Are you a broke college student? Did you wish you could teleport across the Atlantic to attend “A Complete Diversion” in London last month? Well, lucky for us, my friend Sarah is currently studying abroad across the pond and was able to attend Twenty One Pilots first concert back in over a year. She made sure not to miss out on this opportunity and gave us the inside scoop from her perspective.
For some perspective on how many were at the show and the size of the venue, the O2 Academy in Brixton has a capacity of about 4,921 without seating. A venue like the Santa Barbara Bowl in California can hold 4,562 seated, outside. While not a huge venue like Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, they were able to accommodate a good amount of dedicated fans. Knowing Sarah, she probably would have gotten up in the early hours of the morning to go wait in line, since the whole entire show was going to be GA. Unfortunately she did say that she had class and wasn’t able to get there till around 2 pm. Right from the start she knew how much of a hit this show was going to be. She was able to spot the line from a mile away, being that everyone was wearing yellow in some way. Even on her way from The Tube/London Underground (basically their subway system) she could tell that so many were heading to the same show, just based on what they were wearing. People in line were passing out yellow tape to put on their clothes, as well as over the flashlight on their phones so “we could light the whole venue up in yellow during Jumpsuit.” She said it looked so sick! According to her, this show in particular had the most hardcore fans around due to the fact that there was no advertising for the show until they announced the tickets. Only people who really follow the band knew about it first. Furthermore, she reported that other fans also going to the show, despite being complete strangers, were very welcoming to her and her friends. The power and unity of music and being able to connect well with others can really make the show a more memorable experience overall. As for the show itself, the energy was crazy. Even prior to the boys coming on stage, the audience was cheering for the crew when they were just soundchecking the instruments. The anticipation was also absolutely insane. Right before the show started, there was a sound that just kept getting louder and louder. That’s when everyone knew it was about to go down. The house lights kept getting brighter and brighter- then the room went dark.
Sarah and thousands of other fans screamed louder than they ever had in their enire life when Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph made their first appearances. Since the band had been on hiatus for a year, to see the duo onstage again was invigorating. Sarah described the disbelief and amazement simply but effectively, when she astonishingly said, “Dude... it was unreal". When "Jumpsuit" (the first track to be released off Trench, a fan favorite that effectively ended the band's hiatus) started playing, everyone in the venue was jumping so high that you had no choice but to jump with them.
When each of the new songs were played, the crowd went wild. During “My Blood”, the boys decided to try and do something interactive with the crowd. Half of the room sang one part of the song while the other half sang the other. While Tyler was “conducting” the crowd and listening to everyone singing the lyrics back to them, he turned to look at Josh, and smiled in surprise that this little maneuver had worked, and they both looked so happy. Overall, the atmosphere in there was pretty awesome, and it was an amazing welcome back concert to kick off the Trench era. The rest of the world awaits the dynamic duo and their yellow confetti.
A huge thank you to Sarah for the photographs and for sharing her experience with us! Make sure to check out her profiles and photography on Twitter (@vicesxsarah) and Instagram (@sarrodriguez)
‘Trench’ is now available in stores and on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music!
Look out for Twenty One Pilots upcoming US/Canada Bandito tour dates for 2018 which started October 16th in Nashville, TN. (Pro Tip: After all that Ticketmaster TØP drama, your best bests are StubHub and Seat Geek) Also, check out their tour dates for the Australian/New Zealand tour kicking off on December 7th, their 2019 European Tour which starts January 30th in Kiev, Ukraine, and their second North American tour starting on May 1st in Monterrey, Mexico.