This Sunday saw Victoria Park flooded with red and yellow tape, camo and bishop’s cloaks as fifty thousand Twenty One Pilots fans travelled from all over the world to attend the last day of All Points East festival this summer. The hardcore devotees all flocked together like family, exchanging themed items they had made in the queues before doors opened and showing off various ‘Ned’ plushies.
As soon as doors opened, some fans flocked to the barricade to camp out for a front row view of their favourite band. While others made the most of the day, catching as many bands as possible despite many clashes – the line up this year was just too good!
There was also lots to do onsite with interactive pop-ups from various brands as well as a ‘The Few, The Proud and the Emotional’ interactive exhibition, which featured a series of tents to walk through while admiring setlists, lyric notes and the clothes worn by both Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun during various performances and music videos. The band’s history from the very start to now was put on display. They even had a bucket of Tyler‘s signature black paint for fans to dip their hands into, coloured tape to add to their clothing and scraps of fabric to sign and tie up to the tent.
Photo credit: Bethan Miller
Over on West stage, Josie Edwards amassed a large crowd despite playing right after doors opened. She captured everyone’s attention with her strong stage presence and airy vocals. She gave a little back story about ‘Gravedigger’ before performing it on ukulele. It had a similar sound to ‘The Judge’ by Twenty One Pilots, demonstrating just why she had been asked to play the festival. She wrapped up her set with her recent hit ‘Chemical Light’ which has such an ethereal atmosphere to it.
East stage saw the likes of Leap, Hot Milk and PVRIS throughout the day, each delivering their own take on alternative Rock. Opening up Main stage was LEAP who brought that rockstar energy to the stage, mixing alternative rock and indie grunge influences. They immediately captivated the crowd’s attention. Despite many not being familiar with their music, they had everyone dancing and swaying their arms along from the start, and by the end of their set, they had picked up on the lyrics and were singing along to the choruses of hit songs ‘Sinking feeling’ and ‘Do or Die’.
As always, Hot Milk brought the energy, hyping up the crowd immediately with their heavy hitting bass lines and contrasting vocals. Getting to hear the rearranged ‘nightmare version’ of ‘Candy Coated Lie$’ is always a joy during their live shows, before they slowed things down with the heartfelt ‘BREATHING UNDERWATER’, picking the energy right back up with ‘PARTY ON MY DEATHBED’ before playing a secret DJ set on the Bacardi stage later on in the day.
PVRIS played a good mix of songs from all of their projects, showing off their fascinating synth-pop production which combines many electronic elements with rock-driven guitar riffs. Lynn Gunn manages to put so much feminine angst behind such angelic vocals, which combined with the duality of the production and lyrics sounded immense on such big stage. She also took the time to interact with the crowd and get them involved in their set before dedicating ‘GODDESS’ to the ‘girls, gays and theys’.
The North Arena tent held artists such as Dead Pony and BBNO$ which both had the tent fully packed out with many watching from the sidelines. Dead Pony brought the heavy riffs paired with clean vocals, from Anna Shields, which had lots of new listeners shocked. Meanwhile BBNO$ brought the energy and had the whole tent and surrounding crowd jumping and singing along to every word, even garnering ‘woos’ from the crowd while reading out a doughnut recipe on stage.
The X stage hosted Honey Revenge and NOAHFINNCE who each amassed a large crowd. Honey Revenge delivered their bubble gum-pop anthems while Cheska Zaide (EARTH TO CHESKA) held down the heavy bass lines, giving them that rock edge. They had one of the best crowds of the day, with crowd surfers and mosh pits starting almost as soon as they set foot on stage. Devin Papadol delivered incredible vocals throughout hit songs including ‘Rerun’ and ‘Airhead’ before playing ‘Poison Apple Baby’ and ‘Sunday Scaries’ off their upcoming album ‘Loving and Losing‘. They Wrapped up their set with ‘Are you impressed?’, joined on stage by Rae Brazill of Artio.
Despite NOAHFINNCE‘s set finishing ten minutes before Twenty One Pilots were set to play. He still filled the X stage with dedicated fans that sang along to every word, they were particularly loud for ‘PET WITH THE TISM’. He made sure his audience knew how grateful he was that they came to see him and took the time to joke around with them in between songs before playing his latest single ‘MR OVERWHELM’.
