Fan POV: Inside An Evening With Twenty One Pilots in Columbus
BY ANNA PORCELLAIn 2011, my childhood best friend and I were sitting in her basement, sharing songs we’d been listening to back and forth. “Listen to this one - the band is from here,” she says as she puts on “Car Radio,” from Ohio-based rock duo Twenty One Pilots’ second album Regional at Best. “It’s kinda weird,” I tell her in response. “I like it.” Over ten years later, I’ve watched my hometown favorites grow from local legends into an internationally renowned band.
Throughout May, leading up to the release of their newest album Clancy, the band traded their typical arena stages for five small, intimate venues for “An Evening with Twenty One Pilots.” The first four stops included New York City, London, Berlin, and Mexico City, the capacity of the venues ranging from 600 to 1,500. The fifth and final stop was in the band’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio at Newport Music Hall. In what was perhaps the most stressful ticket buying experience I’ve had yet, fans had to answer a trivia question related to the band in order to receive a ticketing link merely a few hours after the show was announced. Despite this, the show completely sold out in less than two minutes.
On May 24th, hundreds of fans dressed in black and red descended upon Columbus; despite only one week between the announcement and the show, many had been queuing as early as five days ahead, others caught flights from all over the country. Twenty One Pilots fans, often referred to as “clikkies,” (shortened form of “the clique”) have formed an immense community among themselves. In talking with one fan in line, she stated that it was her 15th time seeing the band, and “these people in line . . . they’re the same people I’ve been seeing at shows for years. We grew up together.”
This was an incredibly unique and meaningful show for a number of reasons, for both myself and each fan in the venue. For many of us, it was our first chance to see the band in such a small venue, the intimate environment of Newport so different from the usual size of their stages. For the band, it was a recall to an important time in their lives - Tyler recounted the story of how he and Josh met for the first time at this venue. For all of us, it was a celebration of the band’s latest record Clancy, which had dropped the night prior to the show.
Twenty One Pilots’ hometown shows are known to be special, combining show staples with setlist twists. Several show traditions remained the same: Tyler joining the crowd for “Holding Onto You,” Josh’s backflip, the drums for “Trees.” However, the band threw the entire venue for a loop when Tyler broke out his keytar to play “Slowtown” for the first time since 2012, followed by “Fake You Out” for the first time since 2017.
Due to the nature of ticketing, I don’t believe there was a single casual listener in the entire venue. Each and every person was an incredibly dedicated fan, one of the loudest (and sweatiest - the pit was packed front to back) crowds I’ve ever been a part of despite its size - even during the live debuts of “Midwest Indigo” and “Oldies Station,” which had been out for less than 24 hours.
While this is not the first time the band has done small venue shows like this, it didn’t make it any less special. The setlist was one of a kind, with not one - but two songs from Self Titled, not to mention one from Regional at Best. This show marked the starting point for Twenty One Pilots’ newest and biggest era in the place they started.
Twenty One Pilots will make their return to arena stages across the US and more in “The Clancy Tour” this fall.
