Grouplove / Imagine Dragons / K.Flay

Ignatius Feb 23, 2019

I knew it'd be a good show when K.Flay had a decent lightshow, and it could only get better with Grouplove and Imagine Dragons. K.Flay had a delicious bass sound, particularly on Black Wave. It felt like the passion and intensity of Dead Sara, but with more of a hip hop sound and voice. Her voice really reminds me of Lorde and Tove Lo, maybe a bit more gritty. Loved the words to High Enough. Definitely would like to see K.Flay again.

Grouplove took awhile for me to get into their set. They had plenty of energy, but it was kind of a standard feel-good, let loose rock and roll show. I think I would enjoy listening to their albums but it wasn't doing much for me live. Then they played Ways To Go which was finally one I'd heard before. Tongue Tied as well, and they covered Sabotage and were like pushing each other and rolling around the stage. So I'd say it was a great set if you're a fan, but potentially falls short if you haven't listened to them before. I love when an undercard/opening band I'm not familiar with can hook me in through a live show and sadly that only happened with K.Flay tonight

Usually they play hits or classics or whatever between sets, but I was digging the classical music that played before Imagine Dragons. Notably a Liszt Nocturne in Ab, and clarinet, cello and piano concertos, including Bach. Pretty well set the emotional stage for the Evolve tour...

Dan Reynolds did quite a bit of talking, I wrote some of the things down to put here. First he talked about being fearless and leaving intolerance (racial, political, etc.) at the door, to come together in unity: "Tonight is about you, your family, your loved ones. It's about music, and that's it"

Then while introducing Demons he talked about three things that are stigmatized today: depression, anxiety and therapy; "Let it be part of your journey, don't let it define you, and I promise you will go on to do all the things you want to do".

Another bit of inspiration, they had bits of films in between songs and multiple times I heard my favorite Charlie Chaplin speech, ("more than cleverness, we need kindness", "you the people have the power, to create machines, to create happiness, to make this life free and beautiful...") as well as MLK's "I have a dream" and FDR's "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

And I haven't even gotten to the music yet, but let me talk about the lights first. So there was an angled grid of 5x6 square screens that somewhat reminded me of the Muse Resistance tour stage which I didn't get a chance to see, and the orange/green/blue aesthetic for Believer was so well executed. They also had 8 vertical strips of extremely bright lights; while playing Gold, they would leave lingering purple images on my retinas for a minute after being briefly blasted. I can only remember seeing lights that bright once before, I think at a Skillet show.

The sound was everything you could hope from Imagine Dragons. In particular I loved the slap bass solo in Start Over, which was played in the midst of a storm of fog-filled bubbles, because of course it was. On Top of the World had me giddy to the max, especially when all the balloons came down from the 3rd level seats. It was pretty much that overwhelming euphoria I've gotten from seeing Muse play Mercy or Arcade Fire play Sprawl II; I LOVE that I've become so open to feeling that more and more often. And I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to do these things with my life.