Thursday, April 16, 2009

LONDON AIN'T A BAD PLACE TO BE



O2 Arena, London April 14, 2009 
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

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

London! This is the place where AC/DC Abruzzo's President and Secretary General had their first AC/DC epiphany. It was 20th October 2003, the day we heard Gone Shootin' live for the first time. We were in the Hammersmith Theatre attending the AC/DC soundcheck. A second epiphany took place the day after, during If You Want Blood (You've Got It). We will never forget that song and the way it was performed in that legendary theatre. Since that day our AC/DC madness began!

This time it was the turn of the O2 Arena. We were positively impressed by this venue. Despite it is very big it still has a certain amount of intimacy which is good for rock shows, especially in the front of stage section and the first level of seats. The highest level, on the contrary, it looks like the San Siro Stadium in Milan. Acoustics seem pretty good though.



We had reserved seats on Malcolm's side. Excellent seats, but you already know what we think about reserved seats at an AC/DC show. They just go against the entire idea of rock’n’roll! Actually, a suitable metaphor came out today during a discussion with some other fans (Vince and Owen) who share our view. Being forced to stay seated in your seat during an AC/DC concert or it's like being forced to have sex in a position that you hate without having the permission to come... A real nightmare…

But this time we had to cope with the situation and took it with philosophy. We felt like watching a live DVD or videobootleg with 20,000 people and a very good PA system… So we took advantage of our position to contemplate this wonderful rock’n'roll show from a different angle. Also, we had the opportunity to admire Malcolm from a closer position…

We skipped again The Answer. Not our type of rock'n'roll, that's official. We arrived at 8.20. Ten minutes before the start and half of the seats were still empty. During the intro video we still have goose bumps, especially when the R'n’R train comes out of the tunnel.

We were a bit disappointed with the reaction of the London crowd. Just some quite jumping in the front rows during R'n'R Train. And most people standing still in most of the GA section… Things got a bit better later during the last part of the show (WLR and LTBR) but the English definitely cannot be ranked among the best crowds of this tour.

Angus was in amazing shape. Hey, even physically it looked like he had been working out recently!! We spent several songs observing him in all his moves! What a rocker!! By the way he wore a new black and white tie never seen before (sold with the official merchandise too). Brian looked a bit slow during the first 3-4 songs. Then he got back in action, full throttle. His voice is not as melodic as at the beginning of the tour, but hey, try to sing the way he sings 4 nights a week for 2 hours!!!



Malcolm in action is just pure Rock’n’roll bliss. We love his back ground vocals, especially in Thunderstruck and Dirty Deeds. He moves back and forth with the accuracy of a Swiss clockwork. We really would kill to hear If you Want Blood's riff from Malcolm’s guitar before the end of this tour… Cliff and Phil, impeccable as usual.



Best songs of the show: Dirty Deeds, Shoot To Thrill, Let There be Rock and Highway to Hell (video coming soon).
Interestengly, at the entrance they asked us not to show our flag… It must be some sort of O2 strange policy (remember Prague?). Tomorrow, however, we’ll be back in our spot in the standing section and the AC/DC Abruzzo flag will fly high again!!!

SALUTE


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