Imagine Dragons frontman comes full circle at Las Vegas concert — PHOTOS

On a square stage he came full circle.

“This is a song about walking the halls of Bonanza,” Dan Reynolds says to the crowd. “This is true. I promise. I never told anybody this.”

And with that, the band launches into “Thunder,” a song whose bottom-end approximates its titular rumble.

“Kids were laughing in my classes/While I was scheming for the masses,” Reynolds sings, voice hopscotching over finger-snaps and a reverberating beat. “Who do you think you are?/Dreaming ’bout being a big star.”

Those dreams began here at Bonanza High School.

On Friday evening, Reynolds returned to his alma mater with his band Imagine Dragons to play a free outdoor show for students and teachers as part of Walmart’s “Homecoming Concert” series.

This night, this career, was all foretold on a yearbook page a decade and a half ago.

It was 2005, Dan Reynolds’ senior year.

For the yearbook, he was asked where he saw himself in five or 10 years.

“I said something to the extent of, ‘In a world-famous band, playing music,’” Reynolds recalled in an interview the day before the concert. “I know I was definitely being cheeky. Like, I didn’t actually believe that was a thing, but I thought I’d just be funny.

“I think it even said something more extravagant than that,” he continued, “like, ‘In Rolling Stone magazine, performing around the world,’ like some grand dream of a child.”

Of course, Reynolds would realize those aspirations and then some with Imagine Dragons — they were last in Rolling Stone in July — who’ve sold millions of albums and packed arenas from here to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Friday, they played their first show in years here.

“It felt very appropriate to reintroduce ourselves to the stage by being here in the hometown that I love and the school that I cherish, Reynolds told the crowd. “So many memories were made here for me.”

He likely returned the favor to the 800 students and teachers assembled before him during the Dragons’ 65-minute set on a stage erected in front of stadium bleachers.

When the lights went down, their voices went up, with much of the audience down in front leaving their chairs and pressing towards the stage as the band opened with “Believer,” Reynolds spinning himself in circles, whipping out his arms as if hurling fast balls at the crowd, physically enacting the song as much as singing it.

It set an adrenalized tone for the next hour.

Of the 10 songs the band played, three of them were from their forthcoming new album, “Mercury — Act 1,” due out on Friday.

Reynolds struggled to contain his emotions as he introduced the first of them, heavy-hearted ballad “Wrecked,” which is inspired by the death of his sister-in-law Alisha Durtschi after a battle with cancer and which the band performed with a trio of Bonanza High dancers.

“It’s really heavy for me, so it’s going to be hard to do,” Reynolds said of playing the band’s latest single, his voice cracking. “This song as an effort to try to heal.”

Flanked by drummer Daniel Platzman, bassist Ben McKee and guitarist Wayne Sermon, Reynolds urged students to pursue their own paths in life.

“Listen to yourself. Pursue your dreams,” he enjoined. “You can’t lose when you do what you love. You cannot lose.”

It wasn’t just a pep talk for a crowd used to pep rallies. It was meant to serve as living proof of life’s possibilities — possibilities that, for Reynolds, began here.

“High school for me was very transformative,” Reynolds explained before the concert. “I really felt like I found myself in high school at Bonanza. There were so many teachers there who were just incredibly inspiring.

“It formed me into who I am today,” he continued. “I know for a fact that Imagine Dragons wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Bonanza High School.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter and @jbracelin76 on Instagram.