I’m going to start by being honest. At the beginning, I was a fan of Imagine Dragons, and I’ll still sing to newer songs on the radio, but somewhere along the line I discovered that first graders unanimously liked the band, and I that turned me off hardcore. Sure, I’m a hipster in that way, but selling out just really turns me off. So, when I heard however many months back that Imagine Dragons were going to basically be performing in my backyard for the Pro Football Hall of Fame week, I briefly looked into getting tickets. And then I saw those prices.
But fate has a way of working its magic, and one of my really good friends had the hook-up last minute! So I went, and I had a grand old time! It was the closest to a VIP experience I’ve ever had, so that meant close parking, shuttle golf carts, unlimited food and drinks, and oh yeah…fourth row floor seats! The closest I’ve ever been to the stage for a name that big was four years ago when I saw One Direction (no regrets!). It was awesome!
Despite the fact that there were way too many children (Dan Reynolds apologized for swearing at one point), a small thunderstorm delay, and a little bit of rain, nothing got too pushed back and the evening was still very pleasant. I think opener, Bishop Briggs, got shorted on her set, but she made the most of her time belting out her radio hits with swagger. Since I’ve seen her live once before, I wasn’t too disappointed, and she seemed genuinely giddy being able to play this venue.
Imagine Dragons took the stage a little while later and opened with their mega-hit “Believer,” and then pretty much belted out hit after hit for the rest of the set until they ended with their first mega-hit “Radioactive.” Front man Reynolds took a few beats in between some songs to talk about self-love, mental illness stigma, and a moment to acknowledge the horrendous shootings in El Paso and Dayton. All in all, I recognized about 90 percent of the songs played, and was slightly disappointed that “Shots” and “Sucker for Pain” were shortened, acoustic renditions. Ultimately, I was nervous that the band wasn’t going to sound all that great, but the certainly proved me wrong!
An A+ experience for sure!
