It was definitely icy as Twenty One Pilots took the stage in Detroit, MI at Little Caesars Arena for the second night of their highly anticipated Icy Tour on Saturday, August 20th. After a video was displayed showing band members Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun walking through a snowy terrain before stumbling upon a blue door, the lights went out, screams erupted throughout the arena as Joseph and Dun entered the stage by coming up through a blue door with snow blowing out of it. They started the show with Scaled and Icy album opener “Good Day”, before a very dramatic transition to “No Chances”. Perhaps one of the coolest parts of the show occurred towards the end of “No Chances”, when Joseph transitioned to playing the bridge of the song on an acoustic guitar, with fake snow falling down on him as fog is dispersed from the mask and glasses he is wearing.
Fans went crazy when the band played their 2013 hit, “Guns For Hands”, after not playing it at an arena show in nearly five years. They went on to perform fan-favorites such as “Message Man”, “Morph”, and “Holding On To You” before getting to “Lane Boy”, where Joseph told everyone in the general admission pit to get low and jump once the chorus hit, claiming that, “Everyone was watching them.” It was very obvious that everyone in the pit was having the time of their lives. Halfway through their performance of “Mulberry Street”, Joseph exited the main stage and walked through the crowd to make his way to the b-stage towards the back of the arena. There he finished “Mulberry Street”, having the audience create a beautiful scene by raising their flashlights up and down during certain parts of the song. He then started a beautiful acoustic medley on his piano, playing a song from each of their albums. They even performed a song from their album Regional At Best, after hardly ever acknowledging the album throughout their career.
After the b-stage medley, Joseph made his way back up to the main stage for an acoustic campfire set featuring fan-favorites such as “The Hype”, “Nico and the Niners”, and “House of Gold”. But before he began this set, he had the crowd “crowdsurf” his ukulele back to the main stage from the b-stage on an air mattress!
After the acoustic sets, it was time to get back into the more energetic songs, such as “Jumpsuit” and “Heavydirtysoul”. During the chorus of “Jumpsuit”, yellow flower petal confetti fell from the ceiling, in reference to the music video for the song. During a mash-up of the songs “My Blood” and “Saturday”, drummer Josh Dun’s drum set was put into the crowd for him to have a drum solo as the audience holds up him and his drum set… you never know what to expect at a Twenty One Pilots show!
Twenty One Pilots really have a way of making sure everyone in the crowd feels included. Halfway through the performance of their hit single “Ride”, Joseph exited the main stage and performed one verse in a section on each side of the arena, before making his way back to the b-stage. Right before the last chorus, an air mattress was once again put up near the b-stage, but this time it was for Joseph himself to crowdsurf on! He crowd-surfed on the air mattress all the way back to the main stage, while finishing his performance of “Ride”. That’s definitely a new one!
As the show was coming to an end, it was time for hits such as “Car Radio”, “Heathens”, and “Stressed Out”. The band kept up their tradition of having a tower in the back of the arena for Joseph to climb up on during the end of “Car Radio”, as he does the final screams of the song before ripping off his iconic black ski mask. But this time, instead of going straight back to the main stage, his iconic red beanie rose up the podium to him alongside his guitar, before he played “Stressed Out” while on the tower.
Staying in true Twenty One Pilots fashion, they ended the show with “Trees”, as both Joseph and Dun got into the crowd with small drums towards the end of the song and played the rest of the song on drums as confetti covered the crowd.
If you get the chance to see the Icy Tour in person, do it!!!
