Experiencing a once in a lifetime concert
I never would have expected myself to travel across states for a concert. I have seen Twenty One Pilots twice before this concert: at the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, Maryland in September 2024 and at Jiffy Lube Live in Gainesville, Virginia in October 2025. They played several outdoor venue’s during this tour and I was extremely grateful that they were at Jiffy Lube Live because it is only 10 minutes from my house and their first time playing this venue Going to the Maryland concert was my first ever concert going out-of-state and it was amazing, but not as amazing as driving over 6 hours for the Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio concert. Here is a rundown of the concert and my favorite experiences that I was so grateful to be able to have.
Purchasing the Tickets
Back in May, my boyfriend fought the TicketMaster battle to get tickets. When he was first put in the queue, there were over 45,000 people in front of him. At this point, while hoping to get General Admission tickets, we didn’t think we were going to get tickets at all. Once he entered the site, he was immediately able to get seat tickets, but over half of the stadium was already sold out or unable to be purchased and that was just early access. By the end of the day, the entire early access seating was sold out, and by the time normal ticket sales were done, over 100,000 seats were sold. We never felt so grateful to be able to get seats, and with it being my boyfriend’s favorite band, we were ecstatic and immediately started planning out our long road trip to Ohio. We were fortunate enough to get General Admission tickets for the two previous shows that we had been to together, so we knew that it was going to be a much different experience, but it was very nice to not have to incorporate waiting time —to get a good standing spot— into our schedule.
Day of the Concert
Five months later, on October 17, it was finally the day of the concert. Because Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun are from Columbus, Ohio, this gave fans a closer connection to their lives more than the music, so everyone was taking advantage of being able to experience all the things that they had heard about or seen online. Fans were going to all of the ‘Twenty One Pilot places’ where music videos were filmed or talked about in interviews. We were able to see this in action as we were walking to get brunch downtown, across the street, we noticed the Big Fun Columbus Toy Shop had a line wrapped around the entirety of the building. The Toy Shop was one of the top locations to visit as the music video for “Choker” was filmed there. Another company that experienced a lot of fans and foot traffic was the Lávash Café, which was featured in their music video for “Lavish.”
Twenty One Pilots, ‘Breach,’ and What’s to Come Next
The business owners of these places were so grateful for the immense amount of customers that they had and they talked about how much of a struggle it is to be a small shop owner, but with the amount of sales they had made just within the 2-3 days of people being in the city, they felt so much confidence that they were going to okay and that their business will be able to keep going. This fan base has been so touched by Tyler and Josh’s music and helping so many peoples’ lives that it is so nice to be able to see them be able to experience these moments and give back to others.
Since we had seats, we took our time heading to the Ohio State University campus. We got there ~4 hours before the doors opened to make sure that we would be able to get good parking. When we made it over to the venue there were hundreds of thousands of people in line getting merch, in General Admission lines, or in lines waiting to get into the seated section because, once the doors opened at 4, there were two merch tables that everyone was planning on running to. We did not have it in us to wait in an hour for over an hour plus, so we walked around the campus, but we were bummed that we weren’t able to get any merch. But with an attendance of over 100,000, we kind of expected that the likelihood of getting it without any preplanning, there wasn’t any way we would have been getting it without waiting in a very long line.
Concert Openers
When we got to our seats, there were LED bracelets to wear during the concert that lights up when programmed to. It was very different having a seat than being in General Admission, but it was nice to be able to sit before one of the longest anticipated concerts. Around 6:30pm, the first opener, Emi Grace, started to play. She definitely helped boost the mood and get everyone moving because it was very cold in Ohio (highest being ~58°F), but also the sun was blaring down on us before setting.
The next opener was Death Cab for Cutie, Tyler and Josh’s favorite band. There were many fans who were avid fans of the band and they were able to get everyone to their feet and dancing. I did not really know their music because they are an older band, besides the last song they played, “Soul Meets Body.” It was a great last song choice because it hyped everyone up and got us excited for Twenty One Pilots to come on.
