To say that the past two years have been good to the alternative rock band known as Imagine Dragons would be an understatement. It has been an unfathomable ride for vocalist Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, and drummer Daniel Platzman. In the last four years, they have gone from students at a crossroad in their lives to an arena filling rock powerhouse. Collecting American Music Awards for favorite alternative artist, a Grammy for best rock performance, and a Teen Choice Award for their breakthrough hit single “Radioactive”, their accomplishments in a year are what most would hope for in a lifetime. Riding this wave of success in the new year the 4-piece band are on closing stretch of ‘Into The Night Tour’ with special guests Nico Vega and The Naked and Famous. Stopping all over the continent performing to jam packed arenas, on Friday March 7th the tour came to play a sold out show at Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey.
Opening up the night was Nico Vega; a 3-piece alternative rock outfit from Los Angeles, CA, consisting of Aja Volkman on vocals, Rich Koehler on guitar, and Dan Epand on drums. After years of working hard toward one collective goal musically the band released their self-titled debut album Nico Vega in 2009 via Myspace Records. Since that time their talents have landed them tours with the likes of Metric, Blondie, Neon Trees, No Doubt and now Imagine Dragons.
Full of energy the band took the big stage with grace pumping out their guitar driven tunes. Lead vocalist Aja captivated the audience throughout the entire set moving about the stage, climbing the drum kit, and interacting with the crowd any chance she had. Clearly a band taking influence from 80’s classic alternative, their sound is fun, catchy, and broad. Their performance set the mood for the evening in an impressive fashion. If you want to learn more about Nico Vega, their sophomore studio album Lead To Light is due out at some point later this year.
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All the way from Auckland, New Zealand, Alternative pop band The Naked and Famous were next in order to perform. With a series of their tracks showered all over some of televisions hots series including The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, and Gossip Girl, the band’s debut album Passive me, Aggressive you (2010) gained peak positions on the charts, and their follow-up In Rolling Waves ,released in September 2013, looking bring the band to the next level worldwide.
Putting on a performance many would classify as musically eerie and visually intriguing, it was safe to say you could not take your eyes from the stage during The Naked and Famous set. The metallic textures of synth, guitar, and drums during songs like “All of This” couldn’t help but make you smile. Their music combines all your favorite elements of new wave with modern day styling for a fresh and electrifying jolt modern pop needs. The Naked and Famous will be heading overseas to the UK as soon as this tour with Imagine Dragons wraps up. It’s highly recommended you check them out and see what the buzz is all about.
After the performance of two extraordinarily talented and vastly different bands it was time to gaze into the kaleidoscope for Imagine Dragons. The lights dropped and all that could be seen was a screen on stage illuminating an image of the moon rising. As the screen was overtaken by a full moon, the lighting kicked on above the stage and vocalist Dan Reynolds ran down the catwalk towards the audience kicking things off with “Fallen”. The band moved about the stage, smiling and projecting a vibe of humble awareness knowing their strong and fast rise to the top is not to be taken for granted.
After the first song concluded Reynolds paused to acknowledge what 2013 into 2014 has been for them and that they had the fans to thank for all of it. Kicking back into gear they raced through a fourteen song set including hits “Tiptoe”, “Hear Me”, and “It’s Time”. Adding spice to an already powerful set, the guys broke out into the classic Rush song “Tom Sawyer”. With a gigantic signature drum sound Imagine Dragons nailed this tribute to one of progressive rock’s legends while leaving their own unique stamp.
The set marched on through other fan-adored songs “Demons”, “On Top of the World” and concluded with mega hit “Radioactive”. Already completely satisfied with the show put on by Imagine Dragons, the boys had one last trick up their sleeve with an adrenaline rush of an encore mash up of songs “Bleeding Out”, “Monster”, and “ Nothing Left to Say” without skipping a beat.
As 7,000 fans piled out of Susquehanna Bank Center they left with the unanimous thought that Imagine Dragons puts on one of the best live shows of any modern rock band. With impeccable lighting, lively song selection, and a passionate performance this show is not to be missed and should be on any music lovers bucket list of things to see.
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