From The Archives: Twenty One Pilots at the Firebird in St. Louis (2/13/2013)

It was a surreal experience walking up to the Firebird at 7:15 to find a line of 200 people waiting outside to get it. The show started at 7:30, which I think is the earliest start time for a show I’ve ever been to, and was absolutely packed.

I’ve been to sold out shows at the Firebird before, but at this one, everyone seemed to be pushed up as close as possible to the stage, which made it seem a lot fuller than when a portion of the crowd is hanging out by the bar. For a lot of the night, I couldn’t move, but then there were other times when everyone seemed to jump in perfect unison and find pockets to throw their arms up in the air through.

Twenty One Pilots play a mangling of genres, with a bit of rap, a pinch of synths, some pianos and a ton of drums. I spent a good ten minutes trying to think of who they sound like and searching the internet for comparisons, but I really couldn’t find any that I agreed with. A lot of reviews I read described them as Schizoid-pop, if you have any idea what that would sound like.

After the show, I spent some time thinking about why we go to concerts. Obviously, it’s because we like the music, but the primary reason is to be entertained. I’ve been to concerts before where I didn’t necessarily like the music, but it came in such a way that it was exciting to watch and I was glad to be hearing it. Twenty One Pilots are one of those bands. There’s so much to see that the music sometimes became second nature, almost like soundtrack to the performance. That definitely isn’t how all concerts should be, but sometimes it works.

Before Twenty One Pilots came New Politics, a three-piece from Copenhagen, Denmark. They reminded me of Rage Against The Machine, partially for musical reasons but mostly just because of the political angst that ran through their lyrics. Half their songs were about starting revolutions. It seemed like Occupy the Firebird.

During the third song when frontman David Boyd asked the crowd to open up a circle on the floor, like a mosh pit without the moshers. He jumped down from the stage to break dance amidst the people. It showed he was really performing for the crowd instead of just in front of us.

Twenty One Pilots actually exceeded my expectations in a lot of ways, especially in the smart organization of their set. The biggest surprise was when they broke into their biggest single, “Holding Onto You,” only about 15 minutes into the show. I worried they’d just go downhill from there, but to follow it they covered Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It,” which I think is the only song that wouldn’t have been a downer to hear next.

In addition to acrobatics, like lots of jumping and handstands, a big part of a Twenty One Pilots show is the costumes they wear, full body skeleton onesies for the first song, “Ode to Sleep,” and later bank-robber style ski masks for a few songs. By the encore, frontman Tyler Joseph was shirtless.

The Firebird’s stage is pretty small, and Twenty One Pilots were limited in some ways with what they could do, so they followed New Politics’ lead and took to the floor. For the encore, the packed crowd opened up again into a circle, probably about 15 feet in diameter, and the band carried three snare drums onto the floor. Joseph and drummer Josh Dun led a 600-person drum circle inside the Firebird. The way they jumped around the drums, hitting their drumsticks against each other’s felt almost spiritual. It was the cherry on top an already overly-theatrical show.

I think if you’re going to listen to Twenty One Pilots, it has to be live. On their recorded album, “Vessel,” you don’t get the same energy and franticness that seeing them live has. Their live show is the kind that you need to keep thinking about for a while afterwards to make sure you didn’t forget anything (and admittedly, I probably did). It’s the kind of show that leaves a mark, both in the form of crazy memories and bruises from crashing into the crowd around you.