Attended on assignment from Concert Addicts who published the original article here.
Photos here by Jamie Taylor.
Photos here by Jamie Taylor.
I wasn’t expecting to go to the Imagine
Dragons show at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom on Thursday, March 14. In the
‘bridesmaid, never a bride’ sense, I was someone else’s back-up. Fortunately
for me (and I hope all is well with my colleague), the stars aligned and I got
to experience a pretty special show.
Before we get to Imagine Dragons, Nico
Vega, a 5-piece from California, got the show started. The floor was about ¾
full by the time Nico Vega started and when the singer and guitarist walked on-stage,
there were a number of enthusiastic “woooos”
from the crowd. The song they performed to just acoustic guitar and vocals was
called Bang Bang. For the second
song, a drummer and bassist join the two already on stage. It was a vaguely
ska-sounding rock song featuring a lot of screeches, yeahs, etc. but not a lot
of words that I could understand sufficiently enough to do a lyric search OR,
the lyrics I was able to discern didn’t yield any results either. For this song
and most of the other ones, fail.
The singer has a great set of pipes,
similar to Bjork at times and can also sing with a Grace Slick-like edge, but
rather poor diction. For the next piece the singer did some on-the-spot vocal
loops to create vocal layers for a song about her childhood. It started out
rather quiet and built to full-on rock. The singer uses stage levels quite a
bit – there were three oil drums lined along the front of the stage (stage
left, centre, stage right) that she likes to climb onto quite a bit (and the
drums in back). In painted-on leather-looking pants, that can’t have been easy.
She has a big voice and as a band they have a really big sound. She can do the
vocal gymnastics, she has great energy and presence, and she sometimes even functions
as a second drummer wearing what looks like a tenor drum and playing it with
mallets. Coal Miner’s Song (Yay! I
found a song title!) started a capella
and reminded me of the Irish ballad She
Walked Through the Fair. In the meantime, the other three members have
taken up position at each of the oil drums with drum sticks and when they start
she accompanies them on the tenor drum. At this point, it’s only percussion and
it sounds like pure energy before the musicians go back to their regular instruments
to finish the song.
I did like this band, quite a bit actually
– they’ve got polish, they really showcased themselves with the 9 songs they
chose to fill their 45-minute slot; I just wish I’d actually been able to
understand what was being sung.
Imagine Dragons – what can I say? They
impressed me. The 5-6’ vertical drum alone made me curious. There’s applause
from the get-go and the excitement builds palpably before this touring 5-piece
band based in Las Vegas go on stage. You can tell the difference, because
that’s when the screams erupt. Imagine Dragons begin in half-darkness with 3
sets of drums against a chord-heavy synth track. Then, the electricity gets
turned on and the audience participation for the first song Round and Round is just buoyant. A
guitar solo begins Amsterdam and the
audience participation again is a fully engaged one. Singer Dan Reynolds
reciprocates – he looks at his audience, he’s not one to stare into a neutral
point in the middle of the crowd – he does look like he’s trying to make eye contact
with as many people as he can. Vocally, I can detect a little “Brandon Flowers
School of Vocals” – not that there’s anything wrong with that. Tiptoe is full of echoes and sing-alongs
for the audience who take advantage of every opportunity to show their
appreciation. A genuinely floored Reynolds asks “How do you people even know about us?” of the crowd. His only
answer is yet another round of deafening applause.
Like the Cincinatti band Walk the Moon, it
looks as though this frontman may also have started his career as a drummer and
now that he’s singing really likes to keep a hand in the percussion department.
Hear Me was the next song and it
sounds a bit Killers-ish in its pop-rock anthem qualities and overall vibe.
At this point, only 4 songs in, I am sold on
this band. A CD of theirs must be bought. End of. They are capital G, double O,
capital D GOOD! They remember when they played in Vancouver the last time.
Reynolds describes it as having played across the street and looking at the
Commodore and wishing they could some day play there. He thanks the fans, this
show sold out very quickly, and acknowledges that everyone in the room really
wanted to be there.
