Imagine Dragons make an explosive return to Wells Fargo Center

What an experience this night was. Pouring rain, deafening music, tons of fog, and even more lasers.

Imagine Dragons is a rock band, pure and simple, and their songwriting and anthemic choruses have shot them to the kingdom of Top 40 and the tip top of the Billboard 200 with seemingly immense ease. Rock they do; lead vocalist Dan Reynold’s energy was constant and extremely high throughout his entire set, through the most elated and moody of songs. However, at times the band did seem like it would more be aptly named “Dan Reynolds” and friends; there were several points where Dan was the only one lit on stage, even though Wayne Sermon, Daniel Platzman, and Ben McKee were carrying considerable amounts of weight also, providing vocal harmonies too high for most men their age to reach and guitar/bass battles aplenty.

The night was chock full of highlights, as you’d expect at a concert of this enormity. After I left the photo pit, Imagine Dragons launched into a cover of Alphaville’s timeless “Forever Young,” which was obviously a crowdpleaser. From their own material, “I’m So Sorry” had the crowd on their feet, hands above their heads, and headbanging, and the pit crowd looked almost like waves crashing against the shore. “Summer” was another favorite, a jam that I could definitely imagine hearing while walking along Spruce Street Harbor Park or while driving at night. A brilliant moment of the night was the juxtaposition of “On Top Of The World,” their danciest song from their first album Night Visions, and “Friction,” one of their most characteristically metal songs.

As expected, the most sonically intense moment of the night was their smash-hit song “Radioactive.” A minor disappointment occurred when the band segued into the bridge section, at which point much of the crowd (myself included) thought Kendrick Lamar was going to emerge and perform his verse from the song’s studio version. Sadly, this never came to pass. That said, the song is was nevertheless explosive throughout, featuring much- loved dubstep wobble bass and 4/5 of the band playing giant tom drums. By the end of the song, guitarist Wayne Sermon was out on the platform part of the stage, playing his best solo of the night, with white fill lights and red lasers surrounding him. The live footage on the jumbotrons got trapper by the second, and in that blissful minute, I thought I was at a Muse concert.

Snark aside, Imagine Dragons is fantastic at what they do; they put on a rock show that commands the crowd and has them moving and singing for every second. They’re not my favorite, but it’s doubtless that they have the talent and presence to be someone’s.

Opening for Imagine Dragons were local faves Cruisr, as well as Halsey, a songwriter influenced by equal parts hip hop and 90’s rock. Her voice was powerful, a cross between Zella Day and Eurythmics-era Annie Lennox, and her stage presence, even as an opener, was extremely compelling.