1. I surprised my 14 year old daughter with tickets to see Imagine Dragons and I don’t know if she was more excited to go to the concert or miss swim practice.
2. 50% of the audience was under the age of 18. The lack of profanity honored that demographic...so did the short beer lines (too bad I don't like beer).
3. K.Flay’s set was too long and Grouplove’s set was too short.
4. Grouplove played Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage”…and then had to tell the audience the song they just played was called “Sabotage” by Beastie Boys…never a good sign. (see #2)
5. Twenty minutes of classical music during the headliner's set up was weird. This “in between” music is supposed to set the mood for the rest of the night so I’m not sure what Imagine Dragons was going for here.
6. Remind me to tell you about the time in 2012 when my parents ate breakfast with Imagine Dragons in the middle of nowhere Kansas. The long story ends with my parents teaching them how to make eggs in the microwave and telling the band their daughter is friends with Mumford and Sons (We’re not friends…I’ve only met them…oh well).
7. The music was good. The lead singer, Dan Reynolds, sounded great. They seemed genuinely happy to be there. So why did the crowd sing more of the second song, ”It’s Time” than the band?
8. The 14 tv screens and the glowing stalagmites did not add to the show. I was expecting more from the production value side of things.
9. Every 4-5 songs the band put their instruments down and walked off stage. Sometimes there were prerecorded voice overs or video images, but it was awkward every single time. I wish I could be less harsh, but it ruined the flow of the show. I take notes through concerts now. It’s how I manage to remember what happened when I sit down in front of my computer the next morning. Five separate times I noted “that’s odd” and “strange transition” and “weird break between songs” and “where are they going” and “we lost out on 10 minutes of music.”
10. Their best songs were meant to be sung in a chorus with fans. The song “Yesterday” landed well with memorable hooks, “No tomorrow without a yesterday.”
11. Before “Demons” the stage went black for 30 seconds and then the lights came back up. Was it “second night of the tour cobwebs” or was it done on purpose?
12. The guitar skills of Berklee College Of Music graduate, Wayne Sermon, shown through.
13. They reached the climax of the show with the crowd favorite, “Top of the World.” A fun party song complete with oversized inflatable balls bouncing around the crowd. Then they walked off stage. Again.
14. Playing acoustic instruments in the middle of the crowd was ok. Just ok. Not overwhelming.
15. “Radioactive” had the expected drum/percussion break that they are know for, but the stage hands/guitar techs did not know their marks at all. I could easily see 5-10 guys running around like chickens with their heads cut off and once again, it took away from the music.
16. When you are a band that is so heavily produced in the studio, you run the risk of it not sounding the same live. Imagine Dragons did not have trouble reproducing the recorded sound, but they missed the mark on show production value.
17. We still had a great time.
