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“This next part is my dad’s favourite, and not because of the songs,” Joseph said, taking a seat at the piano, and encouraged the crowd to do the same as Smithereens and Neon Gravestones slowed things down.

By that point it was apparent that each song carried a different stylized theme and ended in darkness, with the concert stringing together a series of vignettes rather than one song flowing seamlessly into the next.

The effect left attendees wondering not only which song would come next, but how it would be presented, what lighting effect a drum beat would make or how the chorus would shift the visuals, producing an anticipation rarely seen or validated among the current crop of bland, by-the-numbers concerts, where an artist merely appearing makes up most of the appearance.

But not Twenty One Pilots, playing to a crowd that tilted younger, with roughly two-thirds of those in attendance under age 21, several of them decked out camouflage with splashes of neon yellow. They swooned, screamed and sang along for more than two hours, running through a diverse catalogue of hits that continues to grow.

The crowd also got to participate in the action several times, holding Dun and his entire drum kit aloft on a floating platform for an all-too-brief Seven Nation Army cover, and doing the same for Joseph later on, clutching him by the ankles as he belted out the band’s fitting early hit Holding On To You.

The duo both stood on the crowd to end the night, pounding bass drums and turning the arena into a laser-soaked revelry of sight and sound with a blazing car backdrop as confetti cannons blasted off for the soulful closer, Trees.

And just when you began to think the scene was too much to take in, it was over, with Joseph reminding us “we’re Twenty One Pilots and so are you — we’ll see you next time!,” leaving the crowd satisfied and, unlike the weather, without a single complaint.

REVIEW

Twenty One Pilots

With: Bear Hands

Where: Rogers Place

When: Wednesday, May 15

rgarner@postmedia.com