Grammy duo Pilots to buzz Verizon
They spent their formative years in central Ohio, hustling gigs and trying to get noticed for their head-spinning mix of hip-hop and pop. Their first hit, a longing for the simpler times of childhood called “Stressed Out,” has been viewed more than 800 million times on YouTube. They are a duo, like the White Stripes or Black Keys, but they don’t play the blues. When they won their first Grammy last month for Best Pop Duo/ Group Performance, they accepted it in their underwear.
They are Twenty One Pilots and they’re landing Friday at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock with their Emotional Roadshow World Tour. Special guests Jon Bellion and Judah & the Lion will open the show.
The Pilots formed in 2009 in Columbus, Ohio, with singer Tyler Joseph, Nick Thomas and Chris Salih. The trio released a self-titled debut before Thomas and Salih left the band. Joseph then teamed with drummer and high school buddy Josh Dun and put out the album Regional at Best before getting picked up by New York-based label Fueled by Ramen, home to Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, Paramore and others.
Vessel, which featured a photo of Dun’s and Joseph’s grandfathers on the cover, was released in 2013 and earned the duo a foothold on the charts. But it was 2015’s monstrous Blurryface that blew the band up and set it on its current tour, which began in May and concludes next month in Australia.
Pull out an old 311 album, early Emimen, some Linkin Park, a little techno and Top 40 radio pop, throw it all into a blender and the result is close to the sound of Twenty One Pilots, who got their name from the Arthur Miller play All My Sons. Joseph speed raps like Marshall Mathers, sings like Patrick Stump and screams like an angry teenager. He also plays piano and ukulele, and his lyrics tend to lean toward themes of angst and confusion.
The two often wear ski masks while performing, looking like bank robbers as they blaze through their high-energy, assault-of-thesenses shows. Joseph is prone to covering his hands and neck in black makeup and Dun, who manages the group’s programmed backing tracks onstage, has been known to do backflips off a piano during shows.
Opening act Jon Bellion is a singer-rapper from New York. His latest album, The Human Condition, follows a series of mixtapes he began releasing in 2011. In 2013, he co-wrote the chorus of the Rhianna-Eminem track “The Monster.”
Also on Friday’s bill is Nashville, Tenn.-based Judah & the Lion, whose latest, Folk Hop ’N Roll, was released last year.