Cha-Ching
starts off with a falsetto vocal and is definitely
a rhythm-based song with 3 sets of drums in use in addition to bass guitar. I
really enjoy that they are multi-instrumentalists. For Rocks I like the double percussion sound. The drums are the focus
of the bridge and the audience is encouraged to clap along (try and stop them).
For Radioactive the drums around
Reynolds have been rearranged to surround him: a set of multiple drums (smaller
than a tenor drum but not a set of bongos either) behind, the massive 5-6
footer to his left, a smaller 3’ (ish) vertical drum to his right and a
different kind of drum in front. The band is fully immersed in the song as is
the audience. They sing along from start to finish, they get the chorus solo,
but they are with this band 100%. I have rarely felt like I want a video
recording of any song as it was performed live, but if I had to choose one,
this one would definitely be at or near the top of the list. Reynolds pretty
much killed one of his mallets when the felt wrapping started to come undone.
During the song, Reynolds and bassist Ben McKee (who is also the primary back-up
vocalist) play both sides of the massive 6-footer. Guitarist Wayne Sermon takes
the 3-footer beside Reynolds while drummer Dan Platzman is on the multi-set
behind Reynolds until it’s time for him to jump back behind his kit and
Reynolds takes over on them. I lost track of keyboardist Ryan Walker during
this one. This song alone almost brought the house down. It was most definitely
a WOW experience.
After a high like that, it was time to
bring things down a notch or two. Reynolds and Sermon stay onstage with a
spotlight on Sermon and the other three leave for the next song, Lay Me Down. It’s a gorgeous song and it
would’ve been so much better had the majority of the people in the balcony
behind me where I was sitting not been so busy being rude and talking
throughout the entire song. Hello? Just because you can now hear yourself talk
doesn’t mean you should. Anywho, the other band members return for Bleeding Out and it’s bassist McKee’s
turn for a spotlight. Tool would be proud; he puts the guitar back into bass
guitar. The spotlight then switches to Sermon and as the song continues the
audience gets to finish choruses. Demons
is next and on the whole I thought it was a bit short, but certainly not on
crowd participation. As far as ballads go, it’s a pretty intense one lyrically
and the melodic repetition puts the emphasis squarely on those lyrics. Brief
conversation with the audience: this is YOUR night, no one’s judging you here.
A license to let loose and have fun.
For Underdog
it’s not just back to double percussion but also for Nico Vega to be invited
back on stage and they grab every drum and mallet/drumstick they can find.
Apparently it’s the first time they’d done that – they should keep it up as the
tour continues because it worked. Nico Vega leaves a bit awkwardly and then
Reynolds leaves for a brief spell. It’s the other Dan’s turn in the literal
spotlight for a drum solo with the other band members supporting. Reynolds
returns again for On Top of the World,
a bit of a jumper for him and the audience. It’s impressive to the band as well
I think because after the song ends Platzman takes a photo of the
super-enthusiastic crowd. It’s Time
is predictably a full-on audience crowd pleaser. They take over for the chorus
and the band admits to being overwhelmed. There’s talk of beginning a love
affair with Vancouver and the intent to come back again soon – the audience is
loudly in support of this idea (and I really hope it comes to pass). At just
after 11 the band leave and are persuaded back for an encore (they’re done by
quarter after 11). The encore choice is Nothing
Left to Say and it aptly finishes with a nice big juicy instrumental part.
There is just so much love in this room,
it’s really quite remarkable. Reynolds made an odd comment about it ‘sucking
for them in the US right now’ and he appreciated how people parted with their
money to be there tonight (the couple I sat with had bought their tickets
through a third-party reseller and cost them $150 total – a price tag they
thought was worth every penny). I can’t imagine why things would be sucky – they’re
sooo gooood! I went into that show mildly curious about what their other songs
sounded like (knowing only It’s Time, Demons,
and Radioactive) and before the show
was halfway over I wanted to be in the front row for the next one.
Again, thanks to my colleague for affording
me the opportunity of being here. This night, this show was exceptional!
Setlist:
Round
and Round
Amsterdam
Tiptoe
Hear
Me
Cha-Ching
Rocks
Radioactive
Lay
Me Down
Bleeding
Out
Demons
Underdog
On
Top of the World
It’s
Time
Encore:
Nothing
Left to Say
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