“Whatever It Takes, Evolving with the Imagine Dragons” – Gig Review, The O2

I’m waking up. Yesterday the Imagine Dragons played at the Mouth Of The River, not in America, nor Amsterdam nor Tokyo, but at London’s O2 Arena. Despite the snow, the Clouds and the Thunder, for this was not Summer nor The Fall, the audience were like Warriors with a Pistol Whip. It was as though they issued a Battle Cry and they all made it, Walking The Wire on Tiptoe to get to their Destination. Whatever It Takes after all.  I Don’t Know Why but When you are a Believer, you Rise Up, you sort of Levitate.

The Dragons were like Gold, playing as if they were On Top Of The World. To Start Over, All Eyes were on lead singer Dan Reynolds and he performed like A Dream, he said “Hear Me, Speak To Me. I Don’t Mind but It Comes Back To You. I Need a Minute. I’m So Sorry, once I Was Me. It’s My Fault  but Look How Far We’ve Come and this is All For You. Please don’t Leave Me. Not Today”.  He said I”ll Make it Up to You.” if you do. He had Nothing Left To Say.

I Bet My Life he had a Curse, was one of the Fallen with Demons even, like an Uptight  Monster Bleeding Out and a Sucker For Pain. He may have even had Roots like Hopeless Opus, or The Unknown Thief in Trouble  but he had Second Chances, Thirty Lives perhaps. We are Who We Are.

Yet even if he was un Underdog, he was never a Lost Cause, for he had a Release. He has Drive and performs Every Night Til We Grow Older. It’s Time that there are no Smoke and Mirrors, no Cover Up, no Friction.

To Start Over, in the Darkness, the Working Man, the people in the Pit with the Polaroid (Ready Aim Fire) and those Next To Me, Selene and Emma, were Dancing In The Dark, Round and Round. After a few Shots, they were Radioactive and having memorable Night Visions. Welcome to the New Age girls, breathing in the chemicals. All systems go. It was like a Living Musical, a Pantomime even.

The audience were absorbed, it was a genuinely good gig with clever choreography. It was very Vegas, archetypal American with marvellous musicians and talented technicians, including Ben the brilliant bassist with the big Boots, perhaps a pity about the psychological preaching but the Imagine Dragons are a big band, with huge hits and worth watching. I was glad I was there.