Emotion? What emotion? “It’s great to see ya all once more, ” mutters AC/DC singer Brian Johnson cheerfully on the finish of tonight’s opening track If You Need Blood (You’ve Obtained It) like he’s walked into a day session at his native boozer fairly than kicking off his band’s first tour in eight years. “Take pleasure in yourselves, OK?”
This famously hard-shelled band don’t do sentimentality, however the 70,000 folks gathered underneath the closed roof of the huge Veltins-Area, simply exterior of the German metropolis of Gelsenkirchen, are positively feeling it. All however probably the most blindly optimistic AC/DC fan doubted this night time would ever come. The band that wound up the Rock Or Bust tour in 2016 had been three key males down: singer Brian Johnson, retired injured midway by way of and changed by stand-in Axl Rose ; drummer Phil Rudd, in authorized scorching water after some ill-advised drug possession/demise threats shenanigans; and, most poignantly, guitarist and AC/DC’s steely coronary heart Malcolm Younger , at dwelling battling the dementia that will finally declare his life (bassist Cliff Williams additionally introduced his retirement after the tour was over). Positive, there was final yr’s comeback on the Energy Journey competition, however who knew the place there that was going to steer.
Right here, because it seems, to the house of German soccer crew FC Schalke, the place the band are belatedly kicking off a 24-date stadium tour in assist of 2020’s Energy Up album. Malcolm, Rudd and Williams aren’t up there anymore, their locations taken respectively by previous standby Stevie Younger plus drummer Matt Laug and bassist Chris Cheney. However Angus Younger continues to be right here and so is Brian Johnson, his debilitating lack of listening to sorted by the surgeons. And that’s what issues.
At 8.30 immediate, the lights go down and the 9 large screens that span the stage pop into retina-searing life. An animated intro video exhibits a flame-red hotrod with furry lightning bolt cube hanging from the mirror and an Angus Younger hood decoration heading down the autobahn to hell to the gig. There’s a roar from the gang because it screeches to a halt in some digital backstage space after which… AC/DC amble onstage prefer it’s simply one other gig.
Which in some ways it’s. It’s precisely the identical setlist as they performed at Energy Journey, with the working order barely remixed. If You Need Blood… and Shot Down In Flames apart, the primary half leans into the Johnson years. Again In Black Thunderstruck and Rock And Roll Practice have change into fashionable classics, however it’s good to listen to Stiff Higher Lip once more, and Shot In The Darkish and Demon Eyes characterize Energy Up (disgrace there’s no Via The Mists Of Time , one the most effective songs they’ve written since Again In Black ). The second half flips the script, focussing on the Bon Scott years: Sin Metropolis , Soiled Deeds Carried out Grime Low cost , Excessive Voltage, Entire Lotta Rosie, TNT … all as acquainted as that pair of denims with the ripped pocket and holes within the arse.
But even AC/DC have moved with the instances. Excluding the enormous bell that descends from the ceiling to usher in Hells Bells , the bodily props of previous – large wrecking balls, inflatable Rosies and the remaining – have been consigned to deep storage. A lot of the visible motion takes place on the enormous screens that span the stage. The crimson visuals give the stadium a hellish solid throughout Demon Eyes , Angus is flame-grilled throughout Freeway To Hell and the band are rendered in moody black and white throughout Again In Black .
(Picture credit score: Ina Dassbender/AFP through Getty Pictures)
There are concessions to age, too. Angus’ mid-solo stripteases are a factor of the previous, as is the sight of him perched on that wrecking ball. However he’s nonetheless the best whole-body guitar participant in historical past, duckwalking by way of Riff Raff and spinning on his again like a silver-haired turtle on the climax of the prolonged, ever-electrifying Let There Be Rock
There are few minor first night time glitches. Angus sidles off to the aspect of the stage to swap his guitar halfway by way of Hell Ain’t A Unhealthy Place To Be . A few songs are preceded by moments of silence because the guitarist and singer huddle around the drumkit, discussing who is aware of what. Somebody backstage might be sweating profusely for his or her job at that time.
Surprises? If you’d like surprises, go see a jazz band. Stevie Younger and Chris Cheney nonetheless amble to and from their microphones twice in each track to sing backing vocals, like they’re on rails. Johnson’s between-song patter continues to be a mixture of unintelligible mumbles, phlegmy coughs, random noise and what at one level seems like a Tarzan impression. And the present nonetheless ends with For These About To Rock (We Salute You) and the deafening sound of these six gigantic cannons exploding from atop the amps. Heavy artillery, like AC/DC themselves, by no means goes out of vogue. It’s the comeback few anticipated however everybody wished. It’s been emotional. It actually has.
