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On September 3rd, 2015 I saw what I suspect will be my final AC/DC concert. It was an outdoor show in Ottawa at Lansdowne Park and I had a pretty good time all ’round.
(Nothing like my first AC/DC show in ’91 which blew the roof off of my brain, nor the time I saw them in ’09 when I was seated next to a drunk angry biker who was threatening everyone around us with a group beatdown after the show. That was the last time I felt the exhilerating danger of attending a hedonistic rock concert.)
The opening act was called Vintage Trouble, a well-dressed retro R&B outfit that offered an easy listening soundtrack to the stadium-wide people-watching session that took over my attention during the remaining daylight. Though my seat was on the floor I started with a lazy perusal through the south side mezzanine. One thing in particular that caught my eye from up there was the bar. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Dude, you are always looking for the bar,” to which I reply: “You’ve been reading too many of these ticket stories, mom.”
No, the reason I mention the bar is because it was massive. The bar took up approximately a third of the floor space, which was a football field. The floor seating went about thirty or forty rows back from the stage before being interrupted by the field-wide bar, which was cordoned off to hold hundreds of servers and beer runners manning thirty or more registers on each side! So they had a bevy of bartenders serving the front third of the floor section and another row of bartenders facing away from the stage serving the people seated behind the bar in the back third of the floor.
I eventually descended to find my seat in the back of the front of the floor, close to the bar. Despite the vast array of expedient servers I still found a sizeable line between me and beers when I wanted them, so I tried not to want them often. Vintage Trouble made that pretty easy; AC/DC made it harder. Why?
Because no matter how old AC/DC gets, no matter how many band members are replaced*, no matter how watered down and predictable their concerts become, AC/DC still remains one of the world’s greatest party bands, period. Especially live.
Their shows are just so blatantly fun. So finger-raising, so fist pumping, so high-fiving, and yes, so beer-swilling that the promotors decided that a bar that covers a third of a football field is neccessary to meet the party needs of an AC/DC concert.
Shoot to Thrill, Back in Black, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Whole Lotta Rosie, You Shook Me All Night Long, Hell’s Bells…I mean when it comes to rock & roll party music these are anthems, every one. And on top of that AC/DC has an absolute dynamo in Angus Young. As much fun as it is to listen to him, it is ten times funner watching him. You just can’t find a better personification of the pure unadulterated thrill of live rock music than Angus. And he’s a simply astounding musician. To pull off his guitar work whilst comfortably seated is challenging enough, but to do it while running back and forth across a hundred-foot stage at top speed is (I’m guessing) quite another thing altogether.
Basically, as long as he’s in the band it’s worth going to see them. Hmm. So maybe this won’t be my last time after all.
(Postscript: In case I haven’t mentioned this before, I’d like to put the whole “AC/DC’s songs are all alike” thing to rest right now.
They aren’t.
As a matter of fact, as a guy who has taught dozens of their songs to hundreds of guitar students over the years, I can’t think of two AC/DC songs that are similar. Think of the riff for Thunderstruck. Now think of TNT. Nothing alike. How about Highway to Hell? Again, totally different from the other two. Now go through those songs I mentioned a few paragraphs ago and you’ll notice that all of them are totally different.
I think the reason people think that AC/DC’s songs are all the same is because they have a sound that is so wholly unique and so instantly identifiable that to many it just sounds like the same song over and over again. Which is wrong, and also how I heard the Grateful Dead when I first started listening to them, and for exactly the same reasons.)
*In this case rhythm guitarist and band anchor Malcolm Young (1953-2017) had been replaced by his and Angus’ nephew Stevie Young, and drummer Phil Rudd was temporarily out of the band due to being under lengthy house arrest. Fortunately Brian Johnson was still on stage at this show. He would soon be temporarily replaced by Axl Rose, if you can believe that.
Todd Man Out 