It took Harry Guerin a long time to get around to seeing the legends. They were worth the wait.
In an endlessly quotable life, Van Halen singer David Lee Roth's two cents' worth about live gigs ranks among his very best. "If you can't do it in a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans under one white light bulb," Roth said, "you can't do it!"
Now, AC/DC had tonnes of lights, videos and props for their long-awaited show at the Aviva on Wednesday night, but had they left them all in the trucks around Bath Avenue, given most of the riggers and crew the night off and resorted to a single 100-watt, the result would've been exactly the same: the biggest and best backroom band in the world, shrinking another stadium and owning a crowd.
With punctuality that would do Marty DiBergi proud, they came on as agreed at 8:30pm and did everything that was expected of them. And then some. The quintet's combined age stands at 318, but their energy and hunger to do the job right are rarely seen with such intensity in acts 40 years their junior. Remember that the next time you see a lad in skinny jeans throw a strop.
In green schoolboy uniform for the night that was in it, guitarist Angus Young looks, at 60, like he's good for another 20 years of riffing, soloing, running and duck-walking. Experiencing his performance brought to mind that great insight from football manager Bob Paisley about how, at the top level, the first two yards are in your head. Just to watch the close-ups on the video screens of the sweat pouring out of his hands on the fretboard was a reminder to never be jaded, no matter what birthday you're celebrating or job you're doing.
As for co-frontman Brian Johnson, 24 years ago in its review of AC/DC's album The Razor's Edge, Kerrang! said he sounded like "an asthmatic Donald Duck". More fool them – the man's pipes have really stood up well. He put everything into every note, threw shapes like an over-exuberant dad at a daughter's 21st and probably made a few of the more senior male members of the crowd realise that they can actually do something about the 'little restaurant above the jewellers' and get into decent shape. He's 67, incidentally.
Chris Slade, the drummer, is his senior by a year and another phenomenon, a brilliant example of a no-fuss player locking in with rhythm guitarist Stevie Young and bassist Cliff Williams and making sure that everything ran like clockwork in the engine room. This line-up needs to do a live album before the year's out.
The highlights? Hmm, start to finish aside, there was a particularly snarling version of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Thunderstruck somehow managed to enhance its already impeccable pogoing credentials and the pre-encore double whammy of Whole Lotta Rosie and Let There Be Rock had you wondering how hard it would be to get over to Wembley for the next show on July 4. They came back on for Highway to Hell and For Those About to Rock (We Salute You), after which you were really thinking about ferries and flights.
The setlist was the same as every other date on the tour and the between-song banter was minimal. Neither mattered because the feeling of sheer joy was what everyone was there for and what everyone got – in spades. Besides, the quote of the night came not from the band, but the wag on the left who said "The Angelus" with superb comic timing at the start of Hell's Bells. Those are the things you remember about really special nights and it was that kind of crowd, just as much fun to be around as anyone onstage.
It really is some trick when you go into a gig at eight o'clock and come out younger at a quarter-to eleven.
Harry Guerin
The Setlist
Intro
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
Encore:
Highway to Hell
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
