There won't be a dull moment—see you next week at the Atlas Arena for the Twenty One Pilots concert.
It’s sometimes hard to categorize them clearly. Too alternative for pop and too pop for alternative. In their music, they mix, blend, and experiment. Indie rock, electronic, rap, reggae, pop, pop-rock, indie-pop, rap-rock, electro-indie—or maybe something else entirely. Looking at the genre descriptions of their albums, you can find some strange combinations, and listening to their music, you can pick up on further inspirations and new elements outside the typical bubble many people put them in. Always somewhere on the border, perhaps afraid of overdoing it in one direction, or perhaps finding a happy medium in it. I myself wasn’t entirely convinced by them for a long time, precisely because of this maneuvering between different styles and flirting with the mainstream. By listening to just a few tracks, you only get a glimpse of what they do. At some point, I simply set aside those preconceptions and let myself get carried away. And I hope this mix will be confirmed in a live setting.
Even from their debut, it was clear that these pop melodies served as a foundation for sonic experimentation. Subsequent lineup changes and collaborations on various releases helped bring order to everything related to the project known as Twenty One Pilots. It ultimately became a duo led by Tyler Joseph, with drummer Josh Dun providing support, and the pair began making an increasingly strong mark on the music scene. “Vessel” and the 2013 single “Car Radio” drew more attention to them, and their image began to be associated with the balaclavas they wore in music videos and during live performances. Their follow-up album, “Blurryface,” brought them worldwide fame, mainly thanks to the hit “Stressed Out,” a song that, while seemingly out of place with their style, perfectly defines it. And when listening to tracks like “Heavydirtysoul,” “Fairly Local,” “Tear in My Heart,” or “Lane Boy,” one might wonder if this is still the same band. Though we’ll certainly hear Josh’s signature drumming and Tyler’s compositional touches in each of them. Once again, we’ve seen that there’s a vision here not just for the music, but for the entire concept—where the image of a figure with black paint on their neck and hands, contrasting with the red color, will now be associated by many exclusively with Twenty One Pilots.
If they hadn’t won over the skeptics by that point, they certainly did so with their next album, *Trench*, where they took their experimentation with a complex concept to the next level. Playing games with the audience by teasing a new story, doling out snippets of information, and encouraging exploration—yet ultimately delivering a cohesive album that’s a pleasure to listen to from start to finish, with each successive track adding more and more to the mix. And even if you look only at the first few tracks, which present completely different sounds, it all creates a shared world that you want to explore. The powerful and rock-driven “Jumpsuit,” the rap-infused “Leviate,” the groovy and soothing “Morph,” or the electronic and uplifting “My Blood.”
Their next album, “Scaled and Icy,” showed us a colorful, sweet, and downright candy-like side, and the musicians opted for simpler, more enjoyable compositions—a departure from their earlier musical explorations and experiments—resulting in perhaps their least ambitious album to date. Fortunately, this was made up for by “Clancy,” released in 2024, which drew more on their best period, once again striking a better balance between alternative and radio-friendly sounds defined by a mellow tone, returning to what worked best for them. And I won’t reveal any more here, because this album will be promoted on April 9 at Atlas Arena in Łódź, and we’ll hear many tracks from “Clancy” performed live.
This will be TOP’s fourth performance in Poland. They previously played at Torwar in 2016, at Atlas Arena three years later, and most recently in 2022 at the Open’er Festival.
The band itself doesn’t like boring or monotonous concerts, and their diverse music certainly helps with that. Rich and ever-changing stage design, special effects, walking through the crowd and playing among the audience, and great chemistry with their devoted fans all suggest that their stop in Łódź should deliver over two hours of intense and memorable music. I don’t foresee any boredom here. And we’ll find out just how it goes in Łódź this coming Wednesday.
Photo by Artur Kraszewski
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