touched down in Portland, Oregon as twenty one pilots were nearing the end of their expedition, wrapping up in just two days at their final date in Seattle. Would they ever let on that they had already been through what can be a grueling cross country tour for the last month? Not for one second. Of course by this point, this is the third tour under their belt where they play the Moda Center. For reference, this is Portland’s biggest venue, where the Trailblazers have their nationally broadcasted games. This means that at this point they know a thing or two about how to work the location in their favor, even if there has been a pandemic and lockdown in between the last time they were here about four years prior.
With this tour being in support of their newest album, Scaled and Icy, they opened the set accordingly with their song “Good Day”, by walking through a blue door in the ground in the middle of… a snowstorm? On the stage? It was icy for sure, we all went home with a little bit of snow in our hair afterwards, for real. I got home and my boyfriend was all like “Is that dandruff?” and I was all like “What? No. It snowed.” “It snowed??” “Yes. Now let’s get back to the recap”. There’s a lot of environmental elements incorporated like this throughout, you just wait.
Once you get to the point of having six albums in your rotation, it can get a little hard to fit all the songs you want to share, especially balancing fan favorites with all the ones on the new album. Understandably, a lot of the songs on the set are shortened a bit or they’re put into a little medley. Like during a high point in the concert, when lead singer Tyler Joseph made his way to a mini stage on the far side of the pit while singing Mulberry Street and began playing the piano. He told the audience that he needed a little help with some transitions and sang a little tune for everyone to take part in when he gave the cue. Easy enough, right? WELL, this was followed by an absolutely gorgeous medley of six songs— one for each album they have out— taking us from the beginning with their self-titled debut in 2009 by playing Addict With a Pen, up till their most recent album, playing their new song Choker (such a sweet evolution, makes you tear up when you think of where he’s been and where he’s going…… I think I need a second).
The show was filled with so much more, like an acoustic section around a campfire with his trusty ukulele, House of Gold and We Don’t Believe What’s on TV being a given and such an obvious song pairing you almost want to slap yourself. I do need to say, this came after the piano section of the concert, where he finished by playing The Judge on said uke Once he was back on the main stage, he realized he left it over there and promptly had it put on top of a mattress that was crowd surfed all the way over to the main stage. Only at a twenty one pilots concert.
You can see what I mean about the environmental elements, and I’m barely scratching the surface. At one point Joseph rides (yes, it was during Ride) the mattress himself, goes into the nosebleeds to sing in the crowd, sings on a tower at the end of Car Radio and into Stressed Out, and so much more than what can be said on here. I hate to say it, but you just HAD to be there.
TWENTY ONE PILOTS
Photos + Review by Carlos Hueso | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!
