Concerts: Imagine Dragons @ USD Homecoming

By Alina Calva

To the excitement of much of the campus community, Imagine Dragons was the feature band to rock the USD campus. Imagine Dragons started humbly out of Las Vegas and rocketed to fame with the release of their hit single “It’s Time.” Many fans eagerly awaited the release of Night Visions, which came out September 4, 2012. The album Night Visions proved to be a great success for the band, reaching # 2 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. The album Night Visions was also a great success in that it was the best first week sales for a debut album from up and coming rock bands in over six years.

Vocalist Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, and drummer Daniel Platzman from Imagine Dragons worked USD’s Homecoming Stage. I have only been around for one other homecoming concert; however, this is one of the biggest and most active crowd I have seen show up for any USD concert. Torero Program Board did great work lining up such an amazing band that the students were excited to see. Vocalist Dan Reynolds really interacted with the crowd and the response was great. When Dan Reynolds told the crowd to crowd surf, students immediately followed his instructions and crowd surfed like never before; when Dan Reynolds said get loose and crazy, the crowd swayed and grooved and moved around like jello. What made the concert especially enjoyable was the feeling brought from the beating of the drum. The percussion sounds brought into their music made it impossible for your body not to rock to the music.

The entire concert experience was great. The band has a great diversity of music from slower more acoustic songs to more upbeat and synthesized music; the order in which songs came up in the set was well chosen and kept the crowd wanting to hear more. The students were so pleased that the band got cries for encore and performed one last song before exiting the stage. I am pleased to say I have only heard rave reviews, and I hope for the continued success of Imagine Dragons in the years to come.

Check back here on Monday to see our interview with Imagine Dragons – a collaborative effort between USD Radio, USDTV and The Vista.