Imagine Dragons at Reading Festival: a feel-good set straight from the heart

NME

For the first time since 2016, Imagine Dragons return to the Reading & Leeds stage, with the aim of delivering one of their most emotional and uplifting performances to date. “I hope tonight is everything you need it to be,” Dan Reynolds tells the audience after an electric rendition of their 2017 hit, ‘Believer’. “We’re here to give you everything we have,” he adds. “We will give you everything. I promise you that.”

He isn’t lying. As the set unfolds, it becomes abundantly clear the lengths that the band have gone to to be a much-needed balm after a heavy weekend. From the epic light displays and endless explosions of confetti, to the unwavering fortitude of their frontman, who gives every ounce of energy he can to belting out the band’s back-to-back anthems. It is a relentless onslaught of positive energy, and this moment feels like it means just as much to them as it does to those who came from far and wide to watch it.

Although at times the interludes and visual displays teeter on the edge of being cheesy – with spoken-word poems about spirituality and elaborate descriptions of our connection to mother nature – ultimately, the set is exactly what you’d expect of a headline act of this gravitas, with back-to-back fan favourites and no end to the members’ showmanship.

It is in the latter half of their headline set, however, that the band truly speak to their fans, and devote a strong segment of their allocated time to stressing the importance of mental health. “If there is anyone who feels lost in their mind… You are not alone in that feeling,” Reynolds calmly tells his crowd, recalling his own experiences of losing friends to depression and calling out the stigma around reaching out for help. “This does not make you broken. It does not make you weak. It makes you wise,” he insists, before launching into ‘Demons’.

This is by no means a groundbreaking set from Imagine Dragons; for the most part, the performance follows the same structure as all the other shows on their ongoing ‘Mercury’ tour. That being said, that seemed to matter not one jot during a show that was designed solely to serve their fans: mission accomplished.

Imagine Dragons played:

‘My Life’
‘Believer’
‘It’s Time’
‘I’m So Sorry’
‘Thunder’
‘Follow You’
‘Natural’
‘Whatever It Takes’
‘Enemy’
‘Bad Liar’
‘Demons’
‘Bones’
‘Radioactive’
‘Walking The Wire’

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