Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun ran through every single song from Trench live for the very first time in Canada.
At their first Canadian gig since June 2016, twenty one pilots marked the occasion by playing every single song of their latest album Trench for the first time since its October release.
While it wasn't played in order, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun gave the Canadian Clique a real treat by playing the record in full at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver on May 12, also scattering music from 2013's Vessel and 2015's Blurryface throughout the set.
While fans across the globe have already witnessed a vast portion of Trench live, album tracks The Hype and Legend were only debuted earlier this month in Mexico. So this bodes very well indeed for future shows to come this year…
Drummer Josh recently told Kerrang! that playing live often changes the perspective of the songs from the time they were originally written – Trench included.
“I think going into a writing and recording process there is always the live show in mind, but you kinda never really know until you play it live how it’s going to feel in the room, or how it’s going to feel to us, or translate to people,” he said. “I think that there are songs that have kind of risen above other ones – even when I go back and listen to the record. I’m just like, ‘Ahh, I like the song a lot more now because we’ve played it live, and it’s a lot of fun, and it’s special because of those reasons.’ I think that’s really cool, and it makes me want to continue to play songs live (laughs).
“Cut My Lip is one of those for me where, after playing it live, it’s a song that’s kind of transformed a little bit, and it always feels like a really special moment in the set. I think that now I can’t help but think about that moment when I listen to the song, where that moment didn’t exist before. So yeah, playing the songs live definitely transforms and shifts, and even the meaning of the song, sometimes.”
Check out the full setlist from Vancouver below:
1. Jumpsuit
2. Levitate
3. Fairly Local
4. Stressed Out
5. Heathens
6. Legend
7. We Don't Believe What's On TV
8. The Hype
9. Lane Boy
10. Nico And The Niners
11. Smithereens
12. Neon Gravestones
13. Bandito
14. Pet Cheetah
15. Holding On To You
16. Ride
17. Cut My Lip
18. My Blood
19. Morph
20. Car Radio
Encore:
Truce (played from tape)
21. Chlorine
22. Leave The City
23. Trees
twenty one pilots will return to the UK this month for BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, and then once more after that to headline Reading & Leeds in August.
We recently asked Tyler what fans can expect from their debut headline slot at one of the UK’s biggest festivals, and he enthused:
“The culture of music in the UK is something we’ve always looked up to. Some of our favourite performances of festivals and stuff has been over here. In a sense, when you live over in the States, you kind of look over at the UK as a very credible, cool, authentic music scene.
“It’s tough to get everything in our live show to translate over into a festival set, but there’s something special about festivals, and something special about being outside, too. And that set is going to be like no other set we’ve ever played. There’s definitely an air of unpredictability, and you don’t really know exactly what to expect. You’d be a fool to assume that everybody is there to watch you – or even know who you are. So there’s a bit of a competitive edge to it, because there’s so many awesome bands on the bill, and so being motivated to rise above that giant pool of talent, and to make your mark, is something that we’re really excited to step up to that challenge.
“The last time we played Reading was one of my favourite sets ever. I did a stage-dive and climbed over the top of 10,000 people, and had a few people pulling on me in the process, but I rather enjoyed it! I thought it was a lot of fun, and the energy was amazing. I can’t wait to do it all over again – we’ll see what happens this time…”
