Twenty One Pilots is this really cool band that doesn’t play a specific genre of music, even though they are classified as alternative. But honestly that’s what attracted to me to their music. I became a music person when I started listening to “Holding On To You.” I loved the piano in the song, but then being the lyric person I am, I started listening closely to the lyrics of the whole song and repeated this process for the entire Vessel album. I was immediately in love with TOP and it’s because they turned me into a music and lyric person.
I was pretty much a lyric person after my teen pop phase when I was in elementary school. Going through hard times, I wanted to connect more with the music and connecting with words was my way of using music as coping skill. However, when I discovered Twenty One Pilots, I learned it’s not a crime to be both a music and lyric person. Another reason why I love Twenty One Pilots is that you can have your own interpretation of their songs.
Many TOP songs deal with themes such as faith and depression. One song many fans interpret to be about depression and suicide is “Guns For Hands”. It’s so interesting to hear how people interpret the lyrics. Personally, I think it’s a cool to have room to make your own interpretations of songs and Twenty One Pilots gives us that room. Finally we need to talk about the members of the band: Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun.
Where do I start, well these guys put on a great live show and they're advocates for live music. The first time I saw TOP was recently on June 11, 2016 at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey. They were part of the Radio 104.5 Birthday Show and even though I was excited to see the other bands playing, I was very anxious to see Twenty One Pilots because it was my first time seeing one of my favorite bands I’ve been wanting to see live for so long.
People were telling me how good of a live band they are and they were right. I’ve never seen anything like it. At the end of the show I was speechless. I could not explain the show because that’s how good it was. Tyler and Josh put so much work and sweat into their live performances and it shows they care about their fans, but also they want to have fun themselves.
I was lucky enough to attend the show where they pay tribute to Christina Grimmie with their song “Doubt.” Tyler Joseph even stopped during a set, because a girl passed out in the pit. In fact, he pointed it out and called the security to help her. He didn’t start the set over until the girl was put into safety. I’m still thinking of that girl and I hope she’s doing okay.
Anyways, I left that concert happy and sad because it was one of the greatest live shows I’ve seen this summer and I just wanted to rewind and watch the show over and over again.
Twenty One Pilots has changed my life, but they will forever be one of my favorite bands and favorite live bands and I don’t have many live bands as favorites. That says something about Twenty One Pilots.