The E3 stage served as a platform for up-and-coming artists and bands including Emi Grace and Teen Jesus & the Jean Teasers. Emi Grace impressed the crowd that was flooding out from under the tent with her insane guitar skills and magnetic energy. She encouraged lots of crowd participation as she played through her catalogue and previewed some new tracks off her upcoming EP ‘THE BLISS OF IGNORANCE‘ including ‘patiently’ which featured a harmonica solo.
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers travelled all the way from Australia to perform at All Points East and ensured they put on a good show for those in attendance. Anna Ryan delivered beautiful yet angsty vocals throughout their set, performing hits ‘Girl Sports’ and ‘I used to be fun’ before Scarlett McKahey took over with a solo at the beginning of ‘MOTHER’ which silenced the crowd, before the whole band joined back in in chorus. They had everyone joining in during their cover of ‘All the Things She Said’ by t.A.T.u. before ending their set with ‘Balcony’, a single off their recent album ‘GLORY‘.
Photo credit: Bethan Miller
As all the bands wrapped up their sets, everyone flocked to The East (is up) stage for the grande finale. As always, Twenty One Pilots showed off their love of music and sheer talent with their meticulously planned live show. Not a single detail goes amiss when it comes to their performances, always adding more to their intricately created lore and leaving their fanbase pondering about their next move.
Their stage design featured the same set up as the Breach tour on Main stage as well as bringing back their cars set on fire from previous eras as the new B stage and a scaffolding tower with a drum kit atop. They did not hold back when it came to the pyro and CO2 cannons either. The light show and video effects on the big screens matched each song perfectly, elevating the whole experience.
They kept the energy up for the entire two hour set while the whole crowd sang along to every single word, only stopping to hear Josh Dun‘s vocals which were met with gasps each time. What was particularly evident was that everyone felt like part of a big family, despite being such a large crowd and the mutual respect between Twenty One Pilots and their fans allowed them to still interact with a crowd of fifty thousand people while still showing off their personalities and jokey sides to them. This trust allowed them to still carry out key moments of their live shows in a much bigger setting, such as having the crowd hold up platforms for them to stand on multiple times throughout the set.
The small gestures of swapping sunglasses with numerous fans and giving hi-fives on the walk to the B stage and assembling a group of people dressed as Neds to sing ‘chlorine’ with Tyler, reminded everyone that despite being one of the most exciting live acts right now, they still value their fans that helped them to get to this point.
Tyler Joseph showed off his multi-instrumental talents and attention to detail throughout the whole set, creating mash ups between their own songs and many covers including Milky Chance‘s ‘Stolen Dance’, ‘Let It Be’ by The Beatles, Radiohead‘s ‘Creep’ and their cover of ‘Seven Nation Army’ by The White Stripes‘ which had Jack White‘s blessing.
Their set included fan favourites spanning their whole catalogue from ‘Vessel‘ to ‘Breach‘ and even their latest single ‘Drag Path’ which was such an emotional moment with the whole crowd singing the lyrics back. This was topped off by the rain starting at the perfect moment, heightening the emotional catharsis.
Photo credit: Bethan Miller
Twenty One Pilots took the time to pass the torch (both literally and figuratively) onto the next generation of artists. Shouting out every band that played the festival and thanking them before inviting Emi Grace (who is set to open their Ohio Stadium show) back on stage for the live debut of ‘Robot Voices’, which sounded incredible as Emi Grace shredded along on her guitar and fans scrambled onto each other’s shoulders to get a better view.
Josh Dun then got his moment to shine as he climbed to the top of the tower, sporting his All Points East Shorts to perform ‘Drum Show’ up in the sky as the crowd cheered him on. Tyler Joseph also brought one of the security guards on stage to sing the chorus of ‘Ride’ which had everyone chanting “Lucas” before he tore up the stage. Lucas has now revealed on social media that after this experience and both the crowd and Twenty One Pilots being so welcoming, that he wants to pursue music.
This performance is one that will go down in history and consolidated why music, community and passing the torch is so important as well as why they are one of the most exciting acts out there – you just had to be there!