Twenty One Pilots bring the backflips to you at Hangout Fest.

The heat here on the beautiful sandy beaches of Gulf Shores is so intense that it's caused me to sweat in dark and impressive places, but this beach is so beautiful that I don't even care. (Thank GOD for those frozen lemonades -- I think they're saving lives out here.) Not to put too fine a point on it, but the sun really loves Alabama and live music so much that I'm pretty sure it's elected to vacation here at Hangout Fest. But speaking of the heat here at Hangout Fest, there was no hotter scene at Day 1 of the three-day festival of surf, sun, beautiful beaches, beautiful people, and, most importantly, live music than the scene at Twenty One Pilots' performance in the Hangout Fest Boom Boom Tent.

Around this time last year, Twenty One Pilots was playing house shows. But the crowd they drew at Hangout Fest looked like this:

And it wasn't even lunch yet.

But did I mention that at this time this year, they're, you know, opening up for Fall Out Boy on their arena tour? Twenty One Pilots are definitely kind of a big deal. And if you've seen them perform hits like "Car Radio," "Holding On To You" and "Guns For Hands," you’re well aware that each song is like its own piece of pounding, passionate, adrenaline-packed performance art, blending Twenty One Pilots' signature blend of skateboarding moves (minus the board), inadvisable yet perfectly executed daredevil acts like scaling scaffolding and backflipping off of drum rises, and melodic rap-rock post-punk moves that feel like younger, nimbler second comings of Zack De la Rocha and Anthony Kiedis. You've seen them drum simultaneously on trampolines hoisted up by audience members, right? And have you seen anyone else ever do that live? Right. No.

Watch Twenty One Pilots do a perfect backflip at the Hangout Fest, and watch their Hangout Fest performances after the jump!

So, for their Hangout Fest performance, we gave Twenty One Pilots a Go Pro camera -- one of those small cameras you can affix to your chest or helmet -- to see a show through the eyes of Josh and Tyler. And naturally, that meant backflipping. And naturally that meant nailing it. Whether you were watching it live here at Alabama, streaming it at home, or seeing it through their eyes (or lens), Twenty One Pilots pulled off one of the hottest, sickest moves I've seen so far at Hangout, and the festival's only just begun. Your move, Tom Petty.

+ Watch Twenty One Pilots do a backflip at the Hangout Fest, and see them perform "Holding On To You," "Car Radio," and "Trees" live at the 2013 Hangout Fest:

Photo credit: MTV