#LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO THIS IS MY FIRST SPOTLIGHT SINGING

[dickggansey]

IM GONNA BE DOING THE ENDING CHORUSES FOR WORD OF YOUR BODY REPRISE IN DESPERTAR LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #26: I Saw a Concert This Week, and I Don’t Even Know If That’s the Most Exciting Thing (2/19/16)

Basically, just read the title, we’ve got too much stuff to cover this week, let’s goooooooooo!

This Week’s TØPics:

Grammy Win: Yes, It’s a Week Old, But Let’s Just Reminisce, Shall We?

New Video Series: Who Are the Sleepers? (oof, that might be the most click-bait thing i’ve ever written, someone remind me to edit that ou- you, hush, you’re not supposed to be reading my notes)

Interview Recaps: Blurryface Returning For Future Projects?

Upcoming Shows: Southwest to Southeast in One Week

Major News and Announcements:

Obviously, the biggest news since the last time I posted a full update is from the Grammys: they fricking won one, and they did it pantsless. Everyone and their Mom knows: I even did a Mini-Update because I knew I couldn’t go seven days without acknowledging it, so I won’t go too far in-depth. But, suffice to say, they slayed, rubbing elbows with entertainment elites, being imitated by James Cordon, getting the attention of everyone from Gordon Ramsay to the Rock on Twitter, bowing to Celine Dion, killing it on the red carpet with their plus-ones (Josh brought Jenna, his mom, and his sister, while Josh brought his brother Jordan- all, frankly, looked right at home among Hollywood’s most beautiful.

The only other main “news” story (if you could call it that) is that Mark has started releasing another tour diary video series. The soon-to-be five-part series comes with a unique title, “Sleepers”, and the first one is mainly edited around the song included in the title of the video, “We Don’t Believe What’s On TV”, including a soundcheck acoustic performance of the track. Does that mean that “Sleepers” refers to “sleeper hits” and that every episode will feature a performance of a Blurryface song that never got to be a radio hit? Does the title have something to do with “Oh Ms. Believer”? Is it a hint at the next album? Will I ever get a life? The world may never know.

Anywho, the important thing is that this honestly might be the best video Mark’s ever shot- it’s edited so, so dang well. Plus, it features a lot of Josh, which is always a great thing: his interviews here contain him confessing that their last break was driving him crazy (hopefully a good sign that they’ll try to make the next one short), wandering the streets of Newark at night and talking to folks out of a desire to see more than just a lot of dressing rooms during his touring experience, and him and Tyler recreating one of the band’s most iconic Vines on a treadmill (#TruFans will know).

Performances, Interviews, and Other Shenanigans:

Holy crap, I can’t believe I complained about too few interviews last week. *deep breath* OK. Let’s go.

First, I need to acknowledge that I went to their second show in Anaheim. While the first show apparently had some problems involving screwed up communication between early campers and venue security, things seemed to have all fallen into place, save for the minor hitch of Tyler having a bit of a cold that added a bit of extra nasal to his speaking voice and, as he humorously noted on stage, caused him to sneeze on-stage for the first time in their career. That wasn’t the only nifty thing from a show this week- as pictured above, Tyler gave Josh a Valentine’s Day rose in Fresno, and the first Anaheim show was attended by Kate Hudson (who praised the band on Ellen, #TOPonEllen) Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, and their young children, as well as (if Twitter is to be believed) Gerard Way himself.

The first Anaheim show was preceded by an awesome acoustic set for an L.A. radio station (I’ve missed those, wish they did more). Highlights include:

An acoustic remix/mashup of “Ride” with the “House of Gold” (and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”) instrumentation that’s just too good for words.

Tyler trying to get a kid in the audience to sing parts of “Stressed Out” and oh my God he’s such a freaking dad.

When asked, Tyler confirms that the break between album cycles will be longer than previous ones- he says that he can’t write without singing his lyrics, and that means he can’t write much when he has to be careful about maintaining his voice on their almost-daily touring schedule. He also says that he enjoyed getting to be an actual person during the last break, from doing stuff around the house like fixing the toilet and changing the oil to just being able to drive himself around and remember “Oh yeah, you can turn right on red”. That said, he doesn’t really want to take too long off, especially when he knows what its like when artists he enjoys take off years at a time. He also trolls the audience at one point, asking “What do you guys want to hear? Cool, new album.” (Oof, this is torture.)

