It's Veteran's Day here in the States and what better time to salute the best band in the world over the last 35 years with another edition of AC/DC News.
For starters, AC/DC was awesome in Toronto last week according to the PaulyBlog. Another fan, at The Giant Panther, also shared his thoughts on the recent AC/DC concert in Boston last week.
Great photos from a couple of AC/DC's recent shows can be found here, here and here. Don't ask me which shows they're from because I've already forgotten...
Yet another Black Ice CD review can be found at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. (Apparently, people in Tennessee are so slow that they need to be reminded of a reason to go to Wal-Mart.)
Finally, if you haven't heard the word yet, AC/DC's record company reps are claiming that the band is the biggest selling artist in the world for 2008. Bravewords has the story or you can just take Sony/Columbia's word for it like I have.
Fellow Blogger, Zach's Travels, has posted a detailed story of his journey to see AC/DC last Saturday night which is the kind of review I'd like for fans to add here if they have the time. Consequence of Sound also has a review of the same show.
Definitely not Phil Rudd
If you're still undecided on whether you're going to spend your hard earned dough on AC/DC's Rock Band pack, you might want to check out these helpful previews from Destructoid and Gamespy first. Too bad they don't have animated AC/DC characters in the game. I guess Malcolm and the boys weren't paid well enough for that to happen!
Nuclear Family Warhead has a cute story about a boy who wanted to be Angus Young for Halloween.
Glide Magazine has offered up their CD review of Black Ice, giving it three and a half stars out of five.
Here's a hilarious video taken of AC/DC during their Rolling Stone photo session. Note the sarcasm in their voices about finally being on the cover after a mere 30 years in rock 'n' roll...
More pics from one of the gigs in Chicago (probably Saturday's) have turned up online. A rocker on Myspace has posted 300+ photos of his recent night with AC/DC at the Allstate Arena, too. AC/DC Italia has some really nice photos of that show, as well.
There's an interview of Brian & Angus on Spanish TV found here. However, you'll need to update to Windows Media Player 11 to see it. Hopefully, someone will post it to YouTube soon.
That's all for now! Check back later today for updates. If you attend tonight's show, please post a review for us all to check out in the comments section below.
AC/DC's Rock Band 2 Expansion pack goes on sale today exclusively at Wal-Mart in the U.S. and in a variety of stores across the rest of the free world.
In tour news, the set list at last night's AC/DC concert in Chicago was identical to their first performance in the Windy City on the 30th of last month. Here's a few videos from yesterday evening's show from different sources:
Anything Goes
Thunderstruck (not from close up but has decent sound)
TNT
AC/DC has dropped out of the #1 album sales spot in Australia and Ireland according to Undercover News. We'll have to wait and see how Black Ice fares in other countries, but I'm confident sales will still be strong for a while longer.
In an interesting development, Colin Burgess, AC/DC's first drummer, has crawled out from under the woodwork to talk to the Daily Telegraph about his thoughts on the new album and his days with AccaDacca. For the record, Burgess feels Black Ice sounds more like something Bon Jovi might release and he goes on to say that AC/DC was wrong for sacking him back in the day. Apparently, he was fired for being drunk on stage one night but he now says it was not his fault because his drink was spiked. For the full story, click here.
Actually, the best AC/DC item of the day comes from the Daily Telegraph, as well. They've posted forty-five photos in a gallery they're calling "AC/DC Bon and Beyond" and there's even a few pictures in it that I've never seen before.
The Sunday Sun, a paper in Northern England, has a brief article today that's mainly about Brian Johnson which you'll probably enjoy should you care to read it.
Finally, The Malaysian Star has posted their review of Black Ice which I'm sure you've been waiting for with baited breath. (It's actually not a bad read at all, by the way.) Also, here's some pics courtesy of DC101 from the Sunday Night show in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
AC/DC's Malcolm Young at the Allstate Arena 10/30/08
A set of 20 photos from AC/DC's October 30th show in Chicago has been posted online at Monsters and Critics. One of the nice things about the set taken by Adam Bielawski is that all of the band's members are included.
If you went to the concert tonight, please let us know if the set list was any different from AC/DC's previous Black Ice outings.
Additionally, The Toronto Sun has some excellent photos of yesterday evening's show at Allstate Arena.
By the way, if you're interested in checking out AC/DC on the first North American leg of their Black Ice World Tour, you may want to start here to see which shows still have tickets available.
If you had paperless tickets for the Chicago and/or the Wilkes-Barre show, how did that work out for you? Any problems or long lines getting into the arenas or was it speedier than normal?
AC/DC took the stage last night for the first time in over five years at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Here's what one fan had to see about the big event!
Hey Jon,
Just got in from the show! What started off as expectations for a late night, turned out to work out well. So first off, I'll just state the obvious, it was at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The show was NOT sold to fill the capacity of the arena. There were maybe 3-4,000 people there. The venue was small to begin with and none of the upper tier seats were filled. It was just the 9 floor section and the sides. The show started at 8:10 ish with an animated video on the big screen of Angus and Brian on a speeding train. The stage prop was a huge train. There was no opening act tonight, so once they were on they would play for about an hour and 20 minutes and then they were done.
Before the show I happened to notice a huge setlist written out (I guess for all the songs they rehearsed) I didn't take a peak because I wanted the show to be a surprise. The set-list was short, but after talking to a sound guy, they said they would probably add like 6 or 7 to this "rough skeleton". There weren't any major errors during the show, all I am saying is that it was amazing. It was by far one of the best concerts I've been to (I've seen almost a couple hundred other bands). Angus is a maniac, he is 53 and was a ball of fire on the stage. There is a huge catwalk and they use it during the show.
So enough of the potatoes, here is the meat! The set-list:
Rock N Roll Train Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be Back In Black Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Thunderstruck Hells Bells You Shook Me All Night Long T.N.T. Black Ice Whole Lotta Rosie Let There Be Rock/ Angus Young solo --- Highway To Hell For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
I took a bunch of pictures, I will upload soon! Thanks- Chris
Video footage from the show has already made it to YouTube though this clip has no audio.
Evidently, however, bootlegger's were in attendance to mark the special occasion as this audio has also surfaced of Rock N Roll Train. (Brian sounds a bit nervous to me, by the way.)
There's more video footage from the show available here though it's not the greatest quality.
The best footage I've seen from the show is this clip of Back In Black. Hopefully, more video from the show will be uploaded soon by the same fan!
A picture of the setlist did appear on Blabbermouth, but it's a bit hard to read in this format.
Bravewords also posted a short review of the special show which you can read in full here. Furthermore, they have an excellent photo from the concert in which you can finally see the Rock N Roll Train!
There are also several very good shots from last night available here and here, as well. More news and info on the show and other AC/DC happenings as we get it in. Keep checking back!
Motor Trend magazine recently posted a fascinating article about Brian Johnson's love of racing historic motor cars which features plenty of details and photos of his own personal collection of exotic vehicles, too. Check it out here. If you wish to skip directly to the extensive photo gallery, click on this link.
In other news, AC/DC fans in Switzerland have blown a fuse over Black Ice Tour tickets sales in their country. Apparently, the March 29th show in Zurich sold out in less than 30 minutes and many were instantly for sale by Ebay scalpers shortly thereafter. (Of course!)
