{"id":580173,"date":"2026-07-11T09:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T09:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/580173\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T09:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T09:40:11","slug":"twenty-one-pilots-live-at-mad-cool-alt-rockers-play-their-hearts-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/580173\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty One Pilots live at Mad Cool: alt-rockers play their hearts out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mad Cool<\/a> turned on a dime tonight (July 10). Spain sealed their triumph over Belgium in the World Cup midway through Kings of Leon<\/a>\u2019s set on the main stage, leading the Followills to precede \u2018Use Somebody\u2019 with ecstatic visuals declaring \u201cESPA\u00d1A HA GANADO!\u201d (\u201cSpain won!\u201d). A state of mass euphoria ensued, with punters spontaneously breaking out into a chant of \u2018Seven Nation Army\u2019. The Kings were already cruising towards festival victory, but this kicked them into hyperspace.<\/p>\n

That excitement decidedly spills over into Twenty One Pilots<\/a>\u2019 bravura headline show on the same stage immediately afterwards, as the Ohio alt-rock innovators close the night with a set that packs in pyro, fireworks and death-defying stunts. Not that they really need the boost: Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun have essentially taken over Iberdrola Music all day, their merch-clad fans \u2013 aka the Skeleton Clique \u2013 flooding the site in such vast numbers that it felt like you were walking among a religious cult.<\/p>\n

One lad wandered into the Pixies<\/a> crowd earlier with his neck painted black, a reference to Blurryface, a figure at the heart of the band\u2019s complex lore. Or maybe he just needed a good shower on day three of the festival. In any case, when Joseph roars, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna give you everything we\u2019ve got tonight!\u201d, it\u2019s far from boilerplate festival crowd work \u2013 it\u2019s a statement of intent and possibly the Pilots\u2019 entire raison d\u2019etre.<\/p>\n

The duo take absolutely no chances, stuffing their small hours set (they come on at half midnight) with one hook after another. There\u2019s even a section where they lead a singalong of Cher<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Believe\u2019 and, yes, \u2018Seven Nation Army\u2019 \u2013 the latter introduced by a video of Jack White<\/a> giving them his blessing. \u201cCongratulations on your win tonight,\u201d Joseph yells, prompting an ear-splitting roar from the audience.<\/p>\n

This crowd-pleasing approach says a lot about the group. For all that their music is steeped in enough narrative to fill several hundred branches of Games Workshop, as the lyrics concern a character named Clancy battling a bunch of bad bastards called the Bishops, this is also just an epic arena show that anyone can appreciate.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mad Cool 2026. CREDIT: Javier Bragado<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be a card-carrying member of the Skeleton Clique, for example, to appreciate the festival-ready chant of \u2018heavydirtysoul\u2019, or the moment when Dun climbs a huge ladder to batter the drum kit atop a precipitous tower of scaffolding. Not to be outdone, Joseph scales the viewing platform opposite the stage, standing on its edge as he sing-songs through the cod-reggae of \u2018Ride\u2019. After that daredevil Russian couple made headlines with their Empire State Building stunt earlier this month, you half expect him to get down on one knee and propose to someone up there.<\/p>\n

So, yes, this is a nail-biter of a set, which begins and ends with Joseph standing on a disc that\u2019s being held up by fans in the front few rows. For any other band, that would be the most noteworthy part of the night; for these guys, it\u2019s just another dizzying combination play. One-nil to Twenty One Pilots.<\/p>\n

Twenty One Pilots played:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Overcompensate\u2019
\u2018The Contract\u2019
\u2018Center Mass\u2019
\u2018Shy Away\u2019
\u2018Heathens\u2019
\u2018Next Semester\u2019
\u2018One Way\u2019 (with Milky Chance\u2019s \u2018Stolen Dance\u2019 in the bridge)
\u2018Tear in My Heart\u2019
\u2018Jumpsuit\u2019 (with first verse and chorus of \u2018City Walls\u2019 in the bridge)
\u2018Nico and the Niners\u2019
\u2018Heavydirtysoul\u2019
\u2018Drum Show\u2019
\u2018RAWFEAR\u2019
\u2018Drag Path\u2019
\u2018Doubt\u2019
\u2018Ride\u2019
\u2018Tally\u2019 (with a snippet of Cher\u2019s \u2018Believe\u2019 in the bridge)
\u2018Seven Nation Army\u2019
\u2018Stressed Out\u2019
\u2018Trees\u2019<\/p>\n

NME is the official media partner of Mad Cool\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mad Cool turned on a dime tonight (July 10). Spain sealed their triumph over Belgium in the World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,19,17,337,4513,2384,6318],"class_list":["post-580173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-pop","tag-rap","tag-rock"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116900690162925428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}