AC/DC – Etihad Stadium

Amongst the sights and sounds I saw and heard at the AC/DC concert on Monday night were

1/ a full size blow-up doll being passed around the crowd in the way that a beachball is usually passed around a crowd.

2/ Two blokes wanting to punch on but being stopped by a 50+ year old, 5 foot tall, round woman wearing flashing red devil horns and giving them a mouthful.

3/ A sixty year old bloke off his head playing air guitar to Dirty Deeds.

4/ A bloke looking lost and when asked what he was looking for he replied “me missus”. When asked what she looked like he replied “she’s wearing red horns”

5/ An 8 year old kid and a 65 year old bloke both dressed in virtually identical Angus Young schoolboy costumes, completely without irony.

6/ A manic bloke charging into the toilets yelling “where can I have a joint” before running out again just as quickly.

And all this was before AC/DC even came on stage – yes, including the bloke playing air guitar to Dirty Deeds.

What a great night out.

Reviewing AC/DC is a completely pointless exercise. They are beyond review.

You can confirm that Brian Johnson was in great voice and marvel at his longevity with the band when he had actually come in as a rapidly acquired replacement for Bon Scott. Who would have guessed he would have lasted this long?

You can gush about the energy displayed by Angus Young and add (or not) “for a man of his age” if you feel like stating the bleeding obvious. But what is more remarkable is when you stop to consider how extraordinary it is that this skinny, little almost elderly bloke who has barely uttered a legible public word in 20 years can hold a stadium sized crowd enthralled by doing nothing more than playing electric guitar and leering like a naughty, well, schoolboy. It makes some of the great stadium rock statement makers like Bono seem terribly overworked.

You can question whether every big screen shot of Malcolm Young was actually different or whether they just used the same shot on repeat.

You can pose sociological questions about the time honoured ritual of young ladies baring their breasts on camera during The Jack but really why would you bother?

You could question the setlist and discuss whether the band had a responsibility to play Long Way To The Top in Melbourne but if you do that you risk sounding like Eddie Maguire (or even James Young) contriving a high horse on Triple M and that’s kinda creepy.

Nope there is no point at all in reviewing AC/DC. If you didn’t go, you probably wont be reading this and if you did go you already know.

Here’s a list of songs they played. My favorite was Shoot To Kill. I don’t know why it was my favorite, it just was. Oh and the opening to the show was the best opening to a rock show I have ever seen.

My second favorite was the other 18. Equally.

# Rock N’ Roll Train
# Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be
# Back in Black
# Big Jack
# Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
# Shot Down in Flames
# Thunderstruck
# Black Ice
# The Jack
# Hells Bells
# Shoot to Thrill
# War Machine
# High Voltage
# You Shook Me All Night Long
# T.N.T
# Whole Lotta Rosie
# Let There Be Rock
# Encore:
# Highway to Hell
# For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)