Thursday night, I attended the final stop of Twenty One Pilot's Emotional Roadshow World Tour at Madison Square Garden. All I have to say is: wow. Simply, wow. After months of anticipation, the Emotional Roadshow completely exceeded my expectations. I knew that Tyler Joseph and Josh Dunn would put on a fantastic performance (plus, who hasn't heard Tyler's live cover of Can't Help Falling in Love? That's enough of a give away), but they are truly more than just music artists, they're incredible performers with an unbelievable amount of talent.
The show started with two great openers: Chef's Specialty (a band from the Netherlands) and MuteMath. Then finally, after anxiously waiting, Tyler and Josh came out in their classic ski masks and opened with Fairly Local. Tyler flawlessly transitioned from each song, rotating between tracks from Blurryface and Vessel, until reaching Hometown, where he quickly transported from the stage to the upper level of the audience and unmasked his face, making for a goose bump-filled moment.
Whether they were on the main stage or on the platform in the second pit, TOP ensured that there would be constant excitement. From Tyler jumping into the crowd to kick off Holding onto You, to Josh doing back flips off of the piano or playing the drums on a small board held up by the crowd, there was always something to keep the fans on their toes. Towards the end, Josh even hopped inside of a hamster ball and rolled around the crowd during Tear in my Heart. And, of course, Tyler made the entire crowd emotional when he performed his beautiful cover of Can't Help Falling in Love.
They also did a wonderful mash-up of all of their older songs, blending a handful from their first self-titled album and from Regional at Best, with a surprise guest appearance from Tyler's brother, Zach, to perform his rap from Kitchen Sink. TOP performed nearly every song from Addict with a Pen to Stressed Out, even doing a few covers (which included their opening acts) of Jump Around, Love Yourself, and after singing his heart out all night, Tyler flawlessly belted out My Heart Will Go On while Josh casually played the trumpet like a god. Of course, they closed the show with their classic hit, Car Radio, leaving their fans in suspense until the very end.
But, it doesn't stop there. Not only did Tyler and Josh put on one of the best shows I've seen, whoever was in charge of the lights and stage design definitely knew what the hell they were doing! The lighting went perfectly for each song, and the background videos and images set the mood and portrayed the messages behind the lyrics. Everything was perfect and when added all together, it is what made for such an amazing concert.
Before the night came to a close, Tyler made it a point to present Michael Gibson, a long time friend of theirs who has been on tour with them for five years, with two plaques: one for Blurryface and one of the gold record for Vessel. It was most definitely an emotional moment, as well as an emotional night, being that it was the last show of the tour and Michael Gibson's last show with TOP. Overall, the show was absolutely phenomenal and I would see them over and over again, without a doubt. They were emotional, we were emotional, everyone was emotional...I guess that's what made it the Emotional Roadshow!
