MANCHESTER, UK MEN Arena, April 21, 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

AC/DC Abruzzo survived the horde of "touts” (or scalpers) who were in the area around the MEN arena and saw another great AC/DC show! We were quite impressed with their organisational skills considering that we have been almost everywhere in Europe. They were stratigically positioned at each croassroad on the way from the city centre to the Arena and were extremely efficient in buying any spare tickets from fans and in reselling at 4-6 times the face value price. They could communicate among themselves by phone and they called each other “colleagues”.  The "capo dei capi" seemed to be a coloured guy working just in front of the box office, with very polite manners and with a map of the arena in hands to show the customers where the seats were. Very professional. From time to time he would greet some police officer or local manager walking by... He was known and respected. A good "british mafioso"... You could actually tell we were not too far from the Old Trafford, the legendary football stadium where touts are abviously very powerful.

The MEN is a very nice arena. It looked very intimate (very small standing section). This time we chose to go for seats (Angus side). When the show began you could tell the difference from London. The crowd was much warmer (but definitely not as warm as in Dublin). The band , on the contrary, seemed more energetic than in Dublin especially Brian and Angus. At times Angus actually looked as if he was the same Angus we used to watch in videos from the Razor’s Edge Tour, especially during the duckwalking on Rock’n’Roll Train, Dirty Deeds and Thunderstruck. His hair is getting much longer. And he moves extremely fast! We loved when Brian pointed him when singing "Son of the Devil" and when he threw his cap away with his hand before screaming at the end of Dirty Deeds. 

Highlight of the night for AC/DC Abruzzo was Shoot To Thrill. We loved this song throughout the whole tour, although it was not one of our favourites. It was a very energetic performance. TNT was also very powerful and the audience seemed to like it a lot as well as Rosie (the crowd screamed so loud that Brian stopped singing at the beginning). The Brits definitely love this song!

Manchester was another “bonus” gig for AC/DC Abruzzo which wasn’t planned after the dates came out. There were several gigs that were added to our list simply because it wouldn’t have been ethical and respectful not to go after so many years of waiting. We kept going knowing that once they're gone, they're gone. CARPE DIEM. Open air shows won’t be the same for us. In stadiums we won’t be able to be so close to the stage, make eye contact with Angus, Brian or Cliff etc. so we tried to get as much as possible now.

And now we’re getting close to Birmingham, where the first part of Project AC/DC Abruzzo will come to a conclusion.

Stay tuned.

C'arvedom.