LIVE REVIEW: Twenty One Pilots Take Their Massive “Bandito Tour” To London’s Wembley Arena
The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of emotions, flight plans and scheduling issues, as we travelled to the UK to witness Twenty One Pilots’ incredible show on the “Bandito Tour”, following the release of the band’s highly successful new album “Trench”. The band’s return to Europe was highly anticipated and the demand was massive, which has also resulted into the band performing three nights in a row in a sold out Wembley Arena in London.
We feel very lucky to have witnessed one of the shows in London, and luck had it we saw the band on the day that they brought back the drum-off between Josh Dun and Spooky Jim!
When we arrived at the venue, the area surrounding the arena was already filled with fans, repping the band’s merch, covered in flags, bandanas and yellow tape, impatiently waiting for the doors to open, so that they could claim the best possible spot for the performance.
Opening the shows for the Ohio, Columbus based duo is the charismatic The Regrettes, who released their debut full length album back in 2017, which was followed by a string of singles, which were very present at the setlist of the collective. The band played their hearts out for a good half hour, and got the crowd properly going with their music touching on important topics such as feminism, which was further illuminated as the show took place only a day after International Women’s Day.
The band’s music, filled with pop, punk and rock elements made for a great warming-up, and got an outstanding response from the crowd throughout the set. As their set progressed, it seemed as if the band got more and more comfortable on stage, which made the show just that more special.
As soon as The Regrettes left the stage, a curtain was placed to block the crowd from seeing the stage, and as the schedule suggested, strictly on time, the lights went out and Twenty One Pilots were about to take the stage. Kicking off with drummer Joshua Dun in the trademark clothes, as displayed in the music videos from “Jumpsuit”, “Nico And The Niners” & “Levitate”, it was only fitting that the duo kicked off their two-hour set with the first single from “Trench” – “Jumpsuit”. During this song, Tyler Joseph is seen in his Dema outfit, standing in front and on top of the broken down car who sets fire throughout the set. Directly after the incredible performance of “Jumpsuit”, the duo kicked off “Levitate” with a wildly enthousiast audience.
Throughout the years, Twenty One Pilots have added more and more to their performance, as they are known for their incredible production when it comes to liveshows, but the interesting thing is, while so many elements have been added throughout the years, only few elements have also been replaced. This means, that anno 2019, Twenty One Pilots’ performance of 21 songs consists of so many special effects, tricks and elements, you’re guaranteed to miss something if you step out for the duration of merely one track. At the end of track number 3 “Fairy Local”, frontman Tyler Joseph falls down on his back, and emerges on one of the balconies of the venue and as luck would have it, Joseph emerged on the balcony right behind us.
As I said, the duo’s performance was absolutely packed with tricks such as this one, and the band took their performance through the entire room, with a B-stage and a small platform even behind that for the conclusion of “Car Radio”, not to mention the bridge between the stage and the b-stage, on which Tyler Joseph performs a part of “Nico And The Niners” and the entire favorite “Pet Cheetah”. Halfway through the set, Twenty One Pilots also played the quiet game with the crowd, which is a very simple concept: the crowd is challenged to shut up for as long as they can, which in most cities results into 1 to 3 SECONDS of silence maximum before someone messes it up. On the third night in London, we even got THREE chances to do great on the quiet game, but the results were rather disappointing.
The show came to its conclusion with the tracks “Chlorine”, “Leave The City” and of course “Trees”, which ends with both Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun on drum platforms on the hands of the crowd, with the iconic yellow graffiti being released everywhere in the massive venue. We photographed the band’s performance for you (or well, the first two tracks), and you can check out the visual aspects of the storytelling of Dema in the gallery below. Not to worry, we got plenty of more Twenty One Pilots content coming in the next few days, as we have seen the band on 3 occasions during the Bandito tour!
The Regrettes
Twenty One Pilots
