imagine-dragons-bring-thunder-boston-radioactive-

Imagine Dragons – Daniel Platzman, Wayne Sermon, Dan Reynolds & Ben McKee

The TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, home of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics, took a night off from sports related activities recently to instead play host to one of rock music’s biggest bands, Imagine Dragons.

Formed in 2008 by lead vocalist Dan Reynolds, the band has released three full length albums to primarily critical acclaim, 2012’s Night Visions, 2015’s Smoke + Mirrors and their latest release, 2017’s Evolve.

In just under a decade Reynolds, along with guitarist Daniel Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman have amassed a list of credentials potentially worthy of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame consideration.

The aforementioned accolades have included two American Music Awards, five Billboard Music Awards, a World Music Award and the mother of all music awards, a Grammy for Best Rock Performance.

Complimenting these industry distinctions the band’s full length LP sales have approached the ten million mark and they’ve also sold over twenty-seven million singles worldwide.

Thus it would seem based on all the positive press combined with copious ticket and album sales that if you’re still not somewhat familiar with Imagine Dragons by now, you’re probably reading this from your colony on Mars or at least somewhere where cell towers and the internet have yet to arrive.

The Las Vegas quartet have long been ardent supporters of charitable causes, proving there is as much substance to this band, as there is talent.

Performing for Play It Forward http://www.playitforward.com, the band has raised over a hundred thousand dollars for a variety of music school programs throughout the country.

Imagine Dragons also have partnered with Do The Write Thing campaign aimed at preventing violence, http://www.dtwt.org, while also recently launching a charity of their own, The Tyler Robinson Foundation, that’s focused on helping battle pediatric cancer, http://www.trf.org.

The band’s charitable efforts have also extended to international causes, including their taking part in Amnesty International’s Bringing Human Rights Home concert as well as releasing the tracks “I Was Me” for the One4 Project http://www.facebook.com/one4project and “I Love You All the Time,” whose profits benefited the victims of the Paris terrorist attack.

Imagine Dragons have used their fame to contribute an immense amount to social causes throughout the course of the band’s relatively short existence, giving fans even further reason to support all of their endeavors.

By 9:30 PM the sold-out crowd in Boston, Massachusetts erupted with a roar whose decibel likely only rivaled the cheers that the Larry Bird led Celtics evoked back in the 80s, as Imagine Dragons took to the TD Garden’s lighted stage.

The Las Vegas, Nevada based foursome would go on to take the Bean-Town masses through a lengthy two-hour, sweat inducing, heart-pumping, twenty-song set.

Throughout the course of the performance Reynolds took a few moments to address the crowd. Prior to “It’s Time,” the front man asked fans to continue to take a stand against violence and to “continue to go to shows,” indirectly making reference to the recent attack in the band’s home town at the Route 91 Festival.

Reynolds also raised a topic with the Boston audience that’s near and dear to him, the negative stigma attached to mental illness, depression and anxiety, commenting, “You are not alone,” before the band launched into, “Demons” off of their 2012 LP, Nightvisions.

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It’s nice to know that Imagine Dragons keep those that have helped them along their journey to fame and stardom in their hearts. The band went out of their way in Boston to acknowledge Berklee College of Music professor Mark White, who had mentored Platzman, McKee and Sermon while the three were students at the revered music school not so long ago.

Towards the back end of their performance in Boston Imagine Dragons gave fans far from the main stage an instant seat upgrade when they unveiled a small pop up stage at the opposite end of the arena to play a three-song set, which included fan favorite, “Shots.”

The song was chosen via an impromptu, real-time fan interaction, ultimately being determined by the sheer amount of noise the TD Garden crowd could generate to voice their particular vote.

Other highlights from the show included a tribute to Tom Petty via a cover of the Gainesville, Florida rocker’s, “I Won’t Back Down” as well as a wave of beach balls engulfing the entire audience during, “On Top of the World.”

Imagine Dragons dispatched with the traditional encore with Reynolds relaying to the audience that walking off the stage would just waste time and prevent the band from squeezing another song into the set list.

The band then instantly launched into “Walking the Wire”, off of 2017’s Evolve, followed by blasting confetti into every nook and crevice of the TD Garden as they closed out their resplendent performance in Boston by playing their most recognizable hit, “Radioactive.”

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