Twenty One Pilots put on a spectacle at Star Lake

Fresh off scoring a brand new No. 1 album on Billboard’s charts, rock-rap-pop-duo Twenty One Pilots brought a blowout of a show to The Pavilion at Star Lake on Sunday night.

The Columbus, Ohio, pair was nearly literally on fire during the intense two-hour show, which felt like it was truly for the fans. Those of us who aren’t super deep into the lore may have felt a little lost in the lights, fog and sounds. But the joy and enthusiasm of the band’s fans — known as “the Clique” — was infectious.

Twenty One Pilots consists of multi-instrumentalists Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, both of whom showed off multiple musical proficiencies throughout the set’s 27 songs. The setlist included their hits “Heathens,” “Ride” and “Stressed Out,” the latter of which earned them a Grammy Award in 2017.

Their most recent album “Breach,” released earlier this month, proved an immediate chart-topping success in its debut week. It completes a conceptual album cycle that began with 2015’s “Blurryface.” Their currently tour is in support of that album and 2024’s “Clancy.”

Their music Sunday stitched together a plethora of genres, from electronica to alternative rock to reggae to rap, with tinges of punk and pop thrown in. Just in their first song, “Overcompensate,” the duo racked up at least hints of four or five musical styles.

You might assume that a song titled “RAWFEAR” would be heavier rock, but instead it showed off their melodic side. “We Don’t Believe What’s on TV” showed off their folkier abilities, with Dun killing it on drums and trumpet. They sounded like The Ramones in the crowd favorite “Next Semester,” but it also ended with Joseph playing a ukulele and singing alone in a single spotlight.

There wasn’t a lack of traditional rock sound, though. “Jumpsuit” slayed, with a fuzzy bassline and a stadium chorus. An adrenaline rush came with “Heavydirtysoul,” which was a little industrial and rose the volume of the audience’s singing to a roar even louder than the music. That one went so hard that Joseph collapsed theatrically onto the stage at its close.

That transitioned into the night’s “flashlight song” — “The Line,” which was slower and got phone flashlights from the first row to the lawn lighting up the night.

“Garbage,” which Joseph referred to as “one of my personal favorites,” found the singer at the piano playing with passion. But on the other hand, “Doubt” wandered into trap rap. It was a rollercoaster of genres throughout the whole night, finding the most success with their rap-heavy tunes.

They also had a tendency to change tempos, which could sometimes feel disorienting. Us fans of 1990s alt-rock are quite used to the quiet-loud-quiet structure, but with Twenty One Pilots, a song could start out loud and go quiet, start out quiet and go loud or — in the case of the highlight “Tear in My Heart” — get a little more chill in the middle for an extended audience sing-along bridge and then ramp up again.

While the music is obviously the main attraction of a concert, Twenty One Pilots endeavored to make Sunday night a full experience. Joseph’s appearance onstage was heralded by a deafening pop and a shower of glittery gold. More bombastic songs were punctuated with jets of fire, sprays of fog and tornadoes of confetti.

During electronic banger “Lane Boy,” Joseph stepped out into the crowd, standing on a tiny wooden platform held aloft by fans. As the hectic song continued, people in masks moved through the crowd spraying fog on audience members (getting two facefuls of mist was a lot).

Most dramatically, during “Routines in the Night,” the two band members made their way slowly through two sides of the pavilion crowd to head out to a secondary stage on the lawn. Joseph paused along the way to hand off his sunglasses to a little kid, and both musicians exchanged fist bumps and greetings with screaming fans. And once they got up to the lawn? Well, there was an on-fire car, which Joseph climbed to fast-rap “Polarize.”

As they made their way back to the main stage, Dun lit an actual torch and carried a flag printed with the word “Burgettstown” and signed by fans.

Joseph ventured back into the crowd during the heavily reggae hit “Ride,” where he selected a kid named Drew and brought him up to the stage to sing the song’s final woah-woah chorus. The audience absolutely erupted, chanting “Drew! Drew! Drew!” for the youngster.

Earlier in the evening, Joseph did the most important thing he could to curry the favor of Southwestern Pennsylvanians besides start a “here we go Steelers” chant: squash a spotted lanternfly onstage. When the crowd screamed their approval, he said, “You guys are bloodthirsty.”

He also complained about the traffic and parking situation at the Pavilion at Star Lake. “Josh was in traffic for three hours,” he said.

After taking a pre-encore break, they came back with “City Walls,” the growling opener to their new album. But then they moved into a trio of surprisingly uplifting songs, starting with the sparkling and poppy “Guns for Hands” and moving into their smash “Stressed Out.”

They closed with “Trees,” a fond farewell of a song to close out an evening that was no doubt epic for fans.

In the evening’s opener, attendees got a glimpse at Dayglow, a project of musician Sloan Struble.

He and his band played a half hour of airy, fun and a little samey indie pop tunes, including “Change Song,” a pleasantly catchy song for “A Minecraft Movie.” His style hearkened back to his 2000s predecessors like MGMT, and his music was earnest and bright, a perfect reflection of the name “Dayglow.”

Struble set expectations for the night pretty high. At one point saying, “It’s pretty daunting opening for the biggest band in the world.”