Rare is the artist who can pack the Air Canada Centre with 14,500 screaming fans and still appear as though they haven’t peaked. In recent memory, only One Direction and Taylor Swift have hit the ACC on their way up to greater things, and have since sold out the Rogers Centre on multiple occasions.
On Saturday night, Imagine Dragons offered the overwhelming sense that they would be the next act to use the ACC as a stepping stone rather than a career culmination. It’s a fascinating sight to see, really – the pieces are there for the Las Vegas-based quartet to grow into larger-than-life rock icons, even if the puzzle isn’t quite complete.
They have the undeniable star power. Frontman Dan Reynolds shares an authentic connection with his audience that stands out among the vast majority of current pop and rock acts. Reynolds thrilled the 14,500 in attendance when he announced that they had selected the Toronto stop on their “Smoke & Mirrors” tour to film the official tour DVD based on the passionate following they’ve enjoyed in the T-Dot. He seemed truly moved when he acknowledged that while some may assume the band had come to grow complacent and numb towards the fan support and adulation, they remain in awe of the ovations they’ve received on tour.
They certainly didn’t perform as though they’d become complacent. Reynolds was a charismatic bundle of over-active energy over Imagine Dragons’ 100-minute set. He exuded a powerful aura and had the crowd eating out of his hand on energetic tracks like “Trouble”, “It’s Time” and “On Top of the World”, while also setting an emotional tone on slower tracks like “I’m So Sorry” and an attention-grabbing cover of Alphaville’s “Forever Young”.
The music, itself, offered some pretty remarkable highs, even if the overall performance was uneven. The crowd exploded for the radio-friendly smash hits, perhaps none more so than Billboard chart toppers “Demons” and “Radioactive”. True to form, Imagine Dragons paid proper homage to their biggest singles with grandiose laser light displays and plenty of pyro for what was quite a spectacle.
Of course, with just two albums under their belt, the band still had to stretch the show with some less memorable material, including a few buzz-killing songs that slowed momentum to a crawl. “Friction”, in particular, had fans sitting on their hands as the group was building to a show-closing crescendo. That should resolve itself as the Dragons continue to add to a canon that has already spread numerous hits across two albums and promises to keep growing.
If anyone is selling Imagine Dragons’ stock, I’m buying.
