Twenty One Pilots Concert on Sunday, September 15, 2024
I decided to buy tickets to this concert back in June (Friday, June 7, 2024) agonizing over whether I should go, can I afford it, (the general admission tickets were just getting more expensive) but ended up paying $190 for the a GA ticket but got hit with a $43 "sevice" fee (fuck you ticketmaster) and $56 for CFG Bank Arena parking, which was worth it, but so yeah totaling about $300.
For the weeks leading up to the concert I wasn't sure how I wanted to dress. All black? I had no idea, but I knew it was going to be important. With only two weeks before the concert I had the idea to dress as a Bandito, one of the resistance members, like in the Levitate music video. I went to Michael's for a yellow bandana and some tape (they had only yellow masking tape, I was looking for duck tape) but found a great military green t shirt while I was there! So I had most of my outfit right there. Just needed some camo pants or shorts and that yellow duck tape still. For shoes I wore my Softstar hiking boots because go well with the military green color scheme.
The week before the concert, I went thrifting on my birthday (Wednesday, September 11, 2024) and I went to a new thrift store in Edgewater called Memories on Wayberry where I found some camo cargo shorts that were a perfect fit!
The only thing was acquiring duck tape before the concert. I had a busy weekend with friends that weekend, and had spent the night with my grandparents in Elkton. Before then, I had tried the Michael's, Joann Fabrics, and an Office Depot. Maybe the wrong places, but I was a little surpirsed they didn't have colored tape. I tried one Walmart in Elkton before leaving for the concert and they had colored duck tape just no yellow! I had almost resigned myself to going with no tape before checking one last Walmart on the drive to the concert from Elkton...
There it was! I was so excited to get some I almost bought two rolls!
Here I am at 6:12 PM before the concert, waiting in line with everyone else. I wish that I did the tape a little better going diagonal, but I was going for the Bandito rebel look, so I think it ended up being fine. I kept the roll of duck tape in the pocket of my cargo shorts! And I even worked up the courage to offer it to the people I was in like with! It was fun.
It was really cool seeing this light fixture across the road (it's hard to see, but it's up on the third floor of the building inside the window), the lights actually reminded me of the light bulbs that the bishops use in their rituals in the Nico and the Niners music video.
I was so anxious waiting in line, wondering if I was in the right line, I accidentally forgot to take off my swiss army knife from my key chain, I was worried I'd lose it (I ended up taking it off and leaving it in the bottom of my bag and they didn't see it) worried that I wouldn't get in the building in time, worried because I'd never had general admission seats before so I didn't know what to expect, and ended up finding out that some bags aren't allowed to be brought in, but that I scooted by with my bag being just small enough to be allowed in.
But with all of that on my mind, I found it comforting to look up at the clouds in the city and just watch them for a few seconds. There was nothing that I could do, the line wasn't moving. But the clouds were pretty.
There was a lot of confusion for everyone about what line to be in, with General Admission Tickets or Seats Tickets. Luckily I was in the right line. I also had my bag with we to keep phone, keys, and wallet secured while jumping... Glad I brought my wallet, because I ended up buying a shirt while the opening act was playing.
Here, I'm taking my first steps onto the floor of the CFG Bank Arena. Funny, I was just there last year in November to see The 1975. It was my first time getting general admission seats of any concert ever and I was taking in the feeling of being down there instead of up in the seats this time. Tyler and Josh are amazing performers and are really considerate of the audience in any seat, wow! yeah!! Tyler teleported up into the left side seats and Josh made an appearance on the right side seats and they moved to perform in the center of the pit at one point (the Mulberry Street video).
8:00 PM Balu Brigada playing some of their music
These guys had a great sound, it must be pretty nerve racking playing for that many people... who are just not there to see you. But look at how like the whole arena is vibing! Without knowing a single word, lol.
For most of the concert, I didn't record anything. I took an image of the the lights after Heathens because it was so good. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, Tyler instructed us when to say "watch it" a few times before starting the song. "Watch it! Watch it!"
