Saturday, February 21, 2009

NEWS FROM THE ROAD: STOCKHOLM, DAY 2

20 February 2009

Stockholm, SE Globen Arena


SETLIST:


1. Rock'n'roll Train
2. Hell ain't a bad place to be
3. Back in Black
4. Big Jack
5. Dirty Deeds
6. Shot Down in Flames
7. Thunderstruck
8. Black Ice
9. The Jack
10. Hell's Bells
11. Shoot to Thrill
12. War Machine
13. Anything Goes
14. You Shook Me All Night Long
15. TNT
16. Whole Lotta Rosie
17. Let there be Rock
18. Highway to Hell
19. For Those About to Rock





From the AC/DC Abruzzo Stockholm Headquarters.


After a tasty and healthy breakfast with mouth-watering raw fish and delicious Swedish meatballs with French croissants and pancakes AC/DC Abruzzo is ready to offer you the full review of yesterday's show at the Globen Arena of Stockholm.


Getting a standing ticket for the show this time was not an easy task, even for AC/DC Abruzzo and even after befriending all the dozens of ticket "brokers" outside the arena. But thanks to our Abruzzese charming attitude, we finally managed to get 2 standing tickets for one fifth of the market price from other AC/DC fans who understood our mission. AC/DC Abruzzo salutes them!


Inside the Globen it was immediately clear to us that it was going to be a different show if compared to Oslo. This historic spherical arena is one of those venues ideal for a rock show with a very small GA standing section (audience very close to the stage). Two interesting things: 1st the standing section was half empty, probably they sold a limited amount of tickets for security reasons. 2nd the average age of the people in the standing section must have been 18-19. No kidding! I had never seen so many teenagers at a concert since I took my little sister to see Red Hot Chili Peppers!


Anyway, the show started again at 8.30 like in Oslo, even if many seats were still empty. And this time when RNRT started the crowd went really wild! Those young kids were just pushing and screaming and jumping like they were possessed. I mean it's not what I expect for the shows in the Mediterranean countries (Italy, France, Spain etc) but it was pretty wild and exciting. Brian looked very happy to see such a responsive crowd and was moving around the stage and chatting much more than in Oslo. As for Angus… oh my God! He looks so focused and concentrated when he plays... It still seems like he plays as if his life depended on it! What a gift to Rock!!! He wore a dark blue uniform this time instead of the red one of Oslo. We noticed that his hair is longer... Our impression is that he looks more like the SUL tour. Maybe even better. And he definitely duckwalks more! Phil, Malcolm and Cliff were impeccable as usual.


When Brian said "here's a song we haven't done in a while" we understood that the moment of Shot Down in Flames had arrived. And what a performance!!! Especially Angus! We'll have to post a video to show you what the schoolboy did. Then Thunderstruck (again a lot of tireless Angus duckwalking). The setlist was basically the same for the rest of the show. But you could actually tell the boys really put more energy when they are in front of a warm crowd. We personally love WAR MACHINE each time more. It's a great song and live it's amazing. Tough, mean old school rock'n'roll. On the contrary Anything Goes sounded a bit weak, although theguitar solo is great.


If we keep Shot Down in Flames aside, which we've actually been humming every single day since Feb 17 when we heard it outside the Telenor Arena, AC/DC Abruzzo unanimously chooses Let There Be Rock as best song of the show. The rock peak was reached during Angus Solo on the top part of the stage when he got in one of those rock’n’roll trance and improvised a lot more than usual. His fingers move so fast!


Overall, we understood that Oslo was just a warm up gig if compared to Stockholm. And we're sure that it's gonna be better once the band heads for Southern Europe...


AC/DC Abruzzo salutes you all!











1 comment:

  1. So you think the crowd'll be better during Southern European shows or not ? 'cause, when I read this article, the Stockholm audience seemed amazing !
    I personnally hope the audience'll be great in Belgium (my country :p)

    Anyway, I have to say your blog is really great ! I can follow the AC/DC Black Ice European Tour thanks to you ! :) So many thanks !

    Lucas

    ReplyDelete