AC/DC Live and Loud as Hell at the Long Beach Arena
In this fickle world of ours, one can barely count a handful of rock & roll bands left that seem impervious (or perhaps oblivious) to changes in the record industry, cultural mores, and even time itself. At the vanguard of this sacred order, you’ll find Aussie heavy metal legends AC/DC, a band that mullet-headed good ol’ boys and mohawk-sporting punks alike have been relying on for unbridled, unapologetically ballsy rock for going on four decades now.
The fates decreed that their Stiff Upper Lip World Tour should roll into town this past Monday night, and if ever there was a place to see AC/DC in all of their sweaty, balding glory, it must be the city of Long Beach. One look at the Fishbowl parking lot, overflowing with dented muscle cars blaring AOR classics out of stock stereos and Bud Light case carcasses strewn everywhere, was enough to make you wonder if that drive down Ocean Blvd didn’t send you back in time to 1982.
Eschewing the comfort of an opening band, the boys just hit the stage running, beginning a remarkable two-hour set with, appropriately enough, “You Shook Me All Night Long,” and transforming the post-thirties, bespectacled man in front of me, with his washed out Mervyn’s golf shirt tucked into his jeans transformed into an air-guitar thrashing wild child.
What followed was simply a collection of AC/DC’s greatest hits. The raucous “Thunderstruck” was rivaled in sheer electric fury only by the cacophony of “Rock ‘N’ Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution.” Singer Brian Johnson kick-started “Hell’s Bells” by swinging from a huge bell and suspended twenty feet above the screaming crowd. The obligatory “Back In Black” “TNT,” and “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” kept the fists pumping, the devil-signs flying, and the masses shouting along. Even the new songs like “Stiff Upper Lip” and “Safe In New York City” were welcomed with the same gusto as the other crowd-pleasing classics.
Aside from the stellar songs, the men from a land down under also proved that they know a goddamned thing or two about showmanship, and I’m not just talking strobe lights here. A fifty-foot tall dancing inflatable prostitute accompanied the tender tale, “Whole Lotta Rosie,” and “Highway to Hell” just wouldn’t have seemed right without fireballs whizzing about the stage in all directions. And it wasn’t a pyrotechnical display, but during “The Jack,” the band coerced Long Beach’s most louche ladies into breaching their saline whales for the Diamond Vision screen (and that might have been your mom shaking her stuff up there).
However, when they unveiled the massive, smoke-breathing bronze statue of Angus, complete with glowing eyes and devil horns, limited mobility, and a flame-throwing guitar, I knew that I had found my way into the quintessential arena rock spectacle.
On top of all of the eye candy, it was obvious that the band still really loves playing live. Angus was running around in his trademarked schoolboy threads, working his jaw like an autistic fish and relentlessly tossing off bluesy, self-indulgent leads. Johnson thanked and goaded the audience during the between songs banter, and sang like it was all ending tomorrow. Never without a cigarette dangling from his lips, drummer Phil Rudd made the simplest drumbeats on earth look as easy as pie.
AC/DC closed out the evening with an extended version of their unforgettable battle cry, “For Those About to Rock,” saluting the adoring thousands with six booming cannons and an indoor fireworks extravaganza, and a thoroughly entertained, if not inebriated, audience poured onto the streets of Long Beach with ears ringing and heads spinning.
Setlist: You Shook Me All Night Long - Stiff Upper Lip - Shot Down In Flames - Thunderstruck - Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be - Hard As A Rock - Shoot To Thrill - Rock 'N' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution - Safe In New York City - Bad Boy Boogie - Hells Bells - Get It Hot - The Jack - Back In Black - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - Highway To Hell - Whole Lotta Rosie - Let There Be Rock - T.N.T. - For Those About To Rock
By Casey Lombardo
Long Beach Union
Originally printed 4.23.01
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