Review: Twenty One Pilots’ Charlotte show wouldn’t have been the same without that mattress
Tyler Joseph, the 33-year-old lead vocalist for Twenty One Pilots, went out of his way to acknowledge many of the people who made Saturday night’s show at Spectrum Center in Charlotte the successful spectacle that it was.
There were the obvious ones, like his duo-mate and drummer Josh Dun; and, of course, Todd Gummerman, Dan Geraghty, Jesse Blum and Skyler Acord, the four guys who made up their live backing band for the many songs that needed a fuller sound than just the two founding members could produce on their own.
There were the behind-the scenes folks, like “Russ” and “Dave” from the crew; like that random arena staffer who was captured on camera and shown on the big screen getting a fist bump from a grinning Dun; and like lighting director Tyler “Shap” Shapard (who — somewhat ponderously — was called out by Joseph as having “messed up three times,” then soundly booed at Joseph’s request, only for the singer to chuckle and admit: “I made that up. ... He’s actually been killin’ it tonight.”)
And there were, of course, the 13,000-plus fans who backed up Joseph on vocals all night while also frequently taking the lead, collectively singing full verses on songs ranging from jazzy hit “Morph” to Americana-infused “House of Gold” to rap-rock banger “Car Radio.”
But there was also an unsung, unnamed hero out there, or maybe several, who did yeoman’s work that supplied Twenty One Pilots with some of the most breathtakingly crowd-pleasing moments of the night.
So I’ll say it, since Joseph didn’t: Thank you, whoever you are, for always getting that big ol’ TØP mattress right where it needed to be.
It was there to catch Joseph when — after performing new single “No Chances” in their familiar full-face masks, Joseph’s outfitted with a mechanism that caused smoke to pour from its eye sockets — the singer removed his head covering to fans’ screams ... and then took a flying pile-driver leap off of the stage.
It came out again an hour into the show, when Joseph needed his ukelele for a “campfire-style” mini-set with the full band but realized he’d “accidentally” forgotten the instrument on a small stage toward the rear of the floor section, where he’d been using it minutes earlier.
“Would you be so kind as to surf it up to me?” he asked the throng in the GA section. There, suddenly, was the mattress, onto which the ukelele was placed. A collection of stiff, upright arms then began guiding it across the 90 feet of floor. “If you drop her, this show is over,” Joseph kidded, as Blum noodled on the accordion.
Joseph then topped that by doing a swan-dive face plant onto the mattress and taking a ride across the arena on it himself during (appropriately) “Ride,” the reggae-infused 2016 hit that helped make the duo a household name. As fans slowly passed him and his mattress forward, he mimed a rowing motion and repeated (again, appropriately):
Whoa-OH-oh-OH-oh-OHHHHH, Whoa-OH-oh-OH-oh, I’m fallin’ so I’m taking my time on my ride...
And finally, the mattress saved Joseph right at the close of “Stressed Out,” which ended the main set. Upon shouting out the last line of the alt-hip-hop anthem — “Wake up, you need to make money” — the crackle of fireworks replaced the “Yeah!” that normally punctuates the track, then he did the Nestea plunge off the back of the stage.
It makes you wonder, a little bit, what the insurance rider must look like for “The Icy Tour.”
Not just because of those stunts, which are made to look casual but certainly carry some significant risks; but also there’s, oh, say, the back-flip Dun did off of Joseph’s piano during his brief break from hammering the drums during “Holding On to You” (followed seconds later by Joseph running at the piano, then springing up to launch himself off the corner of it into another flying leap).
Or there was Joseph climbing 15 feet up off the floor to stand on a platform maybe 4 feet wide to sing and play bass guitar on “Car Radio.” It’s something I’ve seen artists do before, but virtually never without some sort of basic safety strap.
Or Dun stepping onto a piece of board with a snare, a kick drum and a crash cymbal bolted to it, so he could pound out a 33-second drum solo while being held aloft by people in the pit.
Or Dun and Joseph — during the night’s final song, “Trees” — trusting their fans to hold them up one more time, as they both beat dueling drums while perched atop matching plastic back board stretchers.
