Music. Always a central theme in my life; my name’s meaning is “one with song” and it seems to have been an enlightened choice by my parents. Music can comfort, speaking meaning into moments that are otherwise undefinable. It can motivate, focus and energize. But, sometimes it can just fade into background noise. An endless, streaming subscription of algorithm curated songs. So, where can you get back that passionate connection to music? LIVE!… this is sort of a new thing for me, and I am loving live music.
In July, Imagine Dragons graced our little town with a performance to remember… to a sold-out audience of over 2/3 of the population of Bozeman’s official residents. I knew that I liked this band, their music, but I had no expectations about their show. I realized that I didn’t even know what they looked like as we joined the slow-crawl of people entering the stadium.
They opened with Radioactive, with a grand piano I was not expecting, and needless to say – I was thoroughly impressed.
As the sun set, the wind began to blow, but the energy just continued to rise. Dan’s voice is amazing live, and his interactions with the crowd endeared this group to me even more. A young fan was held up with a sign that it was a dream to get on stage, and he was welcomed up for a sweet interaction.
As darkness settled, it seemed they turned the volume up. I continued to be surprised that I knew every song… Do you know how many hits these guys have? In all, they played over 20 songs. I think there were maybe three I didn’t know.
This show was everything I didn’t know I’d hoped for. Imagine Dragons songs are meant to be loud; I can’t imagine them sounding better than they did thumping into the stadium that night. It made my soul sing. And of course, it would not be complete without a finale of Believer. The scream of “pain” rising from the crowd, echoing Dan’s vocals…
A reminder of how much relief a sense of shared understanding can bring us. All from music.
And when you catch your breath because the lead singer of a huge band is using his position as a platform to make a statement, only to hear a message of raising awareness of anxiety and depression and their impacts on youth… you fall completely into groupie with the band. I cannot wait for their new album… coming Nov 9!
These photos are my own and may not be used without permission. If you’d like to see more of of this concert, check out my flickr.
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