Trailblazing Hard Rock band AC/DC step-out one more time for a fender stratocastor hell of a time at one of Melbourne’s most iconic venue…The MCG. Fifty years after the boys first step’t out onto the world stage, AC/DC’s 50th Anniversary Power Up Tour illuminated the night sky’s once again, and judging by their hardcore supporters they could do no wrong. Which is quite befitting for a band that has come a long way!

Brian Johnson came onto the stage and started the performance on a personal note with a bow to Bon Scott by uttering the words Mr Scott, that’s when all 3 large LCD screens appeared. That’s important because when Angus played the fender stratocastor with an eagerness that kept everyone in the audience on the edge of their seats with Brian Jonhson in-frame everyone was transported to another place. Somewhere you could only have been.. if you were there.

With rifts that paid hommage to their original sound and iconic hard rock image along with the performance was nothing short of spectacular. I swear the music at the MCG that night was so loud and with so much electric energy that even my hair follicles were dancing to their music. This is a band with their captivating energy and zest for life that doesn’t let you down. Heading-up their 50th anniversary tour down under the more familiar track from back-in-a-day had the crowd jumping to’For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)‘, the follow-up album to “Back in Black”.

Back in Black found everyone in the audience hoisted to their feet in admiration for an iconic rock band, making a return to their original stomping ground here in melbourne. ‘Back in Black‘ was the first album featuring Brian Johnson as lead singer, following the death of their previous vocalist Bon Scott. Released in 1980 the all-black cover was designed as a “sign of mourning” for Bon Scott.

Shoot to Thrill

Flicking the switch to more recent days and ‘Shoot to Thrill‘ gave the audience of both persuasion, young and old, male and female.. a stern full throttle perspective of life’s potential for all to have fun. Their promotional video for the film Iron Man 2 was released in 2010. Shoot to Thrill was the second track from their seventh studio album Back in Black recorded in the Bahamas in 1980.

On 26 January 2010, a new music video for “Shoot to Thrill” was released with exclusive footage from the film Iron Man 2. The live concert footage used in the video was filmed in December 2009 at a concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the Estadio Monumental

Hells Bells

Around the time of the band’s arrival in the Bahamas to record their seventh studio (‘concrete bunker’) album “Back in Black”, the area was hit by several tropical storms, which wreaked havoc on the electricity at Compass Point. That’s when Johnson got the bold idea to reference the bad weather on the opening lines of “Hells Bells“: “I’m rolling thunder, pourin’ rain. I’m comin’ on like a hurricane. My lightning’s flashing across the sky. You’re only young but you’re gonna die.” In addition to the bad weather and the threat of Haitian gangs stealing their equipment, some of the group’s equipment was initially held up by customs, while other gear was slowly freighted over from the UK.

Starring Role

If location is everything AC/DC’s live performance at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne on December 5, 1976 as part of their “A Giant Dose of Rock ‘n’ Roll” tour lit the nightskys’ on fire with the iconic track “Baby Please Don’t Go” by Big Joe Williams. Their high-energy performance featured Angus Young’s electrifying guitar solo and his iconic schoolboy outfit, while Bon Scott commanded the stage with his raw, powerful vocals. The track ranked no. 10 on the US music charts.

That was clearly a very different time were political correctness wasn’t even a word most people had heard of as Angus stripped-off down to his underpants before mooning the audience. As if to egg the audience on, he took his shirt off then held his shirt out gauging the audience response for more unfurling of clothes, and you bet your bottom dollar he did. Topless male performers wasn’t uncommon in those days, though Angus decided to take things from ten to eleven by going one more.

Jailbreak

Jailbreak was first released as a single in Australia and the UK in mid-1976, with the non-album track “Fling Thing” as its B-side. The single was re-issued in the UK in 1980 with a picture sleeve.

The music video for “Jailbreak” was filmed in March 1976 for the Australian music program Countdown. Filming was directed by Paul Drane in a quarry in the Melbourne suburb of Albion, near Sunshine. The video featured the band’s then-current lineup playing the song. Angus Young is dressed in what he later described as “little convict pajamas”, Bon Scott and Phil Rudd are dressed in blue prisoner uniform covered with typical Australian broad arrow, and Malcolm Young and Mark Evans are dressed as guards.

There is clearly much, much more I could talk about when it comes to a band like AC/DC, one of the most iconic bands of my lifetime.. not with-standing nearly three generations of Aussies too. If you’re an Acca Dacca fan like me, and your neck wasn’t twitching in anticipation to the next drum-roll or guitar-solo then you probably weren’t there that night. The boys now in their 70’s pulled-out-all-the-stops to put on one hell of a performance and they did that in-spades.

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