Concert Review: Times may change, but AC/DC is eternal
Commercial Appeal Memphis Online
By Bob Mehr (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Saturday, January 31, 2009
In a year where "change" has been a buzzword and cultural theme, AC/DC remain impervious.
On Friday, during a sold-out show at the FedExForum in support of their latest album Black Ice, the band happily proved that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Offstage, AC/DC is comprised of four rather ruddy looking Australians and Englishmen well into middle age. Onstage, however, they transform themselves, into a gang of naughty schoolboys, using a tried and true selection of songs made up of razorwire guitar riffs, simple pounding rhythms and lots of suggestive lyrics about bad girls and dirty deeds.
The band's Memphis concert stayed faithful to that formula. The extravaganza opened with big screens playing a bawdy cartoon, portraying guitarist Angus Young as a randy railroad conductor driving an out-of-control engine. The animation became reality as the group, accompanied by a giant fire shooting locomotive, hit the stage to the strains of "Rock N' Roll Train."
Though Young -- dressed in his usual schoolboy uniform -- was the undeniable focal point of the show, singer Brian Johnson proved himself the most likeable frontman in rock, constantly pumping up the crowd and the band, and generally acting like everyone' most enthusiastic drinking buddy.
Meanwhile, the rest of the band -- rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd -- stayed largely in the background, providing the sonic foundation.
From the get-go the audience was on its feet, where it remained -- AC/DC concerts do not have any ballads, slow numbers or breathers -- as the band mixed in the occasional new track ("Black Ice"; "War Machine") with a steady diet of favorites ("Back in Black"; "You Shook Me All Night Long").
As always, the show was highlighted by a number of familiar set pieces: Angus' striptease routine during "The Jack"; Johnson swinging from a bell rope for "Hell's Bells." Elsewhere, “Whole Lotta Rosie” — the band’s ode to a well-proportioned stripper — was accompanied by the inflation of a 90-foot foot blow-up doll bouncing and shaking to the beat.
What AC/DC lacks in innovation, they make up for in enthusiasm, as the band delivered the "oi, oi, oi" chants of "TNT" as if it were the first time they were playing the song, rather than the millionth.
After a rousing encore of "Highway to Hell", a phalanx of cannons emerged on stage, for the night-capping rendition of "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)." One booming explosion after another could be heard all down along Beale, as the deliriously happy throngs emptied onto downtown’s streets.
Change, as the saying goes, may be good. But on this night, the same old AC/DC was even better.
-- Bob Mehr: 529-2517
Photos:
Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal
(no sale) Fri, 30 Jan 2009 (nbACDC1) Photo by Nikki Boertman. Brian Johnson and Angus Young (on guitar) of AC\DC perform to a sold-out crowd at the FedExForum Friday evening January 30, 2009. The Aussie legends are on a world tour in support of their new album, Black Ice.
Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal
(no sale) Fri, 30 Jan 2009 (nbACDC2) Photo by Nikki Boertman. Brian Johnson of AC\DC performs to a sold-out crowd at the FedExForum Friday evening January 30, 2009.