The concert started off with a performance of Overcompensate, with Tyler seemingly teleporting over to the left side of the arena. I actually think I figured out how he did this! The only reason that I was pretty sure that he was on the stage is because of a video of him being really close to the camera on the giant screen, but for this I figured that they just recorded this video earlier that day and played it now to make the impact of Tyler teleporting to the top of the stand!!! It was incredible. I think he was sitting down eating popcorn... and who knows how long he was there because... he blended in completely with the people dressed up as Clancy...
I found a set list that they played that night!
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/twenty-one-pilots/2024/cfg-bank-arena-baltimore-md-63abaac7.html
Going through the albums,
twenty one pilots
From the self titled album I think all they played was "Addict With a Pen."
Vessel
From their 2013 album "Vessel," they played,
- Holding On to You
- Migraine
- Car Radio (pretty early on!!)
- Fake You Out
- Guns For Hands
- Trees (Closer)
Blurryface
From 2015's Blurryface, they definitely played the classics, their biggest songs from that album.
- Heavydirtysoul
- Stressed Out
- Ride (With a little kid up there singing with him!! I have no idea how they chose a kid to sing on stage)
- Tear In My Heart
- The Judge
Trench
From their 2018 album trench, they played a lot of songs. The whole tour is so Clancy and Trench themed so it makes sense.
- Jumpsuit (clearly)
- My Blood
- Nico And The Niners
- Cut My Lip (I was surprised to hear this one)
Interestingly enough, they may have done less from this album than I thought. They didn't do Levitate, Morph, or Chlorine I don't think.
Scaled and Icy
They didn't play too much from their 2021 Pandemic album, Scaled and Icy (short for Scaled Back and Isolated), an album that they were apparently already working on before the pandemic hit...
- Shy Away
- Mulberry Street
I would have loved to sing Redecorate or Choker and Saturday would have been a boogie. Not even The Outside...
Clancy
Of course they played mostly songs from their most recent release, Clancy released May 24, 2024 this year. We'll have to see what they didn't play, they may have played the whole album
- Overcompensate (Opener)
- Next Semester
- Backslide
- Midwest Indigo
- Routines In The Night
- Vignette
- The Craving (Jenna's Version)
- Lavish (they even played us out with Lavish after the concert was over)
- Navigating
- Oldies Station
- Paladin Strait
Only omitted Snap Back and At The Risk Of Feeling Dumb, ATROFD would have gone so hard but that's okay.
At 9:46 PM that night, ahhh man, they moved to B stage in the middle of the arena, he had just played Addict With a Pen/Migraine/Forest/Fall Away and switched to Mulberry Street, this part of the concert was fun that he got the whole room involved in the song.
Nico And The Niners was at 9:56 PM that night, man, only half way through the concert. The pace was so good, the whole night was just boom, boom, boom, boom songs back to back practically.
The best video that I recorded while at the concert I think, A super cool moment. During Paladin Strait, Josh started singing Bandito which was so cool because I didn't know Josh ever sang!! But Jumpsuit was crazy, there had been fire, flames, and fire works all night but I'm glad I got a video here. Even all the way back in the pit where I was, I could easily feel the heat from the flames... it was so epic. And then during the bridge! They shot confetti flower petals on us like in the music video!!! I have a bunch of it
The last song of the night, at 10:55 PM. We had to have the pit at the front make a space in the middle where they had put a giant red circle that Tyler and Josh set up a small stand to play piano and drums and once they were set up, the people in the pit just filled in the space like a vacuum and we all got to be this close to them while they performed. I just have no idea how Josh and Tyler ever got down, they did though obviously. Oh there was also a time that night where they put a limited drum set of Josh's on some plywood or something and he crowd surfed while playing the drums... legendary...
This was the next night at 10:08 PM when I went for a drive. I had to work as a substitute teacher the day after the concert, so I had to save my voice, and wake up and get my butt to school (only a half day for me though) so a lot of the stuff from the concert was still in the car. It was cool to see the remnants the night before, proof that it really happened, and that I got to be a real bandito for a day.