Though reedy and thin, however, his voice oddly suits the vulnerability and raw candor in his lyrics. Joseph is an unconventional lead vocalist (especially when he raps). The Pilots’ polyphonic music traverses a variety of genres, sometimes within a single song, swaying from hip-hop to rock, prog rock, reggae, electro-pop, indie pop.

The set list focused heavily on Trench, the band’s latest album, released in October, its first album since its breakthrough Blurryface album, released in 2015.Īccompanied by a tide of backing that bolstered Joseph’s keyboards and bass and Dun’s drums, they would play nine songs from Trench, six from Blurryface and a smattering of tracks from previous releases.Īnd, with assistance from the evening’s openers, AWOLNATION and Max Frost, they also delivered two covers that jibed with the wistful lyrical themes of their own songs: the Goo Goo Dolls’ Iris and the Beatles’ Hey Jude, which prompted an uproarious sing-along among a crowd that was predominantly post-millennial. There was plenty more to come: lasers, pyrotechnics, wafts and gusts of dry-ice fog and a drum kit riding high above the crowd.

The opener, Jumpsuit, included a blizzard of confetti and a car set ablaze, which transported Joseph to the stage.

They wasted no time issuing salvos of eye candy. Wednesday night, the duo from Columbus, Ohio-singer-songwriter Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun-spent nearly two hours unleashing their tales of despair to a near sold-out Sprint Center crowd amid a lavish and relentless stage show, one rife with visual spectacles and special effects. Its chorus: Wish we could turn back time to the good old days / When our momma sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out. One of the Pilots biggest hits is a song called Stressed Out, which has accumulated 1.5 billion-yes, billion-YouTube hits. It comes from an Arthur Miller play, All My Sons, about a guy who willfully supplied faulty parts to WWII airplanes, resulting in the deaths of 21 pilots and subsequently the suicide of the supplier.Ī tragic back story, yes, but it darkly complements the band’s lyrics, which address depression, anxiety, alienation, insecurity and other debilitating emotional afflictions and which bind the duo resolutely to their fans as a source of empathy and support. Let’s start with the name: Twenty One Pilots.

21 pilots ride no drums