Twenty One Pilots : Salt Lake City

When I sat down to complete this review, I was going to do write it was an overview of the concert, but as time went on I decided I didn’t want to write this article like that. I determined this review was going to be a two-part opinion piece instead. These articles will both be a Twenty One Pilots concert review, just from two different states. On September 25th, my sisters and I drove to Salt Lake City, Utah, a ten-hour drive from Phoenix, Arizona. Despite the tiresome drive, I was beyond stoked because I was getting to see a band I’ve wanted to see for forever. Fast forward to Saturday the 26th and I was standing in line with my older sister at the Great Saltair venue for the SOLD OUT concert of Twenty One Pilots! Everything was going great and again, I was beyond stoked to see them. On top of getting to see TOP, Echosmith was the opener, another band I’ve wanted to see again since I first saw them on Warped Tour 2014. It was finally 6 PM and the doors opened. The line slowly but surely started moving, lucky for us though, we entered through the back gates. My sister and I decided to stand by the sound booth because it was right in the middle with a perfect view of the stage. When the concert started I was surprised, although I really shouldn't have been, to discover there was another opening band. Based out of San Francisco, Finish Ticket was amazing and started the night off right. If you haven’t listened to them before, you should. To be honest, it took me a few songs to realize I actually had listened to them before, which got me even more excited. Finish Ticket played for about 30 minutes, and then it was time for Echosmith. I was really hoping they would perform the song "Bright" over anything and count my lucky stars because they did! Echosmith finished and thirty minutes later the headlining band, Twenty One Pilots, was taking the stage! This was when all the trouble started. On both sides of me, I had groups of girls aging between 12 and 18. The group closest to me was about to throw down with the group in front of them because they were sitting on the railing and no one could see. I get it; you want to see, but hello? Have you never been to a concert? You aren't always going to get the perfect view. You have to deal with it and sometimes you just have to find a new spot. Now to discuss the other group, and I cannot even fully describe how irritated I actually was. From pushing my sister into me and me into the rail, to the 15 year old girl shoving her feet in the railing in front of us, to just annoyingly screaming which started before Josh and Tyler even stepped on stage, it was a mess. A few songs into the set, the girl still hadn’t stopped and I could not get over my irritation. Typically, I can forget about everything going on and focus solely on the music but in this case I could only do that ­­­­for a few songs. It was to the point that I was about to call the girl out and then leave. That‘s how upset I was getting, but I didn’t want to leave until they played “Car Radio”, which is my hands down favorite song by TOP. Unfortunately, “Car Radio” was the last song they played before the encore. I watched half of the song then left. The only good about leaving the concert early was beating the traffic. Twenty One Pilots themselves were amazing! From Tyler climbing into the crowd to sing, to Josh playing the drums with fans carrying the small set, the duo didn’t let a moment go dull. An extra special moment occurred when “Tear In My Heart” was performed and Tyler had the crowd sing loud and proud for his wife, Jenna, who watched the show from the sound booth. Another great part of the night I won’t be forget was when Tyler pulled a fan from the crowd and the fan do the handshake (if you’re a fan, you know which one) with Josh. The guy was flawless, it was great! Despite being an amazing show to watch, it was the crowd that sucked and what usually makes the concert one of the best experiences of the show. I wish I could have tolerated the group to stay until the very end. However, I have great friends who sold me two tickets for the sold out Twenty One Pilot's show in my home state, Phoenix, Arizona. I’ll get to redeem my bad experience from Salt Lake City with the concert scene I love and am used to. Stay tuned for part two, which will be published soon when I see the beautiful band once again at Comerica Theater and hopefully that show will be ten times better!