MUSIC
AC/DC
Accor Stadium, November 21
Reviewed by James Jennings
★★★★
Hearing AC/DC’s Thunderstruck played live answers a question you kind of already knew the answer to: yes, it sounds absolutely incredible in a stadium with around 70,000 people doing the “ah-ah, ah ah ah” bits. But when it’s played five songs in, it poses a more difficult question to answer: what are the band going to play as a final song now they’ve gone and ticked off what should be an obvious choice for a concert closer?
It’s a thought that’ll have to wait for later, as pondering anything at an AC/DC concert is a bit like meditating at a monster truck rally – it’s pointless looking inward when your senses can be dazzled by oversized thrills.
AC/DC singer Brian Johnson performs onstage during the Australian leg of the band’s Power Up world tour.Credit:
And there are plenty, from riffs so powerful they practically pick you up by the collar and force you to headbang (Back in Black), to a giant, Spinal Tap-esque bell that descends from on high during, you guessed it, Hells Bells.
Singer Brian Johnson reminds the crowd this is a homecoming show for the Sydney-born band, who’ve been impressively trading in their “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” style of rock’n’roll for over 50 years now (a compliment – thank the rock gods that there were no clumsy excursions into, say, electronica, as per every other rock band in the late-’90s).
For so many decades in, the band sounds great. Johnson’s shriek makes you wonder who’d win a screaming match between him and Jimmy Barnes, while Angus Young dressed in his signature schoolboy uniform absolutely shreds his guitar like a man possessed – taking the Highway to Hell apparently has its benefits.
Unapologetically loud: AC/DC performs in Australia on their world tour.Credit: Rick Clifford
They’re great showmen, and as such, they give the crowd exactly what they want. Only three songs from this century are played, leaving space for classics from Jailbreak to an extended version of Let There Be Rock.
There’s no witty between-song banter, no introspective ballads and absolutely no subtlety, but what there is is bare bones, highly influential, rip-roaring rock’n’roll that no one can quite do like Acca Dacca.
And the encore? A barrage of fake cannon fire and For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) – a future tense song probably more suited as the show’s opening salvo, whereas the past tense of “you’ve been thunderstruck” would’ve made more sense at the end. Still, it’s a minor quibble when we’ve been rocked so hard by true masters of the form.
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