Imagine Dragons w/ Metric, Halsey at Xcel, St Paul (09 June 2015)
Over 13,000 fans showed up to see Imagine Dragons return to the Xcel Energy Center in St Paul last Tuesday, June 9th. The Las Vegas band is currently on their Smoke + Mirrors Tour.
- Shots
- Trouble
- It’s Time
- Forever Young (Alphaville cover)
- Smoke and Mirrors
- Polaroid
- I’m So Sorry
- Summer
- Gold
- Bleeding Out
- Demons
- Dream
- Hopeless Opus
- Amsterdam
- Release
- On Top of the World
- Friction
- I Bet My Life
- Radioactive
— Encore —
- The Fall
- Stadium Love
- Too Bad, So Sad
- Speed the Collapse
- Help I’m Alive
- Cascades
- Synthetica
- Gold Guns Girls
- Breathing Underwater
- The Shade
- Castle
- Empty Gold
- Hold Me Down
- Ghost
- Hurricane
Tour Dates
06/15/15 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
06/16/15 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center
06/18/15 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
06/19/15 Pittsburgh, PA Consol Energy Center
06/22/15 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
06/23/15 Auburn Hills, MI Palace Of Auburn Hills
06/24/15 Buffalo, NY First Niagara Center
06/27/15 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
06/29/15 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
06/30/15 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
07/01/15 Boston, MA TD Garden
07/03/15 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
07/04/15 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
07/06/15 Washington, DC Verizon Center
07/07/15 Charlotte, NC Time Warner Cable Arena
07/08/15 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
07/10/15 Tampa, FL Amalie Arena
07/11/15 Sunrise, FL BB&T Center
07/13/15 Memphis, TN FedExForum
07/14/15 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
07/16/15 Houston, TX Toyota Center
07/17/15 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
07/18/15 Stateline, NV Lake Tahoe Outdoor
07/20/15 Anaheim, CA Honda Center
07/21/15 San Diego, CA Viejas Arena
07/24/15 Inglewood, CA Forum
07/25/15 Phoenix, AZ US Airways Center
07/27/15 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
07/28/15 Salt Lake City, UT EnergySolutions
07/30/15 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
07/31/15 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
08/01/15 Boise, ID Taco Bell Arena
Joining Halsey on stage was jazz keyboardist Greg Spero (who had family in Minnesota) and drummer Nate Lotz. Strange, but absent on stage were her guitarists when we first saw Halsey on her first ever tour with the Kooks.
Halsey previewed some songs (“Castle”, “Hold Me Down”, and “Ghost”) from her forthcoming Badlands album, set for release August 28, 2015, on Astralwerks…. however, she ended her set with her most popular song “Hurricane”.
Our favorite Canadian band Metric was up next, with a high energy dance-centric set, consisting of only newer material: 2009’s Fantasies (“Stadium Love”, “Help I’m Alive”, and “Gold Guns Girls”), 2012’s Synthetica (Title track, “Speed The Collapse”, and “Breathing Underwater”), and from the forthcoming Pagans in Vegas (“Too Bad, So Sad”, “Cascades”, and “The Shade”).
Singer Emily Haines is always fun to watch, often doing her rollerskate and hands waving dancing moves. My favorite was for “Cascades”, Haines brought out a shawl or cape and stood over the upflowing fan to create this nice visual flowing cloth dance.
The message was clear, Metric love writing and performing music… otherwise they wouldn’t have done this for the past 17 years. Haines also joked that the music help her look 26.
While I love the band, I fear that the days of them doing old favorites from Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? are long gone. The current Metric band, as it is, will only play newer material. Which I can understand, musicians have to change and grow.
When Pagans in Vegas comes out in September 2015, hopefully Metric will be stopping by Minneapolis on their headline tour.
As soon as Imagine Dragons entered the room to a dramatic gigantic moving display, the entire audience immediately stood up to a thunderous cheer.
We’ve been watching and covering Imagine Dragons since their early days at smaller club shows (Triple Rock, Varsity Theater), and we’re incredibly happy to see them do so well with these big stadium shows.
The band is incredibly thankful and grateful for everyone in their lives for making them such a success, calling out Cities97’s Paul Fletcher and singer Dan Reynolds thanking his wife (Aja Volkman of Nico Vega).
In the seven years that Imagine Dragons toured as a band, this is the first tour that they’ve incorporated lasers into their shows… and they utilized the lasers near the end of the set. Combining with the smoke machine, the lasers created an unforgettable look and feel to their show.
The band ended their set with their most popular song “Radioactive”, which got the biggest audience reaction and sing-alongs… however, I felt the highlight of their set was for their encore song “The Fall”, which featured images of trees and falling leaves… complete with flowing confetti from the ceiling!
Imagine Dragon’s second studio album Smoke + Mirrors is out now on Interscope Records/KIDinaKORNER.
NOTE: All photos provided by Jayme Halbritter
