On Tuesday, the second night of Twenty One Pilots’ four-night Boston stint, the duo put their catalog on shuffle, whirling through singles like their swaying 2015 track “Ride” and their churning 2018 track “Jumpsuit” as well as cuts from “Scaled and Icy,” which came out in May. Joseph and Dun decided to promote “Scaled” with a series of residencies where they play around different cities for four nights in Boston they’re at ever-growing venues, playing, in order, the Paradise Rock Club, House of Blues, Agganis Arena, and TD Garden.

The lead single, “Saturday,” is, on its surface, a roller-rink-ready slice of electro-disco, although it has a minor-key moodiness and lyrics that hint at a particularly post-pandemic type of anxiety - ”Lose my sense a time or two/ Weeks feel like days,” Joseph sings. Since breaking through in 2015 with the adulthood-wary anthem “Stressed Out,” which blended a reggae-inspired riddim, wistful yet self-lacerating lyrics, an insistent chorus, and a vocal that hung in the space between dancehall toast and sullen-teen sneer, the pair have welded together outcast-beloved songs into gleaming anthems for dashed romantics and lifelong cynics alike.Įarlier this year the duo released “Scaled and Icy,” which adds some synthpop sheen and a bit of period-appropriate paranoia to its ever-evolving playlist. “Alternative rock” has been an oddly catch-all term for much of the last decade, but if one act summed up what’s turned into its grab-bag idea, it’s the duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, who make up the mega-selling Ohio act Twenty One Pilots.

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