Saturday 9 November 2013

Imagine Dragons @ Melkweg, 2 November 201

Imagine if at every concert you could get to the bar with ease……

Alternative rock, or is it indie rock, it is hard to tell the difference I guess. But what I do know is that following the release of “Night Visions” in 2012 this band exploded onto the musical stratosphere and they may be here for a while to come yet.




Earlier in the year was the first time these guys had ever toured though Amsterdam and I missed it. Two of my friends managed to see them back then, even if they did have to befriend and escort a couple of 16yr olds to the show to do so. These were lengths that I was not willing to go to, and with this line in the sand drawn I managed to miss (and I will quote JK here) “the best live show ever”. (I feel when he said that to me that he had been hanging out with too many 16 year olds at the time). 

So when the second tour was announced I grabbed tickets and headed along with limited expectations other than it needed to be the “best live show ever”.

In the lead up I found most of the songs off Night Visions to be pretty catchy. Not something that I was likely to play all the time but it became an album I enjoyed listening to on a regular basis. 



We approached the Melkweg to see a line of several hundred teenagers standing out the front and me being a much more savvy concert goer (you may read this as an older and more seasoned if you would like) I negotiated the queue with aplomb and was inside the venue within the blink of an eye leaving many a teenager behind in my wake.

I strolled past the merch' desk, as is my usual want and chose not to purchase anything, which the reason (mostly age) would become more prominent as the night progressed.

Inside the main hall we took our place directly behind the mixing desk and not a usual haunt for me here. I think there were two contributing factors for this decision, firstly as Angus and my good self were not true fans (and the view was very sufficient from here) it seemed right not to take a position up the front that wasn’t needed. And secondly we were rather sufficiently close to the bar. And for the record, clearly no one else in the venue was drinking (or perhaps old enough to drink) as there was never a queue at any time before, during or after the show.



For the next hour before ID took the stage there was a steady stream of teenagers and the odd parent filing through the door, this would be easily the first concert in Amsterdam that I have been to where I felt old. Usually the Amsterdam going crowd were a lot older than in Australia and I never felt like we stood out, but on this evening I did.

So the boys from Nevada took the stage and with all the strut and rock poses they could muster started to swoon the crowd. And the crowd lapped it up. Not only did they lap it up, they loved it and they all got involved in their own special way. There were more hands in the air and singing at this show than I had seen in the last 10 shows put together. And by the time the band played “Radioactive” (Teen Choice awards, 'Rock Song') the venue was going nuts with high pitch screaming and whaling. 




Sure the show is made up of some very good lighting and the use of some very big fuck off drums but at the heart of it is that these guys have written some catchy songs (now getting played on Dutch radio), which really engage the crowd. I remember at the time thinking that the ID performance was similar to The Temper Trap show, but better. I genuinely enjoyed the Imagine Dragons show, all the way. 

Was it the best live show ever, no, but it was pretty damn good. 



Would I go back and see them again? Well that would depend on their next album. And whilst they did put on a good show I am not sure right now I would need to go again, but maybe that says more about my desire to hang out with teenagers then it does about the bands performance.

JV

















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