Some bands have merch, others have fans who make their own. While there were plenty of official t-shirts, hats and sash-like Clancy stoles throughout the crowd, many fans came with their own homebrewed homages. There were acres of red and yellow tape slapped across shirts and pants in reference to the shifting, colored-coded Blurryface palette, as well as hands and necks dipped in black paint and plenty of folks in red velvet Bishop robes and balaclava-like masks. Some wore the white horns seen on the head of Ned, the alien-like creature from the “Chlorine” video, and a few brave souls wore full-on Ned furry costumes on the 85-degree night. The sea of costumes and DIY tributes gave the show an every-day-is-Halloween-like feeling, once again bringing the faithful together in a massive, loving we-accept-you-as-you-are group hug.

The night’s second debut came just three songs in with the new album’s emotional “RAWFEAR,” which, though just six days in the world, was met with a full-song sing-along from the Clique. As Joseph sang directly into an old-fashioned video camera mounted on a tripod — which gave the accompanying visual a heightened intimacy — fans eagerly shouted out the “and you go, ooh, ooh, ooh” refrain as if it was their new national anthem. The performance ended with a touching short video filmed just hours before of Clique members showing off their signs, elaborate costumes and communing with their chosen family outside TQL in the lead-up to the show.

One of the hallmarks of 21P shows is the, literal, closeness of the band and their fans. This usually extends to both Joseph and Dun climbing onto mini plywood platforms held up by the Clique to play the drums or sing directly to them. During the emo funk Blurryface favorite “Lane Boy,” Joseph did just that, clambering from the main stage onto a office desk-sized platform to sing a portion song, putting his safety in his supporter’s hands, with no fear that they’d let him down as he sang, “my creativity’s only free when I’m playing shows.”

Before digging into the Clancy song “Routines in the Night,” Joseph did a slow walk through the crowd, slapping hands and giving some extra love to some of his most ardent admirers, including a youngster in a white shirt with “Clancy” written on it in backwards script. In a tightly choreographed show, Joseph seemed in no hurry to make it to the satellite stage near the other end of the stadium, taking his time and basking in the love all around. And then, it was on, as he and Dun rocked the B stage alongside the “Heavydirtysoul” video car, which erupted into flames midway through “Routines.”

After chest-shaking runs through the fan-favorites “Polarize” and “Chlorine,” both men ambled back to the main stage, with Dun doing a slow march with a flaming torch in one hand and a huge Cincinnati banner — covered in the signatures of Clique members — in the other. At one point, the flame went out and Dun seemed momentarily confused until a crew member grabbed it from his hand and returned it second later, fully alight again. Then, with a big smile, he draped the banner over his bass drum as he cued up the titanic beat from the Trench banger “Jumpsuit.”

Twenty One Pilots shows always have their fair share of pyro. But during the Blurryface rager “Heavydirtysoul,” the band took things to a new level with flames that lit up the night sky. As the sonic bass boom rattled ribcages and Joseph speed-rapped the song’s verses, towering plumes of fire erupted from the top of two 50-foot-tall sound towers on either side of the stadium floor, blazing up the night sky as equally hot fireballs shot up from the main stage along with sparkler-like fireworks. By the end, Joseph was laying on his back, seemingly exhausted from the display while Dun jumped up and flexed his formidable biceps in triumph.

“You plan out a show and you work on it and you try to make it the best you can,” Joseph told the crowd before the debut of the new song “Garbage,” while taking time to thank the Clique for showing up and showing out. Warning that it was the first time they were playing the song live, he urged them to sing along if they knew the words, or just guess if they didn’t. What do you think happened? Not only did they know it, but they shouted out the refrain “I feel like garbage” and the song ending coda, “Don’t give up on me” with so much joy and enthusiasm that Joseph couldn’t help breaking out into a huge smile. He went over to high-five Dun in celebrating, joking that they wanted to take a celebratory selfie with the crowd and post it “on MySpace.”

“You have no idea what you gave me tonight,” Joseph said afterwards, noting that with that many people on hand there were bound to be some who didn’t know the song, though there was scant evidence to back up his fears.

For the penultimate main-set song, Blurryface’s reggae-tinged “Ride,” Joseph once again made his way across the stadium floor to an even smaller satellite stage near the soundboard, bass guitar in hand to perform the crowd favorite. After slipping over to a sister mini stage on the other side of the stadium he did the walk back while finger-tapping the song’s rhythm on the neck with just his left hand and asked if anyone wanted to join him on the main stage for the throat-shredding chorus.

The singer picked out a grade schooler in a red 21P shirt and yellow band merch and asked if he knew the words. The preternaturally confident young man said yes and after being fitted with a mic pack, wireless mic and headphone he proceeded to absolutely rip the throat-shredding chorus as if he’d been in the band his whole life. Afterwards, the Clique shouted his name in unison as his proud family scooped him up with looks of pure joy and amazement on their faces.

Josh Dun is the silent, but bruising member of 21P. But when the band tucked into the final song in the main set for the live debut of the bombastic Breach single “Drum Show,” his voice was suddenly everything. With the accompanying video on the big screens glitching out like an old VHS tape, the crowd absolutely lost their minds when Dun sang his sweet verse on the song, which marks his recorded vocal debut. “I’ve been this way/ I want to change/ I’ve been this way/ I wan to change,” he sang, nearly drowned out by the echoing vocals and ecstatic howls from the crowd.

He then ran out to the crowd and climbed onto a plywood board with a full drum kit and proceeded to absolutely crush the song’s giant drum break as the pit Clique held him up and reveled in being so close to his chest-thumping energy.

The group’s encore opened with the live debut of the moody “City Walls,” followed by the fan favorite encore staple from Vessel, “Guns For Hands,” the triumphant Blurryface single “Stressed Out” and the traditional show-closing Vessel ballad “Trees.” At first, Joseph teased the crowd by joking that he normally “hates” Cincinnati — his city’s traditional MLS soccer rival — but on this night is was his “second favorite” Ohio town because city leaders had told him he could break the 11 p.m. curfew as the show leaked over the set end time.

He then instructed the crowd to open a reverse mosh pit on the floor to make room for a small mobile stage as he and Dun climbed aboard for the song, as the mass of humanity quickly rushed up to get as close as humanly possible. “I can feel your breath/ I can feel my death/ I want to know you,” he crooned as the Clique backed him up in full voice and jumped up and down in unison on the “la-la, la-la” part. And then the night ended with a shower of red confetti and fireworks blasting from the stadium roof as the Clique moved out into the night singing and smiling, until next time.