No Guts, No Glory – Airbourne (EMI)

Has anyone mentioned Airbourne sound a bit like AC/DC?

Actually every review that’s ever been written of the band since their first shows in the Warrnambool area to their recent years touring America and Europe as headliners and on big heavy rock bills has mentioned their affinity with the greatest of all Oz rockers. It’s more than an elephant in the room, it’s steaming herd of rampaging pachyderms.

But does it matter? Not to me. This is just a great rock album, better than just about any other hard rock album I’ve heard in recent times and I don’t mind admitting it. Apparently that might make me something of an apologist as apparently it’s not cool to admit to loving what these guys do. Apparently there’s something deeply unacceptable about being derivative.

Maybe its only when you get to my age that you realise that 95% of new music is derivative, and of the 5% that isn’t about 4.5% of it isn’t any bloody good.

I can live with derivative, at least when its derived from sources as impeccable as this.

Derivative would be useless though if the songs were no good. Fortunately Joel O’Keefe and his brother Ryan O’Keefe have worked out how to patch together a tune. You take a great title that sounds good as a chanted chorus, whack in a few evocative lines of lyric and wrap the whole thing up in a heavy riffing, sledge hammer thwacking guitars and tell the rhythm section that if they pull back from anything other than full throttle then they’ll lose their share of the rider.

J O’K has never struggled in the vocal department but he actually sounds better than ever on this album. He might have had a slight tendency to strangle the lyrics on their debut album but this time around he’s right in the money. He doesn’t try any vocal gymnastics but just delivers on every song – he actually works to the song, and doesn’t try to overshadow it.

The thing about Airbourne is that they don’t try to be anything they are not. They are an honest, blue collar rock band. And a really good one. Anyone thinking differently is obviously trying too hard to find something that’s just not there.

Embrace the elephant!

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)

AC/DC Tour Announced

As expected AC/DC have announced an Australian and New Zealand tour starting at the end of January 2010. Tickets go on sale May 25.

It will be the bands first Australian tour since the Stiff Upper Lip tour in 2001 and perform in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane Adelaide and Perth.

Only one date is announced in each city so far but the possibility certainly exists for more given that there is a big gap between cities. Then again maybe it just gives the band plenty of days off!

Speaking in the Herald Sun in Melbourne this morning Angus Young explained the bands approach to their new album Black Ice and how it impacted on their touring.

“You want them (the fans)  to hear that and go, “That’s AC/DC”. But you also want them to hear it and go, “but its AC/DC playing something new”.

“That, for us is always the challenge. You hope that your songwriting, the way you’re doing it, is getting better.”

Vocalist Brian Johnson recently spoke to Q Magazine about the bands willingness to keep touring

“It gets harder but there’s something about it when you finish and you look into the crowd and you’ve driven them into this sweat-soaked fucked up state”

“They look at you, going, ‘Who’s gonna give up first?’ And its not gonna be me.”

The Dates (so far)

January 30, Wellington, venue to be confirmed
February 6, Auckland, venue to be confirmed
February 11, Melbourne, Etihad Stadium
February 18, Sydney, ANZ Stadium
February 25, Brisbane, Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre
March 2, Adelaide, Adelaide Oval
March 6, Perth, Subiaco

As reported on this website a couple of months ago the setlist from the commencement of the tour reads very well. February 2010 is a long way away and there is a chance the list will be tinkered with between then and now. But if it looks anything like this for the Australian tour we will have no complaints.

Rock n Roll Train (from Black Ice, 2008)
Hell Ain’t a Bad Place To Be (from Let There Be Rock, 1977)
Back In Black (from Back In Back, 1980)
Big Jack (from Black Ice, 2008)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, 1976)
Shot Down in Flames (from Highway To Hell, 1979)
Thunderstruck (from The Razors Edge, 1990)
Black Ice (from Black Ice, 2008)
The Jack (from TNT, 1975)
Hells Bells (from Back In Back, 1980)
Shoot to Thrill (from Back In Back, 1980)
War Machine (from Black Ice, 2008)
Anything Goes (from Black Ice, 2008)
You Shook Me All Night Long (from Back In Back, 1980)
TNT (from TNT, 1975)
Whole Lotta Rosie (from Let There Be Rock, 1977)
Let There Be Rock (from Let There Be Rock, 1977)

Encore:
Highway To Hell (from Highway To Hell, 1979)
For Those About To Rock (from For Those About To Rock, 1981)

Rare AC/DC Rennie Ellis Photos Uncovered

Rennie Ellis was a Melbourne photographer who changed the way pop culture was documented in Australia. He managed to blur the line between populism and art and helped us view celebrity in a new light and view society as a place where everyone was a celebrity – at least in the eyes of his camera.

Since his death in 2003 a number of exhibitions of his work have been made to go along with a number of books that had been published during his life.

Most recently though Ellis’s work has received some international attention relating to the release of the new AC/DC album Black Ice.

A number of AC/DC retrospectives have resulted and have focussed on some amazing photos Rennie Ellis took of the band in 1978 when he joined them in Atlanta, Georgia.

The photos capture the band, and in particular Bon Scott and Angus Young, in candid backstage moments as well as on stage.

The photos along with other remarkable examples of Rennie Ellis’s work can be found at http://www.rennieellis.com.au/