Balu Brigada Opens for Twenty One Pilots for an Electric Night

Twenty One Pilots and their opener Balu Brigada dominated the stage at the United Center Oct. 2, delivering dynamic performances well into the night.

Balu Brigada is an alternative pop band composed of New Zealander brothers Henry and Pierre Beaseley. Shaded by white and red lights, the brothers serenaded the crowd with tracks spanning their entire discography, including an unreleased single.

Beginning with “Moon Man,” Balu Brigada warmed up the crowd with an infectiously groovy melody, matured by waves of reverbed bass.

“But I Do” followed with snappy drum beats and crisp electric guitar strums. “2good” continued the verve of percussion and strings, arching into a falsetto peak.

The fourth track, “Designer,” warmed the arena with lively percussion and a reverbed string, creating an echoing, almost synth-like effect. 

With sprightly energy, Balu Brigada paced the stage — rolling, jumping and running. The onstage workout harmonized well with their unreleased single “The Question,” during which Pierre shredded an enthusiastic guitar solo to the cheering crowd.

“Find a Way” mellowed the setlist with a rich bassline while “Could You Not” brought the energy back with a bold crescendo into a razor-sharp guitar solo.

The band closed with the punchy drum beats and silky electric guitars for their recent single “So Cold.”

“Thank you much,” Henry said, laughing as he realized he forgot the word “very.” “I’m going to pretend that’s something we say in New Zealand — it’s not, but now it is.”

Twenty One Pilots entered with a bang. The stage’s curtains plummeted, revealing drummer Josh Dun beating against his kit amid red strobe lights.

Singer Tyler Joseph then entered in a black jacket, loose black pants and a black and red balaclava, with nubs like kitten ears. 

The pop-rock duo kicked off the night with the chaotic “Overcompensate,” opening with a dissonant blend of eerie synthesizer shrills overtop heavy drums.

Near the song’s end, Joseph approached the crowd and climbed over the barricade. He finished the final notes while standing atop a pyramid of fans, their hands clutching his feet and ankles to support him.

He returned to the stage for “Holding On to You” and “Vignette.” Bright synth-pop transitioned into light drum snaps and soaring synthesizer arcs.

Joseph left the stage soon after “Vignette” concluded, with darkness dropping behind him.

After a minute, blue lights pierced the shadows, revealing the singer now back at the piano for “Car Radio.” As the song ended, he moved to center stage and stood atop a large block. After briefly pausing, he jumped, the lights cutting out as a thud sounded.

Immediately, a spotlight cut across the arena to illuminate Joseph, who closed the song on the arena’s third level, surrounded by fans. To prove his authenticity against the identically-dressed copycat on the stage, he ripped his mask off to the roaring cheers of the crowd.

As Joseph left, TVs on both sides of the stage played a montage of the fans who had been queuing outside that morning. Performing an impromptu acapella of “The Judge,” on-screen fans singing led Joseph into the chorus for his next track.

Returning to the stage in a white t-shirt with a blackened collar, Joseph picked up where the fans left off.

“You’re the judge, oh no / Set me free / I know my soul’s freezing / Hell’s hot for good reason / So please, take me,” Joseph sang.

With Joseph on the ukulele, the duo performed “The Craving (Jenna’s Version),” a slower, stripped-down track. The soft sentimentality was immediately countered by the lively energy of “Tear in My Heart.”

“I have a confession to make — you aren’t our first,” Joseph said, referring to their performance from the prior night. “But you can be our best.”

The crowd roared, seemingly determined to outshine the previous night’s audience.

While singing “Next Semester” and “Routines in the Night,” Joseph and Dun made their way to the B-stages set up within the crowd — platforms which rose once the duo were safely settled on either side of the arena.

Above the crowd, Joseph and Dun performed older songs from their repertoire, including “Addict With a Pen” and “Forest,” moving into the newer track “Mulberry Street.”

After “Mulberry Street,” the platform lowered, and a spotlight cut to Dun in the crowd, holding a lit torch. 

Dun approached Joseph and, silently, the duo walked back to the stage together, where black curtains dropped to reveal towering, gray cylinders — a bleak, dystopian cityscape. Flames erupted in front of the two, who froze to watch the dancing fire.

The performance was a reference to the worldbuilding the band has imbued into their albums “Blurryface,” “Trench” and “Clancy.”

Blurryface, the titular character of their 2015 album, is the antagonist, while Clancy, the titular character of their 2024 album, is the protagonist, Joseph said in an interview with Z100 New York.

In front of the flames, Joseph and Dun performed songs from across the three albums, including “Navigating” and “My Blood.”

During “Oldies Station,” Joseph was left standing alone on stage, ukulele in hand as he softly strummed the song’s mellow melody.

Partway through the performance, Joseph fumbled the lyrics, cueing easy laughter from the crowd, who sang the lyrics even through his slip-up. While reorienting himself, Joseph turned to Dun, who had recently reentered the stage, and paused.

“Are you eating something right now?” Joseph asked Dun. 

Dun nodded in confirmation and told Joseph his snack of choice — a bagel.

“You learn something new every day,” Joseph said. “During this part, Josh goes backstage and eats a bagel.”

Joseph and Dun promenaded back and forth across the stage for “Lavish,” swaggering to the sharp quiver of the vibraphone and the heavy thud of the drum.

Dun, now shirtless, threw his top into the crowd backwards, like one would with a wedding bouquet.

The next song, “Ride,” followed Joseph back out the B-stage in the crowd, where he asked for assistance from the “newer generation of Twenty One Pilots fans.” A young boy in a bleach-tie-dyed black shirt helped to close out the song’s chorus.

Ending the regular set was “Paladin Strait,” during which security personnel lifted a drum kit on a baseboard and passed it into the crowd, where fans supported the set from below. Dun climbed onto the kit to continue playing, paralleling Joseph’s fan-made pyramid from “Overcompensate.”

The encore closed with four songs and a cacophony of fireworks, smoke and flames. “Jumpsuit,” “Midwest Indigo,” “Stressed Out” and “Trees” concluded the night.

During the final song, “Trees,” the pit was asked to form a circle where Joseph and Dun set up shop on slightly raised platforms. On a signal, the fans were allowed to rush back in and surround the duo.

Over 25 songs and one bagel break later, the pop-rock duo left the stage with a promise of “See you next time.”