You may have heard the name “Blurryface” creeping into your Spotify playlists over the last few weeks, and with good reason — it’s not only the title of alternative hip-hop band Twenty One Pilots’ latest album release, but also the name of lead singer Tyler Joseph’s alter-ego. Joseph explained to MTV News in April that the concept represents all the bad, the negative and the insecure about his own personality — but with a face and a name, so he can confront his demons head-on.

While the idea is generally a bit unconventional, Twenty One Pilots fans are more than used to the stray from the mainstream. In fact, the “Clique,” as they’ve been coined, embraces the band’s passionate representation of mental illness in its music. Joseph and his fellow drummer Josh Dun, both Ohio, natives, consider their music a homing ground for kids with suicidal tendencies, depression and any and every brand of neurodivergence.

“Being transparent is important — onstage and in songwriting,” Joseph said to Luna Guitars Magazine in May, “because it’s a part of making the first move toward something that’s difficult to talk about. Then you hope that people listening make the second move.”

Perhaps this is why the Sumtur Amphitheater in Papillion was packed on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 23, despite the gloomy drizzle and the sea of yellow ponchos. The storm was predicted to be so strong that the opening acts of the concert, including  indie pop band Echosmith, were actually cancelled on short-notice and the main act was moved to the front of the schedule.

There’s a distinct, unique energy to any Twenty One Pilots concert, and I think either first-timers or debut-album “Vessel” vets would heartily agree with that. There’s a certain reverence or worshipfulness to the crowd-goers, amplified when merged together. Maybe it’s something about the way Joseph raps at a lightning-like staccato with hundreds of people echoing him, rapping in exact syntax. That sort of recital takes a certain level of devotion, a certain measure of practice and a desire to know the songs’ words inside-out.

The rainfall increased steadily as Joseph and Dun moved through their “Blurryface” set, despite some nervous side-stage tittering from tech crewmembers checking over the electrical wires. 

The weather didn’t put any damper on the high spirits of fans, though — girls were dancing and singing in the open rain and hundreds of people eagerly crowded the stage even as the rain picked up.

About an hour into the show, Joseph was pulled aside and informed the band had 20 minutes tops before the rain would get too bad to perform.

“We’re gonna try to play as much as we can, to give you our all,” Joseph told the crowd. The fans still there, I guessed, would stay even if threatened with a hurricane.

“I’d say the only way [the rain] worsened it was that they had to cut a few songs and the opening acts,” Arts & Sciences senior Patrick Bruck said. “But other than that, I think it actually created a cool environment because we all just got soaked and rocked out.”

At any other concert, the pouring rain would have been annoying — maybe even miserable — if only for the fact that several songs didn’t get performed. 

But there was something about the way the stage-lights caught the pouring rain as the band members were lifted above the crowd, banging out the beats to the final song on bass drums, that felt cathartic. Hundreds of hands waved in the air, soaked with rain, as the band fought out its last drenched 20 minutes. 

It felt like unity.

Twenty One Pilots lead singer Tyler Joseph performs while masked — a band tradition at every concert. “It kind of represents this idea of…a band that has faces that are represented by individuals on stage, but then also trying to create something that’s a little more faceless that can represent a group of people,” Joseph told the Associated Press.

Courtesy of Kmeron / Flickr Creative Commons