Evolve t-shirt

Change is a constant challenge, both in the Devonian and especially these days. Tiktaalik is here to inspire us to adapt to adversity and change the course of our future. Evolve!

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Design by David Orr

@ninotbh

Imagine Dragons - Evolve (2017)

If this pandemic never happened, then the version of who you are now would never have happened.

Hiya! 

Today I thought I would talk about a band that I hold very near and dear to my heart: Imagine Dragons. They were the first band I ever fell in love with as a young adult, the first concert I ever attended by myself and the first band I ever saw live more than once (sadly only twice, the perks of living in South America smh).

The first time I heard one of their songs was back in 2014 and I’ve been a fan of their music ever since. I gotta admit tho, I’m not that keen on their recent stuff :/ but with that said, I do appreciate everything they do and I plan to support them always ♥

To be honest, I feel like they’re underappreciated and get too much hate for absolutely no reason. I mean, they do a lot for charity, they are outspoken supporters of the LGBTQ+ community, they’ve helped a lot of people through their music and in top of that, they have magnificent lyrics! Everyone needs to get off their backs ffs 

Following are my top 10 favourite songs by them. 

First of all, a few honorable mentions: Whatever It Takes,Believer,Rise Up andNatural. 

10.- Warriors

Number 10 on my list goes to Warriors, a song the band wrote and recorded for the 2014 League of Legends World Championships and that ultimately ended up in the deluxe version of Smoke + Mirrors, their sophomore album, and the best one yet imo. 

I’ve always found it truly empowering, specially because of the lyrics, but also because of the theatrical vibes the overall melody gives off.

9.- The Fall

Next is The Fall, the last track of the standard version of Smoke + Mirrors. The song deals with the loneliness and depression usually associated with the cooling temperatures of autumn. Despite the gloomy theme, it shows a hopeful side as well, finishing with the lyrics “I’m ready for the fall, ready for the leaves, ready for the colours to burn to gold and crumble away”. It makes me feel like everything’s going to be okay. 

8.- It Comes Back To You

At this point we’re clear on what my favourite album by them is, right? 

I feel like this song is very overlooked by everyone and I’m not sure why. The lyrics talk about Dan Reynolds’ battle with depression, but again there’s a positive twist: despite all the hardships, everything that you might have otherwise lost will come back to you if you can see it through. Keep going ♥

7.- Dream

This song is so sad yet so beautiful at the same time. It brings tears to my eyes everytime I listen to it, and I honestly feel so fortunate to have been able to experience it live.

6.- Hopeless Opus

Following we have Hopeless Opus, again from Smoke + Mirrors. To be honest, that record is like a windwhirl of emotions. This time, the story is told from the perspective of someone that’s reflecting on their life, and that’s not content with the person they’ve turned out to be, with lyrics like “I’m trying not to face what I’ve done” and “I’m trying not to face what’s become of me”. Very moving.

5.- I Bet My Life

The first few times I heard this track, I must admit I wasn’t that bothered by it, because musically it didn’t seem *that* interesting, specifically the chorus tends to get a bit annoying over time. Nonetheless, once I paid attention to the lyrics, I was sold. I Bet My Life is a song about forgiveness, and it touches on Dan’s relationship with his parents, with whom he had a lot of disagreements with while growing up.

4.- Amsterdam

Now that we’re reaching the top, we’re throwing it back to the good old days ♥ 

I don’t have a specific or meaningful reason of why I love Amsterdam, other than nostalgia I guess. It was one of the first songs by Imagine Dragons that I ever listened to and its sound it’s part of what drew me to them.

3.- Hear Me

Hear Me is another one of those songs that brings me back. I feel its lyrics touch my soul (not to be dramatic or anything lol)

“Can nobody hear me? 

I got a lot that’s on my mind

I cannot breathe

Can you hear it too?”

2.- Radioactive

Hear me out, okay?! I know Radioactive is suuuper overplayed, and if you say it’s your favourite song by the band, “true” fans will roll their eyes and call you a fake fan. I don’t care.

There’s a reason it’s so popular, it’s bloody good, okay?! My favourite part is the drum solo during the live performances, amazing. 

1.- Demons

“Can I share something with you? This is something I’ve been sharing in this entire tour, and it’s important to me to express, to hopefully be a part of some sort of change in our future. Our youths across the world everyday are diagnosed with depression and anxiety. There are millions and millions of people who deal with this on a daily basis. They’re not seeking attention. They’re not making it up. They’re not looking for you to give them some sort of present for it, or for it to be a sob story. It’s a real thing. I was diagnosed with depression many years ago. It’s been part of my life, it’s been part of my story, but it never stopped me from doing anything that I wanted to do in this world. For those of you who are struggling with depression, anxiety, I stand with you. I love you. I understand the grey, I understand the numb. Hang on, it gets better. There is light. Speak to a family member, speak to a friend. If you can, go to a therapist. These things are not something we should be ashamed of. You are not broken. You can go on to do all the things that you wanna do in life, I promess. Above all, the reason I shared this is because, above all, your life is always worth living. Please, never ever take your life from us. We need you. We’re enjoying this human experience together. So, spread the love, see the light in the world, turn off the internet for a while and see each other’s faces and eyes, and feel each other’s hearts, and exist, and just… love. That’s it, it’s simple. This is a song about that, it’s called Demons”.

