Live Review: Imagine Dragons, British India

Accompanying Imagine Dragons on the Smoke + Mirrors tour might just provide Melbourne boys British India with an overdue opportunity to break out of the homegrown music bubble.

And then, in an alien rumble that vibrated over the screams of the audience, Imagine Dragons walked out under eerie blue Krypton-like columns of light and lasers, Dan Reynolds taking up his hallowed post in front of the bass drum. The arena performance is of a scale worthy of their sound derived from the greats, with the muscular, ground-shuddering rock tearing through the amplifiers and bringing everyone to their feet in a whirl of ecstasy and awe. Reynolds' impeccable showmanship was on display all evening, oozing swagger, sex appeal and sincerity. His clear, booming voice pitched without fail over the metallic head-bangers I’m So Sorry and Friction, the Mumford & Sons acoustic rock-out Trouble, and popped effortlessly into blue-eyed-soul falsetto for Shots. Anthems ran the night, with the mild cheese of a Forever Young cover forgotten when Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning had every parent in the crowd standing up and swinging their arms in '80s enthusiasm (to the embarrassment of their offspring). Guitarist Wayne “Wing” Sermon became a blur of rock-shred genius for his solo, with Reynolds falling to his knees in praise as the crowd screamed for more. 

The sound was massive — the reverb acting almost as a fifth instrument, audio and visual turned up to the maximum degree. They shifted seamlessly between EDM filtered beats, mellow melodies with the live power of Coldplay or Muse, and classic euphoric riffs — which is what everyone fell in love with when Night Visions lifted the band off the ground three years ago. Radioactive had each member of the band manning a tom, a bass, a kit or simply malleting anything in sight — the reverberations travelling up through the floor and into the chests of the frenzied audience, sending them home exhausted, exhilarated and partially deaf.