Selling out the venue on their third return to St. Louis, the Imagine Dragons Night Visions Tour came to Verizon Amphitheater on Sept.14. Along with opening bands the Neighbourhood, Greek Fire, Cage the Elephant, and the Silversun Pickups, the band sold around 20,000 tickets.

Kicking off the opening acts, the California-based alternative-rock band the Neighbourhood’s most notable performance was of their song “Sweater Weather,” a topper of Billboard’s alternative charts previously this summer. For a band formed only two years ago, the amount of publicity they have received and the fan-base they have built is unprecedented for their genre. For their St. Louis performance, their stage presence was phenomenal. While lead vocalist Jesse Rutherford gave off a mellow, disinterested vibe, he still upheld the passion that exists in his lyrics.

Following them was the St. Louis born band Greek Fire, a reformed band including the members of Story of the Year. Very rarely does an opening act have a crowd’s interest as much as this band did. The performance reflected their mission as a band; “Greek Fire is a quest to resurrect the greatness of rock music for those who want something more.” Lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Phillip “Moon” Sneed was by far the most interactive of the lead singers, running around venue, giving high fives, using people’s hats, talking about how much he loved his home community, and most impressive of all, pulling off a standing backflip during the performance of their hit single “A Real Life.” With such a positive response to their performance, the band could expect a larger fan-base for their album Lost/Found, scheduled to release in 2014.

Stealing the show in comparison to all the opening acts through shock factor, Indie rock band Cage the Elephant played alternative hits such as “In One Ear,” “Shake Me Down” and “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked.” Lead by the more than likely heavily under the influence of drugs lead singer Matt Shultz, the band accomplished a very rebellious, progressive rock sound. Shultz’s one request for the night was, “If I pass out, everyone should pass my body around until the end of the concert.” While the rest of the 11 song set included many other antics on Shultz’s behalf, the audience was still won over, bringing even more unnecessary attention to their soon to be released album Melophobia.

Silversun Pickups, an L.A. based band, was the final act before the concert headliner, and with only a six-song set, lacked the luster of all the previous bands. This could be due to the fact that Brian Aubert, the lead vocalist, seemed to assume the role of a guitarist, and therefore rendered me less interested (or maybe my expectations had gone up because I needed a singer to restore my faith in musician’s after Matt Shultz.) The band’s hit of the night was most definitely “Lazy Eye” from the 2008 album Swoon.

After a larger set of opening acts, the highly anticipated headliner band Imagine Dragons opened with a subtle yet powerful performance of the song “Round and Round.” A wide array of percussion instruments including an 8-foot tall bass drum were set out around vocalist Dan Reynolds to play for instrumental interludes and introductions. Other unexpected performances by the band included “Amsterdam,” bonus track from their album “Cha-Ching(Til We Get Older)” and a rendition of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.”

While the musical performance was a completely different and exciting experience from listening to their records, the best part of their set was his interaction with the audience. With a band that, in the span of one year, had almost no fans aside from their hometown then went to having international publicity and a song that has been number three on Billboard’s Hot 100 for two months consecutively, the lead singer was surprisingly modest. Multiple times throughout the night, he took time to thank the fans who have been there for them, and made sure to inform them that it’s more about the music than the performances. This, along with hearing 20,000 other people, sing word-for-word to hit songs like “It’s Time,” “Demons” and “Radioactive” made the experience truly unforgettable.