The man next to me is slumped over on the floor in front of his seat. He's grabbing at the waist-high brick barrier that keeps the audience off the field at AT&T park. His head hangs below his shoulders as if he might puke. Suddenly I realized what happened — Angus Young's almost 20-minute long guitar solo nearly killed this man.
When Young first began tearing into his solo during "Let There Be Rock" Friday night at AT&T Park, the man next to me was dancing and having a good time. He had seen me taking notes and inquired what the title of the previous song, "Whole Lotta Rosie," was. But by the time Young's possessed offering to the guitar-worshiping crowd was over, venue staff was helping this crowd member out of the building.
He didn't want to go and told the staff he was OK, but they wanted to be sure. It appeared as if he fainted.
Angus Young, on the other hand, only seemed to become more alive with every minute of the performance. The solo started on stage with the rest of the band, but soon saw Young out on a protruding section of the stage alone with the 44,000 in attendance. The band faded away visually and sonically as Young broke away from the song's riffs with a rapid-fire bursts of notes all over the neck of his guitar, building tension with each one. He punctuated the deep bends and blistering barrage of notes with chunks of feedback where he taunted the crowd with some Hulk Hogan-esque cupping of his ear.
"Let me hear it," the gesture said. The crowd responded with an echoing roar (sure to cause a few noise complaints), so Young gave them some more face-melting solo — this time with one hand. A hydraulic system lifted Young's portion of the stage 20 feet in air. Confetti shot out of cannons, covering an elevated Young, who laid on his back atop the platform, soloing his heart out. The platform eventually lowered enough for Young to run across the stage, gasping for air like a fish out of water, and take an elevator up to the top of 48 guitar cabs so he could continue to solo.
But it would be easier to describe where Young
wasn't during his solo rather than where he was — because he was everywhere; the stage, the sky, atop the equipment backline, kicking his feet around on his back — it was an iron man-length solo that spoke to the enthusiasm the band still plays with.
AC/DC kicked off the night with an inspired performance of "Rock or Bust," the title track of its latest album. But the crowd — a multi-generational bunch with all ages wearing flashing red devil horns — was excited before the band even hit the stage. The woman who was sitting in my seat when I arrived explained excitedly that she'd driven from South Lake Tahoe to see AC/DC for the third time in her life. She wanted to get closer, but, and I quote, "That lady [guarding entrance to the field] is such a bitch ... I was like, 'Dude, I'll give you all the cash in my pocket [if you let me through], man!'"
But her concerns were soothed as soon as the band (accompanied by a blast of fireworks) hit the stage. Despite AC/DC's tumultuous year, filled with obstacles both legal and medical, Young led the band through the kind of performance that's impossible to be unsatisfied with. It was a balls to the wall, full-throttled, teeth-rattling, shoot-to-thrill ride from start to finish. The band — who by all accounts no longer have any business having their close-ups projected onto 100-foot tall screens — gave the crowd everything it had, and the crowd gave it right back in response.
Brian Johnson seemed to struggle just a bit maintaining power for his vocals at times, but made up for it with great charisma and crowd interaction. His tongue-out, hip-shaking moves entertained and tickled the crowd. My section (the first row in right field) suffered from being near the secondary PA relay system, which is designed to project the music to people in the upper deck behind home plate. But for the thousands of people in my general area, the result was a muddy sound where your left ear caught sound out of the relay system a second after your right ear caught it from the main stage. It's a common problem at big outdoor concerts, but an annoying one no less.
The band mixed in old and new material well — feeding the crowd with enough hits throughout the set to keep the momentum up for the new stuff. But as the band entertained with high-energy stage antics, a giant inflatable Rosie, cannons, fireworks, and intro clip that showed men on the moon being burned alive by the power of AC/DC, I began to realize its latest title track may capture AC/DC's spirit more than any other at this point.
For AC/DC, "Rock or Bust" isn't just a song — it's a life choice. The big screen often caught a fire in the eyes of Johnson that blew the show's rather large pyro budget out of the water. It made it clear this band is going to rock until they are physically unable to. And history has proven that when one of them can't, they'll add in a mate who can. In fact, on stage it seems like perhaps rocking is the
only thing these men know how to do anymore. Beneath the lights, the big stage, the (literal) bells and crowd-sourced whistles is a raw, honest performance of some of the best rock music around.
So when Young's signature school boy outfit had been stripped down to just a dress shirt and tie, and he looked like an old man who had just been woken up by a bump in the night, he didn't scramble to grab the classic baseball bat. Instead, he trusted the power of his axe to defend his territory as one of rock 'n' roll's greatest guitarists.
"In rock we trust, it's rock or bust."
— Matt Saincome is on Twitter (@MattSaincome). You should tweet at him to review your shitty album, 'cause that works.
Setlist:
Rock or Bust
Shoot to Thrill
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Play Ball
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Thunderstruck
High Voltage
Rock 'n' Roll Train
Hells Bells
Baptism by Fire
You Shook Me All Night Long
Sin City
Shot Down in Flames
Have a Drink on Me
T.N.T.
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
15-20 minute long Angus Young guitar solo
Encore:
Highway to Hell
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
Top Fan:
click to enlarge
