Hey, it’s my birthday today and as a special treat I am giving everyone a three day weekend!  No, I am not revealing my age.  I wanted to actually make this post a few days ago so it would be fresh in my mind, but I ended up getting bogged down in some other things I had to get done before the big holiday weekend.  Luckily the event left a pretty lasting impression on me.  So, the topic today is… My wife and I had the opportunity to see AC/DC in St. Louis MO last Tuesday.  They were in the midst of their latest tour to promote their new Black Ice album.

follow the link to read just how good of a time we had!

Unfortunately it ended up being an extremely cold that day.  Although we were actually heading further South, it was still in the teens if not lower.  This made the 2 block walk from the Union Station (where we were staying that night) to the old Kiel Arena rather brisk.  Oh, and as far as the Kiel names goes, I know it has changed, but we have watched a number of Blues games down there and that will always be the name we use.  This corporate sponsoring of arenas gets a little old after awhile especially if it keeps changing names.

When we arrived, The Answer had already started their set.  To be honest, I thought they were pretty good and just might check out their album to see how they translate into the studio.  As I walked past the merchandising area, I noticed they were selling plastic lighted horns (even blinking).  I chuckled and noted that particular item probably doesn’t generate much revenue.  When I entered into the arena I realized that opinion was completely wrong.  I counted at least 300 of them as I sat there waiting for Linda to come back with some food.  That quick count leads to a tasty revenue of 300 units *$15/pair = $4500.  Easily double that for the portion of the arena I couldn’t see.  I was unable to find a good picture of them on the web (assuming people were too embarrassed to admit they wasted their money), but here is a crappy Razor phone picture of one – sorry about the picture quality (more to come), but needless to say, my Razor is finally going straight into the trash.

I could probably go on and on about this concert, but in short, it was definitely in my top two concerts of all time.  I have been struggling to compare it to the ZZ Top concert I saw when I was attending the University of Illinois, but there were other reasons that make that concert so memorable.  For those that know me… yes, it was better than both the Stones concerts I’ve see if nothing else the sheer difference in ticket prices compared to the effort put forth by the bands.  I cannot remember the exact price, but AC/DC ranged in the $80 ticket price compared to the overpriced $300 I spent to see just one of the Stones’ concerts.

They started out with the now typical anime with the sultry women and the likeness of Angus (complete with horns and the devil tail) fueling the locomotive engine to maximum speed.  Eventually the cartoon comes to a crashing end which ignited a tremendous flash and accompanying pyro onstage.  What I was not prepared for was the huge locomotive that literally emerged from behind the stage and end up sliding up to be the backdrop for the entire stage.  There is no way to make out the detail, but just to let you know I was really there, here is another awful Razor snapshot:

You can barely make out the engine nose on the left side of the stage.  The rest of the stage set was clean and minimal.  They had the platform out to mid audience for some greater interaction, but there was no wire clutter or even guitar pedals.  I am guessing the techs were making the required amp changes and Angus was moving the entire time.  And there they played pretty much non-stop for around an 1hr 45min.  This was a little shorter than I expected, but to be honest, they really didn’t waste a lot of time gabbing it up.  Brian Johnson did interact with the crowd showing appreciation for everyone singing while slapping as many of their hands as he could reach from the pathway.  Beyond that, they just rocked it out.  They threw in a few of their new songs and then went right back to the steak and potatoes that earned their devoted following.   Nothing like being in a concert that is a) completely sold out and b) everyone is really into it and engaging with the band.  Since everyone knows their lyrics by heart, everyone was having a great time…. some were having maybe tooooo much fun.  Linda tapped me on the shoulder and directed my eyes to the adjacent section about a row or two down from us.  For some reason one of the women decided it was just to hot and decided to take her top off.  This might have been a pleasant observation had she not been at least 150 to 200 pounds overweight.  Her skinny black bra straps were buried in flesh and defying all laws of physics.  I tried to snap a few shots, but you know how this is going to go:

her top is off in the one above, but you can’t really see it very well other than her black bra straps.

but as you can tell, apparently her companion approved.  As a note, everyone around them was chuckling at her and a number of better cameras were in full use.  Welcome to the Internet, I hope it was worth making a fool of yourself.

