Review: Twenty One Pilots concerts can get complicated. I’ll make things simple.
I’ve now seen Twenty One Pilots in Charlotte three times in the past six years, and yet ...
... as someone who’s not a card-carrying member of the Skeleton Clique — the official name of the duo’s fanbase — these can be increasingly tricky reviews to write.
For instance, here’s what I observed over the span of a few songs performed midway through lead vocalist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun’s sold-out show at PNC Music Pavilion on Wednesday night:
- As an old sedan became engulfed in flames behind him, on a B stage smack in the middle of the venue’s massive lawn, Joseph submerged his hands in wet black paint to match the dry black paint on his neck while rapping through a shortened version of “Pet Cheetah”.
- Then he intentionally smeared the paint all over his white T-shirt and, moreso incidentally, got it on the white bass guitar he played during the poppy, peppy “Polarize”.
- Then finally, while cranking out the groove-oriented “Chlorine” (and dishing out some messy-but-most-welcome high-fives) on his silky-smooth strut back to the main stage, Joseph made a pit stop to engage in a brief singalong with a group of fans clad in furry costumes that had little antlers and big ears.
All-in members of the Clique, meanwhile, would have immediately recognized all sorts of symbolism tied to the lore and the mythology that the duo’s series of conceptual albums is drenched in — the burning car a nod to Joseph’s oppressed Clancy character, the black paint associated with the inner demons tormenting Joseph’s antagonistic Blurryface character, and the furry costumes a tribute to a creature named Ned that represents Joseph’s creativity.
(Obviously, I had to look this stuff up, and apparently, me trying to take a crash course in Twenty One Pilots lore is kind of like a second-grader trying to wrap their head around theoretical physics.)
The good news, however, is that even casual fans of their music can enjoy and appreciate what Joseph and Dun are doing up there.
You don’t have to be a hardcore fan to appreciate Joseph’s versatility as an instrumentalist. He can pluck the thin strings of a ukulele on a song like “We Don’t Believe What’s on TV” or throttle the thick strings of an electric bass guitar on a song like on their 2016 hit “Heathens” with equal aplomb.
He can respectably tickle the ivories of both a traditional piano and an electronic keyboard (although he admitted while playing the former on “Garbage” that he favors the ebonies, because he thinks doing so helps hide the fact that he’s “not even very good”). And if you put him in a proper mood, he’ll even shake a tambourine, like he did for “Heavydirtysoul,” or beat a drum, like he did during show-closer “Trees” (more on that in a moment).
You also don’t have to be a hardcore fan to be impressed by Dun’s power, precision, prowess and — should he peel off his shirt, as he did at one point Wednesday night — his pecs as he pounds on his drum kit. Or to appreciate him as a strong-silent type; Dun vocalized just twice in Charlotte, first chiming in to deliver the “I’ve been this way / I want to change” lyric on “Drum Show” and later briefly adding harmony to the initial chorus of 2015 hit “Stressed Out.”
Both times the crowd reacted as if he’d announced everybody had just won a free car.
Nor do you have to be a hardcore fan to appreciate how Joseph interacts with his hardcore fans, whether that’s mixing it up with the ones cosplaying as Neds; or bringing the little girl named Emma on stage and turning her into an instant star as she helped him sing the “Oh-ooo-Oh-ooo, OOHH-OOH / Oh-ooo-Oh-ooo, OOH / I’m fallin’ / So I’m takin’ my time on my ri-ee-ii-ee-ii-ide” chorus of “Ride”; or trusting little bunches of much bigger members of the Clique to hold up platforms in GA sections so that Joseph and/or Dun can perform directly in their midst.
And you don’t have to be a hardcore fan to admire Joseph’s off-beat sense of humor, which the frontman put on display most notably here in Charlotte when he said: “I want you to know I have a feeling there’s a lot of people in this room who are creatives. I want you to know, just keep making it, keep putting it out there, keep showing people. It means something to somebody, I promise.” Then, after loud cheers and a long pause, he added his kicker: “Unless it sucks.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Twenty One Pilots also continues to demonstrate a skillful way of designing TikTok- and Instagram story-ready moments for fans of all flavors.
Exhibit A: The flaming car.
Exhibit B: That one time, during a break in the middle of “Lane Boy,” when he got all 20,000 of us to crouch as low as possible — to the sound of ominous piano notes and anxious electronic drumming; followed by the the ... wait for it ... wait for it ... NOW! moment that saw everyone springing to their feet and erupting into screams, as band extras in full hazmat suits unloaded $5,000 fog blasters into and above the crowd.
But perhaps the best example of that knack is the stunt they pull at the end of every one of their two-plus-hour shows: Joseph and Dun, standing on matching platforms held aloft by matching sets of fans, pouring a layer of water onto matching drums, and then savagely hitting those drums to the beat of “Trees,” as splashes of water and falling red confetti fill the pit.
For hardcore fans, I think all that is supposed to symbolize a baptism of sorts, symbolizing rebirth and renewal for, um, the Clancy character. I think.
The rest of us? We’re just takin’ — and enjoying — our time on the ride.
Twenty One Pilots’ setlist
1. “Overcompensate”
2. “The Contract”
3. “RAWFEAR”
4. “We Don’t Believe What’s on TV”
5. “Tear in My Heart”
6. “Backslide”
7. “Lane Boy”
8. “Shy Away”
9. “Heathens”
10. “Next Semester”
11. “Routines in the Night”
B Stage
12. “Message Man”
13. “Pet Cheetah”
14. “Polarize”
15. “Chlorine”
Main Stage
16. “Jumpsuit”
17. “Nico and the Niners”
18. “Heavydirtysoul”
19. “The Line”
20. “Garbage”
21. “Doubt”
22. “Tally”
23. “Ride”
24. “Drum Show”
Encore:
25. “City Walls”
26. “Guns for Hands”
27. “Stressed Out”
28. “Trees”
This story was originally published October 9, 2025 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Review: Twenty One Pilots concerts can get complicated. I’ll make things simple.."
