Twenty One Pilots BREACH: Listening Party at Sold Out Vinyl Records

Encore Echos EditorialAlbum Listening Party

Sep 7

By the time doors cracked open at Englewood’s Sold Out Vinyl Records on 9/6/2025, the line of fans had already stretched around the parking lot and almost into the adjacent neighborhood. Some had been camped out since 9 a.m., seven hours before the first notes of BREACH would even play. The prize? A shot at one of six ultra-rare picture disc vinyl variants, the kind of collector bait that justifies skipped breakfasts and numb legs on the sidewalk.

The shop handed out a few perks for the early birds as well, BREACH-yellow wristbands and posters, before moving to a raffle that determined who else would get the golden ticket to order the exclusive discs. By 6 p.m., the room was packed tight with upwards of 50 fans inside and with limited space dozens more spilling out the door, in anticipation and hopes to hear the new album early.

When the album officially kicked off, Tyler Joseph himself (well, his recorded voice) served as our narrator for the evening. His messages were short but warm: thank-yous to the fans, praise for record stores still holding it down for physical media and community, and little breadcrumbs about the songs we were about to hear. It almost felt like he was in the room with us, nodding along and really opening up.

As singles “Drum Show” and “The Contract” hit, the mood shifted. The listening party wasn’t just passive, it was communal. You could see people silently mouthing the words, fists clenched, wanting to scream but holding back out of respect. Others closed their eyes, soaking in lyrics, while some bounced in place like they couldn’t contain themselves.

And then there were the stories, straight from Tyler:

“City Walls” – He joked he might’ve broken a rib shooting the music video.

“RAWFEAR” – His personal lyrical favorite on the album. He highlights the lines in the bridge: “learning all that really matters is a slow and painful lesson, it is not pass or fail, but a poisonous progression you try to micro dose to immunity but you’ll never ever get it.” The opening screams? That’s his daughters, after he told them: “Girls, scream at me as loud as you can.” and capturing the magic on his phone.

“Drum Show” – Originally stuck in demo limbo until Tyler rewrote it in one six-hour burst. Josh’s reaction, “Hey, how’d you do that?”, still stands as one of Tyler’s favorite compliments from him.

“Garbage” – A deliberate return of the piano to the forefront: “I felt like it had taken a backseat for a while.”
“Downstairs” – Built on playful banter with Josh about where to put the emphasis when saying the title.
“Robot Voices” – Features a collaboration with indie band Blanket Approval. Tyler loved their bridge on their track “My Soft Spots My Robots” so much he thought: “This should really be the chorus.” giving birth to the song.
“Center Mass” – His favorite track on the album, though he admitted: “You won’t like it right away… this isn’t gonna go well. But you’ll come around.”
“Cottonwood” – Written for/about his late grandfather. The drifting “white fuzzy stuff” of the tree reminded him of his grandfather’s hair helping him get through the tough loss.
“One Way” – Contains one of his favorite bridges on the whole record.
“Days Lie Dormant” – Features a rare key change down, something he’d never tried before.
“Tally” – Wouldn’t have made the cut without Josh insisting it had to be on the record. So thank you Josh!
“Intentions” – The closer comes with a final easter egg: “If you play it backwards, you might hear something familiar.” (As we don’t have access to recordings or the record at the time of writing, this is something we’re very excited to check out upon the official release).

By the end, BREACH felt less like an album reveal or listening party and more like an intimate diary read-aloud. Tyler gave us just enough behind-the-scenes detail to deepen the impact without killing the mystique and allowing us to make this album ours. His final words were a reminder of how rare these nights are, strangers with commonality huddled together in a small record store, celebrating something bigger than themselves.

So yeah, no skips, plenty of gut punches, and a ton of room to make these songs your own. BREACH is already shaping up to be another heavy hitter in the Twenty One Pilots universe (as always), and for those of us at Sold Out Vinyl Records that night, it was the kind of listening experience you don’t forget and crave more of.

Huge thanks to Joe and the Sold Out Vinyl crew for pulling this off, support your local record stores, because without them, nights like this don’t happen.