As the show progressed, a couple of things stuck out as interesting.  First off, both Malcolm and the bassist never strayed far from the sides of the drummer.  There they stood pounding out the backbeat while Brian and Angus worked their magic out front.  Every once in awhile they would migrate out to the front for backing vocals (on Dirty Deeds etc.), but then slink back to the drummer area once their task was completed.  By the way, Malcolm is a dead ringer for Iggy Pop these days.  The drummer by the way was amazing.  I realize AC/DC is noted for their stripped down base riffs, but his ability to keep that barrage of beats going without tiring is incredible.  Especially since he had a cigarette hanging from his mouth on a number of songs.  Just thinking about it makes me want to crank up Rock Band and bang out Let There Be Rock on the new drumset.  The other observation is the fact Brian and Angus give it their all while they are out there.  Brian (at 61) is maintaining his signature screech through every song in the set and Angus … well, he is still Angus.  He never stops moving.  The Jumbotron was busy detailing the sweat pouring off his body and capturing some awesome fretwork.  Linda was actually a little shocked when Angus went into his strip routine.  I think she was praying he wouldn’t display ALL of his 53 yr old body (he complied and just presented his AC/DC boxers to the elated crowd).

As you are probably aware, Angus has embraced the devil child persona which he used to excite the crowd during his impressive solos.  At one point he made the trek out to the center of the audience to do his patented shred spin on the floor.  In this particular stage setup, he had a plexiglass ring on scissor lifts to extend up over the crowd.  Unlike the other pansy hard rockers, he didn’t strap into any wimpy harnesses for his trip into the air (yes, I’m talking about you TSO who had to have their rowdies put their safety straps on before they went up – kind of hard to look like a tough metal shredder with a safety belt on).  While Angus was up on the platform, I noticed some pretty powerful imagery.  I  do not know if this was intentionally planned or not, but it sure caught my eye.  There he was, Rock ‘n Roll’s Devil Child up on the platform bathed in light from the heavens.  If there was one shot I really really would like to have better quality of, it has to be this one:

Again, I do not know if it was intentional or even if anyone else had the same visual impression, but I thought it was stunning.  Especially when combined with the encore visuals which included a hole in the stage complete with smoke and fire effects.  After about a minute, Angus emerged from the hole with his trademark horns.  Powerful imagery don’t you think?

As Linda and I reflected on the concert during our drive back to Peoria we did comment on two other observations.  One of these is the fact they didn’t play the toy game and keep switching their instruments in and out.  Granted they probably don’t change their song key a lot, but clearly they are taking full opportunity with the cranked amps and effects as needed.  It is refreshing to see a group of musicians walk out on stage with complete mastery of the tool they brought with them.  I often think other groups just do that in a weak attempt to try and impress the crowd.  Much like many of the new punk bands that flash around the fretboard only to come back to the two power chord strings that comprise 95% of their song.  The radio DJs were also discussing the show and one of them took his young kid to see the event.  He forced a laugh out of us when he mentioned that he asked his kid what his favorite part of the show was and he quickly recalled “when the guy took off his clothes”.  The DJ was a little relieved that it was not the giant blow up “Rosie” doll they had as a prop for that song.

Ironically, the urban myth in Peoria is that AC/DC is banned here due to firing off their cannons when instructed not to do it by the event organizers.  A local DJ has been running a campaign to get them to come to the area, but quite frankly, I do not know why they would do that.  We hold about 9,000 for a large concert here.  They easily had 20K+ in St. Louis and I highly doubt their stage setup would even fit in civic center arena.  If for some reason they do make it here, you can count on Linda and I making the effort to catch them again.  Nothing like feeling the boom of their war cannons as they provide their salute to those about to “Rock” – and that includes former country music listeners like my wife (I introduced her to music that doesn’t suck).  Two thumbs up from us and here’s to crossing another “life list” item off.  We had actually planned to travel pretty far if we had to in order to see these guys.  We lucked out when they decided to crank out a new album.  Side note, it was a -30 without windchill when we woke up yesterday.  Makes the temperature the night of concert quite balmy.  To bad we are in the midst of Global Warming … oh wait…

Check out my new cool concert shirt:

Rock On!