-Dan Reynolds, Lollapalooza Chile 2018

This man had me fuckin crying my eyes out in that crowd. I don’t think I need to say any more than that.

:-)

First of all, I know it’s been literally a month since this fest took place, but I really wanted to write about it and didn’t have time before so, it’s whatever, right? Let’s just pretend it was yesterday!

I know tons of people attend festivals not because of the artists and bands that are gonna be there (or it’s not their main concern at least), but because of the experience, the partying, to hang out with their friends and to have a good time, basically, but I’m not one of them.

I’ve been to Lollapalooza Chile twice, and it has always been about the music. This year, it was mainly about Imagine DragonsandThe Killers, two of my absolute favorite bands in the whole wide world.

You know what? Before the festival, I wasn’t even planning on making this post, but as I was leaving Imagine Dragons’ set, I was trying to make sense of all the emotions I was feeling, and thinking of the best way to express them, to express my love for them and my endless gratitude.

So that’s how I came up with this idea: my top 3 bands that I saw at Lollapalooza in Santiago de Chile on March 16^th, 17^th and 18^th.

3. Imagine Dragons

What an iconic bunch of musicians y’all, what an iconic group of legends. I first started listening to Imagine Dragons back in early 2014, and they’ve been amongst my favorite bands ever since. I saw them live in 2015 on the Smoke + Mirrors World Tour, and that was the first concert I ever went to alone. Also, they’re the only band I’ve ever seen more than once. Safe to say they have a pretty special place in my heart.

Now, onto the actual concert experience: that day I arrived at 3pm, ish, and their set was supposed to start at 8:15pm. Therefore, I intended to see other bands in the meantime, but, when I approached the stage Imagine Dragons was going to play at, I realized I had a real shot of being really close to the front, which is THE GOAL, as every fangirl/boy can attest to, so I just stayed there, but I decided to position myself at the side barrier instead, so I could get some shelter from the sun and besides, it was still a good place to be.

Throughout the entire set, I was pushed up against a lot of people I didn’t know, I was sweaty, out of breath and tired, but also the happiest I had been in a while.

Seeing the ever-present smile on Dan’s face and knowing we as an audience made that happen, everyone around me passionately singing every word and filling every small bit of silence with loud screams, it all brought me so much joy.

Even though they barely sang Smoke + Mirrors tracks – my favorite album by them – and sang a lot of their newer stuff – which I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan of – it was the best experience, and I’m eternally grateful to them, for being humble, kind, charitable, loving and so frickin’ talented.

I feel like I can’t even put into words how much I love them and how much they really mean to me but oh well, I tried!

Bonus: Dan passed right by my side and I touched his shoulder, UNFORGETTABLE!

2. Kaleo

I had heard about Kaleo before, because they were openers for The Lumineers (my absolute favorite band), but I wasn’t at all familiar with their music, other than listening to their album a few times before the festival.

I must say, I was greatly surprised! They played at an alternative smaller stage, right in the dust, but oh boy, I think they honestly deserved to be at the main stage. Even if no one knew them, everyone would’ve loved them by the end of their set, just like I did.

I know for a fact a lot of the audience there didn’t know them, but that didn’t stop us from having a hell of a good time! Everyone jumped up and down, not caring about all the dust flying around, and clapped along to every song. 

Honestly,Kaleo’s music is AMAZING and I still go back to it today. It makes me so happy knowing they left with a good impression of our country and with a bit of luck, they’ll be back sometime soon. Yet another incredible band to come from Iceland! :-P 

For sure check them out if you haven’t!

1.   The Killers

Do I even need to explain why The Killers are like, the best thing to ever exist?! (I love being dramatic lol)

I only learned about this band in early 2016, by seeing Brandon Flowers’ set in Lollapalooza, but since then they slowly started becoming one of my absolute favorite bands, so obviously, I was looking forward to seeing them for the first time this year, and they did not disappoint!

Their set was full of classics and iconic anthems, like the popular ‘Read My Mind’and ‘Mr. Brightside’, that I’m sure most people have heard before, and it also contained two of my favorite songs by them, ‘Run For Cover’ and ‘For Reasons Unknown’, both of which I sang at the top of my lungs, surely annoying everyone around me, but not caring a bit :-P

The only slightly disappointing thing is they didn’t play a lot of songs from their newest album, ‘Wonderful Wonderful’, a masterpiece in my opinion, but they did play all of their most popular and best songs so, no biggie!

Probably my favorite moment was right before ‘Mr. Brightside’, when Brandon went ‘Santiago, we have to go now’, the whole crowd went ‘NOOOOO’, ‘you gotta go back to your lives’, ‘NOOOOOOO’, ‘we have to head to Paraguay’, ‘NOOOOOO’. Truly iconic and to be honest, a big fat mood!

Anyways, that’s the end of it, I don’t know if it was somewhat interesting, hope it was, but thanks for reading if you did!

:-)

plein air :3