Imagine Dragons and Neighbourhood, Merriweather, 9-20-13

Imagine Dragons at Merriweather, 09-20-2013

It was a beautiful night at Merriweather on Friday, September 20, 2013, and Eric, Natalie, and I enjoyed it with lots of friends. Jill brought her son, his friend, and the friend's dad. I brought my friend Laura, her daughter Phebe (Natalie's friend) and husband Shank, and Trish met us there with Jack in tow (her son). There were a lot of kids at this show, and not just in our group.

Natalie and I arrived at 4:30 pm to use gatecrashers to grab a big spot on the lawn (sold out show), but it turns out that gatecrashers doesn't work like I thought it would. It's very helpful if you have a standing-room floor ticket, but if you have lawn ticket, all it does is get you inside the food area, then you wait in a crowd until the gates officially open to run for a spot on the lawn.  It worked to our advantage on accident, but it was almost 6 pm before we claimed a spot on the lawn. Then we waited, and waited, and waited.  Traffic was very tough that night, and Eric didn't show up until the first opener, Envy Corp, was about to start. Natalie and I spent most of their set buying food. I barely even noticed their music. People in our group started trickling in during their set.

Neighbourhood was the second opener, and they were potty-mouthed, but very good live. Active on stage and sounded great. Worth seeing. It got dark during their set and I was VERY glad I had brought Halloween flashing LED bracelets with me to the show.  Eric held them over his head as a beacon in the crowd when people needed to find our group. Hint for parents: bring glow-y things to concerts when you bring kids. SO much entertainment value.

Imagine Dragons were excellent performers. They are straight up pop, but they were engaging and sounded great, too. The lights show on stage was varied and entertaining. It relied heavily on a giant screen behind the performers. They were not foul-mouthed, which was better for the 6 to 13 year old ears in our group.