Twenty One Pilots at the LC Pavilion, Columbus, Ohio on September 4, 2014

     I was introduced to Twenty One Pilots by my oldest son, Sam. I have grown to really like their music, appreciate that they are from Central Ohio, and have enjoyed meeting them in the past. I have seen them four times previously: Musica in Akron in 2013, Sweetlife Festival (Maryland) in 2013, Lollapalooza in 2013, and Forecastle Festival (Louisville, KY) in 2014. I have enjoyed all of these shows, whether it was with 300 people in Akron or thousands at the festivals.
     I attended this show at the LC Pavilion with my son Sam and his girlfriend, Ally. We were up in the lawn for the show. It was a very pleasant summer night at the outdoor setup for the LC.
     The band had a voice over called "Nigel" who interacted with the audience and with Tyler Joseph, the lead singer. Although I just saw the band earlier this summer, I had never heard this "Nigel" gimmick. I found it off-putting and distracting from the show. The band normally brings such a caffeinated energy. And the between-song periods were distracting early in the show (and right before the encore) when "Nigel" spoke up. Ugh.
     Early in the show, the band did most of the big hit (by hits I mean with their fans) from their album 'Vessel'. And these were all well done. Tyler was in good voice, the synths and keyboards all sounded good, and Josh rocked out on the drums. The band was engaging and interactive with the audience. They did their normal "dualing drums out in the pit", "Tyler stands on the hands of those in the pit", and "Josh drums out in the pit" -- all really well done and up to their normal standards. In the second half of the show, they did more songs from 'Regional At Best', their earlier material.
     Oddly, late in the show they did a series of brief covers: "All I Do Is Win" by DJ Khalid, "Summertime Sadness" by Lana del Rey, and others. I found it distracting. Sam and much of the audience enjoyed it and sang along. I do not believe I have ever heard them do any sort of cover before. And I LOVE covers -- I make long playlists in iTunes of cover songs.
     One other item: I was surprised that they did no new material. Since that initial show more than 18 months ago, they have been performing material from 'Vessel' and 'Regional At Best'. I had understood they are working on new material. Since this is a "new tour", I hoped for a couple new songs (I had really hoped for that at Forecastle 2014 too). But no new material.
     A note about merch: as usual, Twenty One Pilots have some fun merch -- hats, cool t shirts, hoodies, and other items. A nice item tonight was a cool just-for-this-show poster with their logo over a State of Ohio flag -- cool.
     Sam and Ally really liked the show. It would have been really cool if it was the first time I saw them. But those outstanding Sweetlife 2013 and Forecastle 2014 shows were so good and the band was so "on" at those shows, that I left feeling let-down. If you edited out "Nigel", the covers, and some other fluff, the performances were really good. These guys put on a really great show. This was not one of them. My rating: three out of five stars.

 Twenty One Pilots

 Twenty One Pilots

 Twenty One Pilots

 Twenty One Pilots

Twenty One Pilots