Credit: Eliot Lee HazelBefore the remaining teams in the NCAA Men's Final Four basketball tournament take the court, Imagine Dragons will take the stage at the AT&T Block Party at the 2015 NCAA March Madness Music Festival in Indianapolis Friday night. While the band has played a few intimate shows since they released their sophomore album, Smoke + Mirrors, at the March Madness Festival the band is planning debut performances of some new material.
"When we perform, we're going to be playing four new songs we've never played before live that are off Smoke + Mirrors," frontman Dan Reynolds tells ABC Radio.
Given that they will be playing a sports-related festival, Imagine Dragons has tailored a set list to fit the intense arena.
"You're always going to lean towards your heavier songs for sports games and things like that," Reynolds says. "So I would say off the new album that 'I'm So Sorry,' 'Gold' and 'Friction,' all three of those we will be performing in Indiana. Those are kind of the heaviest songs on the Smoke + Mirrors album."
Imagine Dragons won't be the only ones rocking at the AT&T Block Party -- Weezer and Cold War Kids are also on the bill. Reynolds and co. used to cover Cold War Kids' "Hang Me Up to Dry" in their earlier days, and they have some history with Weezer, too.
"We've actually been able to hang out with [Weezer frontman] Rivers [Cuomo] here and there at festivals that we've been playing, and he's just the coolest guy, so a lot for respect for Weezer," Reynolds says. "We opened for them way early on back in the day when we were a tiny band out of Las Vegas that pulled maybe 200 people, and they still had us on the bill, which was really cool."
As he's from Las Vegas, Reynolds is a fan of the UNLV Rebels. Since UNLV isn't in the tournament, Reynolds doesn't have much of a rooting interest. However, he won't be rooting for Duke, since he had a friend growing up who was an annoying Blue Devils fan.
"Duke fans, especially when they win, they just kind of rub it in your face, and they win so much," Reynolds tells ABC Radio. "If you have a friend who's a big Duke fan, you grow up having extra hate for Duke because they are always just rubbing it in your face."
Imagine Dragons will perform at the AT&T Block Party at the 2015 NCAA March Madness Music Festival tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET. The festival will be streaming live beginning at 4:45 p.m. ET at UVerse.com/ATTBlockParty.
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