Sunday, November 16, 2008

AC/DC

My wife and I went to see AC/DC tonight at the Verizon Center in Washington DC. Great show! This is the first time I've ever seen them live, which is kind of sad considering that I bought Back in Black when it first came out in 1980. It was one of the first five or so rock albums that I ever bought. I may even still have that original LP somewhere, though I also have the most recent remastered CD version.

The band isn't quite as energetic now as they were back in the day, based on the footage I've seen. But they still put on a seriously high-energy show. How the hell Angus Young keeps running around the stage like a madman at his age is beyond me. I'm 12 years younger than Angus, and I can barely get out of bed some mornings!

My wife made a good point after the show: songs like "Back in Black" and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" are so iconic, that it's almost weird to actually see the band playing them in front of you.

And what great songs--the show was packed with the sort of classic hard rock that never sounds dated or out of style. Even the songs from their new album Black Ice were very good. I haven't liked any new AC/DC album in a long, long time, but the songs from this one sound damned good.

Brian Johnson is a better frontman than I thought he'd be, though I'll always think of AC/DC, at heart, as being centered around the late Bon Scott's menacing snarl:

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