He talks a bit about the Grammys, namely getting texts from everyone he’s ever known (including his mom’s neighbor), probably stealing his speech from a Disney movie, and it being cold.

On collaborations like with Mutemath, Tyler emphasizes that he knows that people can tell when they are done just for the sake of marketing, and he firmly believes that collaborative art should come from a place of friendship (more on that later, although my conspirical (sic) brain has to note that it sure sounds like Tyler might have done more than just the Mutemath collab... I’m still watching you, labelmates).

Beyond that, there were also a bunch of other interviews that surfaced this week. The huge profile of the Grammy win earned them a couple of news spotlights, one from a Grammy after party where Jenna gets to answer a question or two, another from the local Columbus station going over the bands’ history in the town that’s just too cute for words. As far as interviews, highlights include:

SiriusXM, New York (Fan Submitted Questions):

They’re lurking on Twitter, watching those “buggers” that are making fun of them. Thankfully, that means we’re safe on Tumblr.

Being a bean helps Tyler escape awkward social situations.

Josh thinks that all of the fans who yell “I love you!” aren’t really thinking through the full ramifications of that statement, and that they really mean “I respect you”.

Tyler’s dad sends him band memes all the time, which led to him getting blocked.

“TB Saga” and “Coconut Sharks” don’t get played live because singing and playing the drums is difficult when you’re overwhelmed with emotion.

Every time they see someone with a band tattoo, Tyler and Josh are forced to acknowledge that they have to stay together “for the kids”. You heard the men. You know what to do.

Kevin Klein Line, Live 105, Bay Area:

Not sure how I feel about the interviewers being more sarcastic than the boys. There’s something fundamentally wrong about that.

“Baby Sized Man” may be a future single.

Future projects will be focused on the all-important Mom demographic.

106.5 Sacramento:

Tyler’s Grammy wins mean that more than a few folks are now obliged to get some tattoos.

This is big: Blurryface might not be retired for the next album. Tyler says that he continues to get new ideas about the same kind of ideas that Blurryface is based around. More on that in the BLIND SPECULATION section below.

10N1 Sacramento:

Tyler and Josh would not descend from the ceiling in the style of Gaga if they got the chance to play the Super Bowl. Giraffes, on the other hand...

Josh attributes his physique to Reeses Puffs and cinnamon. Cool, I’m almost there.

New Rock 104.1, Fresno:

“Dude, you’re like the best bro in the world.” -Tyler Joseph to Josh Dun, 2017 (Context: Pointing out that Josh totally could have let Tyler walk onstage solo and left him looking like an idiot.)

Josh explains the difficulty he faced getting his dress pants off.

An eating contest with Josh might replace Mario Kart in future shows (though it presents some potential nausea problems.

It’s not a Twenty One Pilots interview, but worth mentioning: Jon Bellion, who notoriously revealed that he’d be opening for the band months before it was officially announced, might have confessed that their teams might be collaborating on something.

As an update from last week: the full video from Andy Signs’ performance with the band last week was posted, and it’s so sweet. Twenty One Pilots have actually been up to all sorts of cool fan things this week, from meeting with more Make a Wish kids on the Grammy red carpet to hanging out with Kate Hudson’s kids before the first Anaheim show.

Upcoming Shows:

After spending most of last week in a single state, this week of touring has some real geographic range, pretty much spanning from one side of the United States to the other. Let’s take a quick look at the varied locales, shall we?

Show 23: Tucson Arena, Tucson, Arizona, 2/19

Capacity: 7,400

First stop is Tucson, the second largest city in Arizona. Twenty One Pilots has played six shows in the state capital of Phoenix, but poor Tucson has always been passed over for its neighbor two hours to the north, which both services more people and is physically closer to other potential tour stops. That will change tonight.

The arena at the Tucson Convention Center usually hosts the hockey team of the University of Arizona. It’s a smaller venue for this tour, but there aren’t many bigger options for this area.

Show 24: BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2/21

Capacity: 13,600

Tulsa is a fifteen hour drive from Tucson (might be time to bust out the private jet again). A fairly active cultural center in the otherwise pretty empty region of the country, Tulsa. The band has played three shows in Tulsa, though the last two concerts they’ve played in the state of Oklahoma were in the eponymous capital, so this will be a minor homecoming.

The Bank of Oklahoma Center lacks any regular tenets other than the minor league Oilers hockey team, it keeps the lights on with basketball championships and concerts like these. It’s a pretty interesting building that features a lot of diverse artwork from throughout the region.

