No need to grade on a curve: AC/DC live still earns a solid A in Atlanta
AC/DC guitarist Angus Young doesn’t really look young anymore. Now 71, his face is weathered, his hair evoking Doc Brown from “Back to the Future.”
But his energy level at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Atlanta Thursday night as part of the band’s Power Up tour was off the charts. Young was a man possessed, playing his Gibson SG electric guitar like it was a beloved appendage. It was as if his signature schoolboy outfit gave him schoolboy-age superpowers.
Over 21 songs and two hours and 20 minutes, Young ran across the stage without any signs of real fatigue. His distinctive and always entertaining duck walks were awe-inspiring.
His fellow longtime patriot in arms, 78-year-old lead singer Brian Johnson, who replaced the late Bon Scott in 1980, brought comparable spark to the stage. Johnson sang songs like “Have a Drink on Me” and “High Voltage” with the vigor of a man half his age and the joy of a musician who clearly loves his craft.
AC/DC has never been a band that has adjusted its sound for the times. Its core 1970s grinding yet melodic bluesy approach didn’t shift when synthesizers became the rage in the 1980s or when grunge overtook the rock world in the 1990s.
As a result, the concert featured no acoustic sets, no power ballads, no reason for anybody to sit down. Every single song was a pile driver to the head, feeding that primal pleasure of a meaty guitar riff over a heavy drum beat and Johnson’s gritty falsetto.
If there was a band tailor-made for a stadium, it’s AC/DC. The stadium featured at least 300 speakers in multiple locations. A huge chunk of the floor was taken up by the soundboard, lighting console and video controls. Three massive screens in the front enabled even those in the nosebleed seats to watch Young’s incomparable fret work.
AC/DC knows what its fans want: music, music and more music.
Leading into “Back in Black” early in the set, Johnson simply said, “We’re going to make rock ‘n’ roll and have some fun so let’s go!”
There was virtually no between-song banter of any consequence, no effort to even introduce the band, which includes rhythm guitarist Stevie Young, a nephew of Angus who replaced the late AC/DC co-founder Malcolm Young, who died in 2017.
Despite its size, the concert was a showcase in simplicity. It was basically five guys attacking a handful of deep cuts from more recent albums (“Demon Fire,” “Shot in the Dark”) amid nearly every classic AC/DC song even casual rock fans would recognize.
The iconic opening guitar riffs from songs like “Hells Bells,” “Thunderstruck” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” brought the crowd into a frenzy. And proving the band’s broad appeal, the audience was comprised of multiple generations, with plenty of parents with kids.
Hundreds of fans wearing AC/DC shirts regularly thrust their hands up with the devil horns hand sign and wore goofy lit-up red devil’s horns. It was a cheeky nod to the 1980s Satanic Panic when some zealous religious groups accused the band of being a highway to hell for rebellious teens.
Angus Young has repeated in interviews over the years that all this imagery and lyrical content about hell and the devil was pure tongue-in-cheek theatrics and nothing more.
In fact, when Young used his forefingers to create horns on his head at one point, it felt more comical than frightening.
If anything, Young worships at the altar of rock ‘n’ roll, the concert an excuse to gather tens of thousands of his disciples for communal love of the ax.
As the clock passed 10 p.m., after shedding his jacket and tie, Young gave fans what he pulls off every concert during “Let There Be Rock”: a fiery 20-minute tour de force guitar solo.
Is that too long? Maybe. But his feral intensity, dogged commitment and incredible finger dexterity made it all worthwhile.