Imagine Dragons at Allegiant Stadium

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Long before the Imagine Dragons took to the stage Saturday at Allegiant Stadium, Macklemore made a keen observation during his warmup set.

“There’s an energy here tonight,” the Seattle-based rapper said about midway through his set.

He wasn’t kidding.

By the time the headliners took the stage a little more than an hour later, the buzz had grown into a near frenzy in the sold-out stadium.

The Imagine Dragons, the band that formed in 2008 in Provo, Utah, and came to prominence shortly thereafter when its members relocated to Las Vegas, made a triumphant return to its hometown, packing the city’s largest concert venue to the rafters.

“The city means so much to me,” lead singer Dan Reynolds gushed to the crowd one song into the band’s set, talking about being born and raised in Las Vegas, attending public schools here and graduating in 2005 from Bonanza High School. His bandmates, he said, also loved Las Vegas, and he promised, “We will give you everything we’ve got.”

And Reynolds, lead guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Dan Platzman did just that.

The band played hit after hit, and the crowd reveled in every song. There was jumping, interpretive dancing, shouting, singing-along — at one point, a bunch of oversized balls made their way onto the stadium floor, where fans — young and old — joyously batted them into the air to the beat of the music.

“Thunder,” “Whatever It Takes,” “On Top of the World,” “Believer” and other songs from their catalog captivated the audience.

For the show’s entirety, the stadium was bathed in different colors of sparkling lights emanating off of wristbands given to audience members. Similar wristbands have been seen at other Allegiant concerts, but none had the sustaining effect that occurred Saturday.

There were other surprises, planned and spontaneous.

For “Sharks,” a single off of their latest studio album, “Mercury — Acts 2,” the band was joined onstage by dancers and aerialists from Cirque du Soleil. The guest appearances led Reynolds to recount a story from his high school days, when he asked a girl out for Bonanza’s homecoming. He saved up money from his job, bought tickets and took his date to “Mystère,” the long-running Cirque show at Treasure Island.

“I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d be on the stage with Cirque du Soleil … but here we are!” Reynolds joked.

It was just one in a series of times in which Reynolds interrupted the concert to reminisce about and pay tribute to Las Vegas.

“Really there are no words for a night like this,” he said at one point. “It feels like the most important night of our career. I love this city. I love you people. I love my family.”

After paying homage to a litany of childhood memories, including radio stations Mix 94.1 and 107.5, the “Mark and Mercedes in the Morning Show,” Chet Buchanan and others, the band launched into “I Bet My Life,” and Reynolds went down the stage stairs, through the crowd on the stadium floor and began to run … all the way around the lower level.

When he was finished, he declared it was his victory lap.

Still, the night was young and the Imagine Dragons weren’t done.Only after another nine songs — and exactly two hours after they started, did the band members join together, arm-in-arm, to take a bow and call it a night.