Growing up we all had someone like an older brother or sister that introduced us to the cool music that helped to shape our musical palette that still exists today. Me, I was an only child but I had plenty of friends who had older siblings that gave us the inside track. In particular I remember one friend’s older brother giving us a musical education with Pink Floyd’s The Wall. I’m pretty sure most of it went over my head but it was visual in as much as it was an audible heavenly sound that attracted me to it all. Along with Floyd, came the hard rock sound of the one and only testosterone driven sound of AC/DC. I’m pretty sure it was the Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap album and I have been hooked ever since. I missed them during the first leg of the Black Ice tour when they played Chicago’s Allstate Arena, but I was for damn sure not going to miss them this time around.
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AC/DC
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 Entertainment
 Art
United Center
Chicago, IL
August 14, 2009
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Angus and the boys are still on the road supporting last year’s surprise smash of new material, the Black Ice album. The retail giant Wal-Mart has always been an unstoppable machine, yet, I suspect even they weren’t prepared for what became such an incredibly profitable marketing deal by joining forces with the aging Aussies. Recently during their second leg they made a stop at Chicago’s United Center to prove they still are one of the biggest rock bands in the world.
AC/DC is one of those bands that despite big gaps between new album releases, the band’s popularity hasn’t changed one bit. For a band that has only released four albums in the last two decade, they are the still the top seller of CD’s second only to The Beatles. In 2007 alone, they sold over 1.3 million CDS in the US. In fact, they have sold more albums than Madonna and Michael Jackson and are the fifth best selling band and ninth best selling artist in the US.
Until last year’s Black Ice, AC/DC hadn’t released an album of new material since 2000’s Stiff Upper Lip. However that doesn’t mean there haven’t been plenty of options for AC/DC fans in the last few years. From re-mastered CDs, DVD releases of live concerts, box-sets of rarities and even a RockBand version of the band from their Live at Donington concert (also a Wal-Mart exclusive) there have been plenty to keep fans happy.
With all that said let’s be honest nothing compares to seeing them in the flesh. Opening with a fun little animated video with the band on a train headed for where else? Hell of course that set the stage for the opening number from Black Ice, "Rock 'N Roll Train". That was the first of five new songs that meshed flawlessly with the old material that played out like a greatest hits collection. “Back in Black” appeared early on in the set just three songs into their show and was only the beginning.
It’s almost scary that these guys seemed to have stopped aging at some point and for good or for bad haven’t updated their wardrobe either. Frontman Brian Johnson still wears his signature cap and cut-off shirt and easily tackled the vocals flawlessly for a man that is now 61. His voice always sounds like he’s pushing it to the limit and it’s going to give at any moment but some how stays perfectly into tune. Guitar God Angus Young hasn’t grown-out of his school boy outfit and his fingers, along with his duck walk strut around the stage, is as strong and powerful as it ever has been. His long jam during “Highway to Hell,” that included him rolling around on the ground and being erected up to the stadium’s rafters, was one of the highlights of the evening that ended with an explosion of confetti covering the crowd.
The two hour set gave the fans everything they could hope for, Angus doing a striptease in the middle of “The Jack,” Johnson swinging from a big bell during the opening riffs of “Hells Bells,” a big blown-up balloon of I guess Rosie during a “Whole Lot of Rosie” and of course a row of canons during the closing number of “For Those About to Rock.”
AC/DC is one of those bands that have proven they still have a very strong fan base even in 2009. Let’s hope Johnson threats of hanging it up after this tour is just talk.
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