Imagine Dragons
Colonial Life Arena – 7.7.18
Imagine Dragons took to the stage Saturday night to a nearly sold out arena in Columbia, SC. A huge show for the city of Columbia, and for there to be that many people was surprising. The Las Vegas based, alt-rock quartet drew a diverse crowd, comprised of multi generations of people.
Frontman Dan Reynolds energy ascended as soon as the band opened with one of their oldest, and most recognized songs, “Radioactive” which immediately got the crowd energized. Reynolds took off his shirt on the first song, but it is understandable why the singer wants to show off his new, ripped body. Reynold’s body transformation is a product of serious lifestyle changes. For years, Reynolds suffered from a serious auto immune disease, Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) that caused him a great deal of pain. He describes this pain and its effect as, “it was beyond the pain that you feel when it’s just a back ache. It felt like something was drilling my nerves. I couldn’t get on stage, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t sleep at night, I couldn’t perform without standing perfectly still. I couldn’t sit down for more than half an hour.” After fighting for his health for nearly a decade, the healthy 30 year-old singer, lives pain-free, and is enjoying the results of his hard work and lifestyle changes.
The band played a lot of songs off their newest album, Evolve. Imagine Dragon’s Evolve album was at the top of the charts in the beginning of 2018. Within six months, the rock album was already the second largest selling album with 194,000 copies sold. Not to mention, Evolve contains several big hit singles, most notably, “Whatever it Takes” which became the top-selling digital rock song within the first several months of 2018 and had more than 617,000 downloads sold. Also the album’s lead single, “Believer,” exploded in popularity. It has become “the most popular rock streaming song (audio and video streams; 297.2 million streams), and as the top on-demand rock audio song stream (140.4 million) and on-demand rock video stream (156.8 million)” according to Billboard. The album overall generated more than 60 million in sales and keeps growing.
Imagine Dragons put on quite the light display. With laser beams, futuristic displays, and several video screens showing close-ups of the members on stage and of the crowd, their stage presence was nothing short of entertaining. Reynold’s put all his energy into the show, his passion for what he does was undeniable. Reynold’s smiled and engaged  with as many fans as possible from his position on stage, holding and high fiving as many hands as he could. He even walked through the crowd during a couple of points in the show. One of the coolest things about seeing Imagine Dragons live was that each member of the band got their own personal time with the spotlight. The other members walked off stage as a the arena went dark and a single spotlight shined down on their drummer, Daniel Platzman as he played his own drum solo. Imagine Dragon guitarist, Wayne Sermon had a couple of guitar solos throughout the night, but the coolest thing was later in the set when bassist, Ben McKee, walked to the edge of the stage and performed a full minute bass solo. Love for the bassist is alive and well ladies and gentlemen.
Imagine Dragons ended the show on a strong note, the last three songs were some of their greatest hits. They performed Demons, an old banger off their first album, along with their newest hit Thunder and closed out the show on their new biggest single, Believer. The arena released hundreds of white balloons into the air as the show ended in a colorful cloud of confetti and smoke. Â
There are plenty of dates still left to Catch Imagine Dragons on the Evolve Tour.
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