Stephen Jones

The entire length of the South Side Ballroom was lined with fans decked out in face paint, their favorite pair of Vans, and drawn-on tattoos. When walking past the front of the line, you would find people sitting in lawn-chairs with evidence of that day’s breakfast and lunch just below their feet, with the hope of getting the best spot in the house. The Texas Clique turned out in droves October 1st, as twenty one pilots (the band always prints its name in lowercase) made a stop in Dallas as a part of their 2015 Blurryface Tour. As a result of this very dedicated fan base, known as “the Clique”, the band achieved an important milestone when their newest album was #1 on Billboard‘s charts, upon its release, so a sold out venue was not unexpected.

Once inside, people flocked towards the stage, stationed just a couple feet above the standing-room-only crowd. The stage was set for the opening act, Finish Ticket, a Californian indie-rock band with traces of other indie groups, like Walk the Moon and Young the Giant, except with a little more edge. Finish Ticket was followed by indie band, Echosmith, who reached mainstream success with their single Cool Kids. As mentioned before, this was a sold out, standing-room-only venue, and the crowd was squeezing closer together until the lead singer, Sydney Sierota, paused their closing song to make sure everybody was okay, but they continued after she had the crowd take a couple steps back.

Now, it was twenty one pilots’ turn to perform for their fans, and they did not disappoint. The crowd followed every word, sang at the top of their lungs, jumped right on beat, and rapped every verse. The duo brought all the things their fans came to see: backflipping off a piano, crowd-surfing drum sets, climbing very tall objects, and countless acts of crowd participation. Finally, twenty one pilots closed the night with an empassioned speech, followed by a crowd-surfing dual drum-off (they really like crowd surfing), as powerful synths and confetti cannons blasted.When the performance was over, the duo stood together, and the crowd gave the band one final round of applause. As the applause died down, the two parted with the message, “We are twenty one pilots and so are you.”