On a recent Wednesday afternoon, a remarkable assembly of 374 pipers united in the heart of Melbourne to perform AC/DC's iconic hit "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock'n'Roll)", establishing a new world record near the famous location where Bon Scott and the band memorably performed the song from a moving truck decades earlier.
This track is the one major hit that AC/DC has retired from concerts, honoring Scott's memory after his death in 1980. But its absence is hardly noticeable when the concert setlist are so packed with beloved classics: an electric excitement swept through the 80,000 concertgoers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as AC/DC opened with "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" and straight away followed with "Back in Black". What other band would dare to deliver such a massive hit so soon after starting? Yet this band does, offering the audience to what essentially is a lengthy best-of compilation.
The lead singer refers to Melbourne AC/DC's 'ancestral homeland'.
Let's address the elephants in the room: yes, the frontman is seventy-eight years of age and, no, his voice doesn't hit the same high notes or sustain as it once did as in the eighties. He can no longer scream with the same intensity on tracks like "High Voltage" or "Highway to Hell", but he surely gives it his all with a smile on his face. The singer was compelled to leave AC/DC's 2016 world tour due to significant hearing issues (Axl Rose filled in), but a remedy was found and it's evident he's thrilled to be on stage, laughing like a gremlin between songs. (The band doesn't engage in chit-chat, and no one minds.)
Similarly, Angus Young – still sporting his signature schoolboy shorts at seventy – is visibly less rapid on certain early tracks, such as the frenetic intro to "Thunderstruck". But it remains "Thunderstruck", and who cares when a whole stadium is singing so powerfully, that joyfully, as one?
With his shock of white hair and slender limbs poking out from his outfit, Young simultaneously looks like an ancient wizard and oddly youthful; when he trots back to the group at the end of a song, he looks like a lost little boy running for his guardians – right up until he begins a frenzied solo, his fingers moving almost too fast to see. He can still duckwalk the length of a massive platform, with intense eyes and juddering around as though he's been struck by lightning.
'The rest of the band fades away as Young struts.'
He slowly loses clothes throughout the performance, even using his necktie like a violin bow to play his guitar. By the end, when his top is largely open, he's in charge of the whole show.
On "Let There Be Rock", Young delivers a extended, indulgent and hugely entertaining guitar solo that almost feels like a dare to any who thought AC/DC weren't still up to it. The rest of the band fade away as Young parades, taking breaks only to savor the applause before collapsing on the ground and writhing like a someone enchanted. "Where did that come from?" Johnson asks later; it's a mystery?
The frontman and guitarist are the main stars, but they have solid backing from rhythm guitarist Stevie Young, who officially came onboard in 2014 after his uncle Malcolm health decline; along with bassist the bass player and drummer Matt Laug, who plays with the fervor of a man trying to trigger an earthquake. Listeners' hearing won't be the same again.
Although the tour is named for the 17th album "Power Up", they only play one song from it. Instead, the audience is treated to the best of the rest: "Shoot to Thrill", "High Voltage", "Highway to Hell", "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "TNT" and "Whole Lotta Rosie". There's space included for a unexpected addition with "Jailbreak", a song they haven't performed since 1991, which is welcomed with massive cheers.
This marks AC/DC's first show in Australia in 10 years, and the city is their opening venue – naturally, it is the band's "ancestral homeland", as Johnson states, being "the home of Mr Scott". It's difficult to ignore that this may be the final global tour, and perhaps even their last trip to the native land – but what a exhilarating show it is for those who secure entry. They deliver and we applaud them.
- The band will perform at the Melbourne Cricket Ground again on 16 November, then Sydney's Accor Stadium on 21 and 25 November, Adelaide on November 30, Perth on December 4 and 8, and Brisbane on 14 and 18 December.
