#i did not like this movie. but rufio is Extremely important.

[panneshirley]

every movie I watched in 2024:

Hook dir. Steven Spielberg, 1991

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #68: Good For Our Souls (10/24/18)

Things are finally settling down as much as they possibly can at a time where Twenty One Pilots is actively touring. That’s still pretty darn busy, though, so let’s get into it!

This Week’s TØPics:

New Tour Date Announcement

New Interviews

TØP Visits a St. Louis Children’s Hospital

Trench Down but Not Out on the Charts

And MORE!

Major News and Announcements:

We had one more date added to the Bandito Tour, as Mexico City receives an additional date on the tour. That’s no real surprise: they had a free day open, the Sports Palace can fit 26,000 folks in a single night, and folks in Mexico (and every country south of there) have relatively few chances to see the band live. Get to them tickets quick!

The coolest bit of news from this week, which came out just after I posted last week’s Update, is that Tyler and Josh visited a children’s hospital in St. Louis for the first time after a few of the kids who couldn’t attend the concert put together a video request. Tyler played “WDBWOTV” on the uke, and the two spoke with several of the kids. Everything I’ve seen and read from the people who were there just fills my heart with such joy. The fact that they did this the day of a show so early in the tour speaks volumes; touring at the pace they do is an extreme investment of time and energy, and the band has spoken many times about how they usually don’t even get to see the cities outside of the venues they play. They really didn’t have to go this extra mile, and the fact that they visited these kids speaks volumes about their characters.

Interviews, Performances, and Other Shenanigans:

Not really any major performance news- the show remains as awesome as we reported on it last week, but with little-to-no changes in format from city to city. The show in Cleveland was, as predicted, heavily attended by his family, resulting in Tyler actually crying on-stage and giving an emotional tribute to his sister and baby niece for “My Blood”.

We did get a whole host of new interviews. The most notable from a content standpoint is Tyler’s thoughtful explanation of the new ||-// logo in a meet-and-greet Q&A (a rare straightforward answer from Tyler, likely because it was to a fan rather than an industry person). 

Josh has increasingly been trotted out as the sole interviewee. My favorite is this interview with Josh for 105.7 St. Louis, in which he gets pretty open with his struggle with anxiety. He also gave a great interview in Chicago with 103.5 KISS FM, where he talks with enthusiastic fan Rufio for 15 minutes about why he stopped playing the cajone, what long-distance collaboration with Tyler was like, and who that Clancy guy is (“I haven’t met him.”) The peak is Josh’s Mt. Rushmore of music, which is... basically what you’d expect knowing Josh.

Tyler still comes along for the occasional interview, like for this mini-podcast in Milwaukee and this well-produced video in St. Paul. We’re at the point where there aren’t too many new questions. The former has Tyler talking a bit about how the Top 40 breakthrough affected them and their decision to take a break, while the latter features Tyler revealing his Fortnite strats, Josh unveiling his hair color selection process, and Tyler refusing to do a dad dance. This interviewer in Cleveland just seemed very thirsty for Josh, though they also discussed Tyler’s choice of “bandito” and playing ukulele at a show called the Save Rock and Roll Tour (Fall Out Boy who?). 

Detroit’s Alt 106.7 managed to sneak Tyler’s dad Chris on to answer a few embarrassing questions (YES). Another excellent interview with Detroit station 98.7 has Tyler talking about how watching escapist fantasy movies really inspired him for the last album, doubling down on Nico!Blurryface existing before the mathematician group, and the meaning of “Sahlo Folina”. Oh, and he says we missed something... something important... what a little...

Chart Performance:

As expected, the band once again drops off the Hot 100, as sales for Trench fell by over 60% in its second week. That said, things weren’t all glum on the Billboard charts; all of the album’s songs remain on the Hot Rock Chart even after the drop, and “My Blood” continues to see gains at radio and remains the best commercially performing Twenty One Pilots song of the week. 

Upcoming Performances:

It’s going to be another eventful week of touring, so let’s look into what to expect 

Show 8: TD Gardens, Boston, MA (10/26)

Capacity: 19,500

Tonight’s show will see the boys return to Boston for the first time since 2016 to play its most famous venue, the home of the Celtics, Boston Gardens (no one calls it TD). Expect Tyler to make some basketball joke. ...That’s all I got for this one.

Show 9: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (10/27)

Capacity: 16,800

The first of two shows this week in the New York metropolitan area, Twenty One Pilots will visit the newly renovated Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. The band will almost certainly visit certain media outlets like Sirius XM while they’re in the ol’ Big Applesauce sometime this week, either around this show or the next.

Show 10: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA (10/28)

Capacity: 19,500

Remarkably, the band has never played a full arena show in one of the United States’ biggest cities. That changes this week, when the band plays the Wells Fargo Center, home of... Gritty... oh no...

Show 11: Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, NY (10/30)

Capacity: 20,000

The band returns to one of the world’s most iconic venues for the first time since their iconic two night act back in the Emotional Roadshow. Inconvenience aside (They really couldn’t get two consecutive shows in NYC? Damn Knicks), this should be another great show. Will we get any moments that can compare to the “We Did It” speech? Ball’s in your court, Mr. Joseph.

Show 12: Capital One Arena, Washington, DC (10/31)

Capacity: 20,000

To wrap up the week, the band returns to the U.S. capital for the first time since they kicked off the North American Blurryface Tour there in 2015. It’ll be their first arena show in the market. Expect a reference to the Capitals’ Stanley Cup victory. Oh, and it’s HALLOWEEN! Sure to be a real spookfest with all those Banditos out to play.

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That’s all for this week! Just a heads up: the Trench review roundup probably ain’t happening until the Year-End recap- PhD work is making it hard enough as it is. But coming back to these things every week keeps me motivated, and I just love doing it. Power to the local dreamer.

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