(Quick aside: Perhaps the riskiest behavior of the night, though, did not involve the band at all. Before they even came out to start their set, an event staffer commenced to tossing bottles of water to fans in the GA section, but arguably got a little too carried away. Within a dozen throws or so, he was throwing 50-foot Hail Marys into sometimes unsuspecting territory. Fortunately it appeared as though everyone got through it without anyone taking a hard shot to the eyeball.)
Meanwhile, they also tried to make things special for those who weren’t in the floor section.
For instance: Although Shapard, the lighting director, made stunning use of lasers and spotlights LEDs inside Spectrum Center, one of the night’s most sumptuous visual treats involved a much more DIY approach that got the entire crowd in on the act.
Yeah, we’ve seen fans break out their cellphone flashlights for slower songs a million times at shows like these, but Joseph gave the cliche a fun twist after moving from the main stage to the mini-stage for the second half of “Mulberry Street”: He instructed the right side of the bowl to put their lights up when he sang “Mul” then to quickly hide them; the center to only put them up when he sang “berry”; the left side to pop them up for “street”; and the floor to light it up just for “So good to see you.”
“We’ve been doin’ this all tour,” the singer explained, right before giving the directions, “and it’s been workin’ out. In fact, before the tour started I had a dream of this very moment, and every night that we did it — it just makes me feel good. I know it sounds cheesy. But dreams come true.”
The dance of lights the effect produced looked like nothing I’ve ever seen at an arena show before.
Later, in another effort to give non-floor fans a treat: After performing the first part of “Ride” on that mattress, Joseph continued an extended live version of the hit by venturing up into both sides of the lower bowl to sing portions while standing on portable podiums amid masses of quivering fans.
It can take artists decades to master the arena show. Some never truly figure it out. Twenty One Pilots, however, clearly knows exactly how to use cavernous spaces, despite the fact that they’re just nine years removed from playing for just 1,000 at Amos’ Southend, eight from entertaining 2,000 at The Fillmore (2014), six from a concert for 5,000 at Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre.
And despite the fact that Joseph basically admitted to still having some anxiety about performing in a place like Spectrum Center.
“Last night ... I had a dream that I got stung by a hornet on my neck,” he said, sitting at his piano in the shadow of late Charlotte Hornets star Bobby Phills’ retired No. 13 jersey hanging from the rafters. “And the hornet actually said, ‘What, you’ve never been stung by a hornet before?’ And I was like, ‘No!’ And he said, ‘Well, alright, get ready.’ But right before I woke up, I took it off of my neck, I pinned him on the ground, and I sliced him in half. Anyways, great to be here in your arena, Charlotte.”
Then, just in case anyone thought he’d make up something so bizarre: “I’m not kidding, that actually happened.”
This was the group of a dozen-plus genres’ second time headlining the city’s biggest indoor venue since 2019, and right before the end of the night, Joseph made it seem like he believed there was no guarantee they’d get a third shot.
“I always like to mention this, but I mean it when I say it: We would love to come back sometime. So please, have us back.”
At the rate Twenty One Pilots is going, though, it won’t be long before Joseph is dreaming not about Hornets, but about Panthers...
Twenty One Pilots’ setlist
1. “Good Day”
2. “No Chances”
3. “Guns for Hands”
4. “Morph”
5. “Holding On to You”
6. “The Outside”
7. “Message Man”
8. “Lane Boy”
9. “Redecorate”
10. “Chlorine”
11. “Mulberry Street”
12. “Addict With a Pen” / “Forest” / “Ode to Sleep” / “Hometown” / “Bandito” / “Choker”
13. “The Judge”
14. “Migraine”
15. “The Hype” / “Nico and the Niners” / “Tear in My Heart”
16. “House of Gold” / “We Don’t Believe What’s on TV”
17. “Halo Theme”
18. “Jumpsuit”
19. “Heavydirtysoul”
20. “My Blood” / “Saturday”
21. “Level of Concern”
22. “Ride”
23. “Shy Away”
24. “Car Radio”
25. “Stressed Out”
26. “Heathens”
27. “Trees”
This story was originally published September 5, 2022 at 12:21 PM.