I Watched The Twenty One Pilots Movie, So You Don’t Have To
Twenty One Pilots Setlist
The band came on to the B-stage (center of the stadium floor) around 8:30pm, and the entire stadium was screaming. The following is the 38-song setlist of the concert:
*hometown tape playing*
- Goner (first time as a show opener)
- Overcompensate
- The Contract
- Morph/The Hype
- Center Mass
- Tear In My Heart
- Screen
- Robot Voices (with Mark Eshleman on the guitar)
- First time playing in the U.S.
- Shy Away
- Heathens
- Next Semester
- Routines In The Night
- Message Man
- Pet Cheetah
- Polarize
- Chlorine
- Navigating/ At The Risk Of Feeling Dumb (ATROFD) (Live debut of ATROFD)
- Nico And The Niners
- Heavydirtysoul
- Doubt (demo version)
- Fairly Local
- Jumpsuit
- Ode to Sleep
- Ride
- Can’t Help Falling In Love (Elvis Presley cover)
- Oldies Station (stripped down version)
- Isle of Fightless Birds (first full performance since 2014)
- Holding On To You
- Mulberry Street
- Drum Show
- RAWFEAR
- Drag Path
- Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes cover, with Ohio State University Marching Band)
- Tally
- Downstairs
- Guns For Hands
- Stressed Out
- Trees
*Lavish tape playing as people leave*
SportsDesk
The band decided to incorporate a clever network, FPESPN, into the concert that side tracked from the music and gave us a little insight into the making of the concert and how much they have been able to accomplish these past 16 years. Tyler and Josh changed their names to create fake persona interviewers and talk show hosts: Tyler was Togg Dunseph and Josh was Jog Joen. They had a sports network table set up in the corner next to the stage and Jog (Josh) was at B-Stage. At first I really thought that after they played their song that they sped run to their spots, but I was sadly wrong and they used a stand-in because realistically they could not get to their spots that quick. It was pre-recorded videos that they showed to keep the bit. Here are some of the segments that they showed:
- Jog and Dog
The morning of the concert, Josh Dun dressed up in a dog mascot and walked around the streets surrounding the venue to conduct interviews with the fans and do the wild things that Tyler Joseph would tell him in his earpiece. He would do push-up competitions, use a megaphone asking people if they were ready for the concert, play rock-paper-scissors with fans, and rode on a tricycle down the street trying to sing Routines In The Night (did not really know the lyrics lol).
- Local Interviews
Tyler and Josh drove around the Columbus area collecting data by locals to see just how many people who come to the concert to fill such a large stadium. They would ask the locals if they had heard of the band, which many declined knowing them. To help refresh their memory by playing “Morph,” which they even stated was not the best song choice. They would also ask the locals who they thought were the most famous band from Ohio, which their minds went blank. The best part of the interview was when they would ask the locals what they do for a living. Their responses for Josh were simple: something with music, rockstar, artist, and drummer. Tyler’s responses on the other hand were quite opposite: mechanics and sales. They also asked who the locals thought could sell out the Ohio Stadium, which is the third largest college football stadium in the United States. They thought of The Rolling Stones, Metallica, and Bruno Mars.
- Thank You Video
The last video they showed was Tyler and Josh thanking all of the fans for the immense amount of support that we have given to them over the years. This was a very emotional moment for the crowd, and for the band too. They knew how emotional they would have gotten if they said what they wanted to on the stage so they recorded their thank you’s to limit the amount of crying they would do during the concert so they could continue playing music. It was a very emotional video as it was their final goodbye for a while as they navigate being parents and doing festivals here and there, but no big tours anytime soon…..or ever…. They left it very ambiguous on what was going to happen with them, but we were so grateful to be there for their last goodbye.
Overall, this was definitely a concert for the books! One of the best experiences of the concert was the drone show. They used drones and displayed different objects, such as a ballerina to resemble the ballerinas in the music video for “Holding On To You,” the car from “Drum Show,” display of their faces, and the band’s symbol. It was so cool to see their art in drones floating behind them. All of these components that they fit into a nearly 3 hour long concert were spectacular and such a great goodbye to their fan base. It was such an incredible weekend being surrounded by fans and being able to be in the city they love and will forever cherish and be grateful that I was lucky enough to have experienced this.