TVD Live Shots: Imagine Dragons and Grace VanderWaal at Concord Pavilion, 7/24

Imagine Dragons are still riding high on last year’s release of Evolve. Wednesday night market their return to the San Francisco Bay Area on their “Evolve World Tour” with a sold out show at the Concord Pavilion.

In spite of the notorious weekday traffic to get to Concord, the fans planned accordingly and by the time doors opened at 6PM, lines to get in already snaked the length of the parking lot … folks bravely bearing the heat which was still pushing into triple digits even at that late hour.

The evening kicked off with a generous 40 minute set by Grace VanderWaal, best known as the winner of the eleventh season of America’s Got Talent in 2016 at the age of 12. Now 14, this little lady with a big voice proved that maybe every once in a while those TV talent competitions gets it right. With a maturity in her songs and tenor that belies her age, Grace is sure to have a long career ahead of her.

By the time Imagine Dragons set time rolled around, the amphitheater was absolutely packed front to back with a markedly more diverse audience than one might remember. Sure, the millennials were expectedly out in force, but new this time around were the number of smaller children and adults. It’s pretty rare to see a band span such a broad demographic, but most certainly explains why Imagine Dragons only gets bigger and bigger.

When the house lights finally dimmed, the band rose from behind the drum riser, all pounding away on drums as they launched into their breakout hit “Radioactive.” A song one would most likely expect as part of the encore, “Radioactive” whipped the crowd into an immediate frenzy. A shirtless Dan Reynolds, looking like he just stepped out of the local CrossFit and onto the stage, sprinted from end to end of the stage extension, feeding the frenetic crowd.

The two-hour, high-energy set flew by as quickly as Reynolds moved about the stage… those workouts clearly paying off. While he was kind enough to share the extension when it came time for the guitar and bass solos, the rest of the band knew well enough to give him room to move.

A brief acoustic set out by the soundboard was a welcome break and brought a bit of intimacy, especially for those in the seats and on the lawn. But as soon as that wrapped, it was back to the mainstage where the set was closed out with so much confetti that the crew had to resort to leaf blowers to clean the stage.

By all measures, Imagine Dragon’s return to the Bay Area was a resounding success. If one were to nitpick, it would have been nice to see “Bleeding Out” swapped in on the “Evolve”-heavy set, but otherwise flawless.

Imagine Dragons

GRACE VANDERWUUL

Grace VanderWaal

SETLIST
Radioactive
It’s TimeWhatever It Takes
Roots
Natural
Walking the Wire
Next to Me
Shots
Every Breath You Take (The Police cover)
I’ll Make It Up to You
Start Over
Rise Up
I Don’t Know Why
Mouth of the River

ACOUSTIC
Born to Be Yours
Amsterdam
Happy Birthday to You
I Bet My Life

ENCORE
Demons
Thunder
On Top of the World
Believer