Show 25: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas, 2/22

Capacity: 21,000

The tour then moves south to the great state of Texas for what is, surprisingly, the only stop in the territory on this tour. That said, it makes sense to place the stop in Dallas, which, when combined with neighboring Fort Worth and several other nearby cities, makes up the largest metropolitan population in the country outside of New York, L.A., and Chicago. This show will be Twenty One Pilots’ twentieth show in Texas and their eighth in the Dallas area. Fans may remember that the last show they played in this area back during the last leg of the Roadshow fell the day after the fatal shooting of several Dallas police officers; Tyler gave what, in my mind, is easily one of his Top 3 best speeches at that show.

This show’s venue is one of the biggest on the tour, in an apparent effort to make up for the strangely small size (relatively speaking) of the last show, which could only fit a little over 6,000 folks; the American Airlines Center, known by some as “The Hanger”, can hold more than three times that number. The Hanger is the home of the NHL Stars and NBA Mavericks, and is a local landmark.

Show 26: Legacy Arena, Birmingham, Alabama, 2/24

Capacity: 19,000

Next stop is Alabama's most populous city, Birmingham. The band hasn't played the city since early in 2013, though they've played near Alabama's southern shore a few times since then. The city will be welcoming them back in one of the state's biggest venues located in Birmingham's convention complex.  

Show 27: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina, 2/25

Capacity: 23,000

Last on the list for this week is Greensboro, North Carolina's third largest city behind Raleigh and Charlotte. Greensboro and its Coliseum has had a pretty interesting history over the last few years involving struggles to hold on to minor league hockey and basketball teams and, notably, Bruce Springsteen's cancellation of a concert in the venue due to the state's backwards transgender discrimination law. Hopefully the Twenty One Pilots concert will go much more smoothly.

Community Spotlight:

Keeping it short and sweet this week: artist/comedian Hannah Hoffman makes funny content (not all related to Twenty One Pilots, of course, but even that stuff’s good, too).

BLIND SPECULATION OF THE WEEK:

Calling back to the central topic of most of the interviews from earlier, I must ask: what’s up with Blurryface returning in upcoming albums? Does that mean that we might have been getting clues about upcoming music this whole time?

In a word: no. In another word: yes? Confused? Good.

I don't think there was any indication at the start of the cycle that Tyler and Josh were planning on carrying Blurryface past his eponymous album cycle, for the simple reason that such things were too far in the future for them to worry about at the time. You have to remember that Blurryface was the first album where Tyler really worked on building a story with the songs more than just grouping them around his own life experience, feelings, and maybe a general underlying theme or idea. Around 2015, I'm sure Tyler was thinking about a million different possibilities for future projects, but he was by no means tied down to one course of action or another.

However, in recent months, Tyler has constantly been talking about how all of his creative ideas have been coming out of what he's experienced during this album cycle. That, I think, ensured that the character would continue to exist, even more than just how successful Blurryface was for them as a band. Tyler has always written from what he has experienced, but with all of the success of the last few years, he's gotta be running short on compelling things to write about. He's experienced so much tremendous success that it's doubtful he'll ever have to worry about doubting his decisions or fearing utter failure again. Frankly, the dude's been so busy working that I wonder how much of his own personal life he even has left to write about. That leaves the illogical manifestation of anxiety that Blurryface represents- that gnawing feeling that it's all been a fluke and everything good is temporary- as one of the few real things he can write about that he's personally experienced and that will still be relevant to his audience.

Of course, Tyler hasn't just written from his own experience; songs like "Guns For Hands" have drawn off of what Tyler has seen in his fans when he's shared his music with them. While Blurryface was very much an album about making music and expressing yourself as an artist, what I've heard from Tyler and Josh so far about how the touring has been informing their music gives me reason to believe that a lot of Album 5 will look at how Blurryface, the ideas he represents, and the music they made to fight him has impacted other people. That excites me.

So, back to the original question: Do I think Tyler's given us any direct hints at future songs yet? I think it's a distinct possibility. Though we haven't been getting any lyrical tweets from him (save for maybe that "Friends close, enemies on the guest list" one), the dude talks so much and so eloquently that there's a veritable laundry list of potential lyrics floating around. We know that Tyler dropped lyrics from "Ride" in an interview well before that track's release. Ultimately, we're just gonna have to wait and see.

As always, but especially this week: power to the local dreamer.

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