Monday, February 22, 2010

More photos from Sydney...

Here's some more exclusive photos from Sydney by AC/DC Abruzzo... Soon the official report. Next stop: Brisbane! See you on the road.






Sydney 2nd night

Sydney, ANZ Stadium,
February 20, 2010

Setlist:
Rock'n'Roll Train
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds
Shot Down In Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack (incl Angus strip)
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
War Machine
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
TNT
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Highway to Hell
For Those About To Rock



AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

We decided to be on Malcolm's side (Arena A). Actually we realised this was the first time we saw a show from Malcolm's side, on the floor, on this tour (!!!). New perspective! Anyway, the stadium was filled again and there was a great atmosphere. Shame the crowd in the standing arena was not as good as on Thursday. Actually, it was totally different, with lots of people in "sleepy mode" or complaining if someone invaded their spot, sometimes leading to fights (we also saw a girl knocking down another girl during the show! Never seen that before. But as we said before fight are an integral part of AC/DC shows in Australia). We asked a few friends how it was on the other side of the standing area comparing to the previous night and they confirmed it was much more tame... Shame we can't see anything of what's going on on the opposite side of the stage/stadium because of the high catwalk. We do miss the European catwalk a lot! The boobs parade during The jack was much better tonight than Thursday. We notice that when Brian asks ("Get them out if you got them!") OZ girls obey immediately!

So lame crowd tonight, at least for our standards (Looy, 200+ shows and Nonno Alan, 100+ shows, had told us not to expect too much from the OZ crowd). Anyway, nobody seemed to notice because the boys put on another excellent show! Maybe a few minor mistakes here and there but who cares... You can't get anything better than AC/DC when it comes to Live rock'n'roll!

The truth is, after what we saw on tour in the past 18 months around the world, and also here in Australia, AC/DC have created a religion with millions of worshipers everywhere. It's really impressive to see these crowd, 70-80 thousand people each night... Dressed with the same t-shirts, tattoos, wearing the Devil's Horns or singing the same songs...



AC/DC ABRUZZO - FOOD AND BEVERAGE DEBAUCHERY


You guys know how food is important for Italians and, to be perfectly honest, the first 15 days of tour in Australia have been a Highway to Hell for us. When it was time to eat we had to do things we won't be able to tell our mother about... But it was all in the name of Rock'n'roll!!


"HAIL CAESARS" while waiting in line at Burger King (aka Hungry Jack in OZ)

Breakfast Pizza with Lavazza Cappuccino

Meatballs on Pizza. Unthinkable in Italy

KOSP - ITALIAN SEDUCTION SCHOOL

More photos of Assistant to Pick Up Artist K.K. in action in Melbourne and Sydney... It's a long way to the top...



Sunday, February 21, 2010

BON SCOTT TRIBUTE NIGHT

AC/DC Abruzzo spent the night of 30th anniversary of Bon Scott's death in Newtown, Sydney together with some other hard core fans from all around the world. Photographer Philip Morris was also there so we had the chance to meet him and talk about the glorious early days. As you know the best photos of the Bon Scott's era were taken by Philip and he has lots of stories to share about Bon and the boys from the 70's... But also about other bands like The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Geordie and even Michael Jackson... It was definitely a honor to meet him.

With Philip "lu vicchiarill" Morris

Phil distracted by the AC/DC Abruzzo flag

A member of Fraternity, one of the first bands of Bon, was also there and played some of their early songs . Then it was the turn of local cover band Dirty Deeds. Pretty impressive, also from a visual point of view, especially the singer who got his moves down really well. Great voice too. In the setlist we got Jailbreak, It's a Long Way to The Top (with bagpipe of course), Baby Please Don't Go and Rock'n'Roll ain't noise pollution (Bon's Style!!). They mixed it up pretty well!

Dirty Deeds

Of course it wasn't like being in Fremantle but it was still a memorable way for us to pay tribute to Bon. It was really a special night...

Rare photo by Philip Morris for AC/DC Abruzzo

Friday, February 19, 2010

Sydney 1st night

Screaming Brian
Sydney, ANZ Stadium,
February 18, 2010

Setlist:
Rock'n'Roll Train
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds
Shot Down In Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack (incl Angus strip)
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
War Machine
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
TNT
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Highway to Hell
For Those About To Rock

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

Back in Sydney. Where it all started a long time ago... And tonight it was really special.
We were back in the standing area, Angus' side. The Stadium was slightly bigger than the Melbourne one and it was an open air concert (no rain tonight). It's as big as the Stade de France in Paris and AC/DC manage to sell it out 3 days in a row! Incredible sight with flashing horns everywhere...

Angus was wearing a green suit again. The band's performance was still impeccable, maybe not as energetic as the final night in Melbourne but still amazing. The big surprise of the night was the crowd in the GA section. Totally different comparing to Melbourne. It actually seemed to be in Europe! A lot of pushing and jumping from the beginning till the end. At a given moment there was even violent pogo, Argentinian style. But then it got so violent (maybe because of alcohol etc.) that the band's security manager had to intervene personally going into the crowd to stop the pogo with other huge Samoan security guys. Never seen this before during the tour! A couple of people were ejected during War Machine. The crowd surfing attempts went on for the whole show but most of them weren't successful and people kept falling down on the floor. Still, it worked a bit better than in Melbourne. Big disappointment for The Jack, only a few Sydney women flashed their tits. The guys got disappointed too and started to sing "TITS OUT FOR THE BOYS" during and after the show...AHAHAAH

Highlight of the night was High Voltage. Seeing Bon on the big screens (winking at end of the song) in Sydney on the eve of the 30th anniversary of his death was something special. TNT was also great, a lot of singing from the crowd. I guess the OI OI OI can't get better than here in Australia...

After the show we met a few Abruzzesi from Sydney who recognised our flag. Ciao to Raffaele &co. We were also impressed with the efficiency of the Sydney public transportation: only a few minutes to take the train to go back to the city centre...

Stay tuned for more on the Sydney shows.

Hell's Bell

OZ TNT

Let there be rock

Highway to Hell

General Malcolm

OZ girls behind us in the moshpit. No flashing :(

And for those who missed the poster installation on AC/DC Lane in Melbourne here's an exclusive video. More pictures here.


Thursday, February 18, 2010

BON SCOTT (July 9, 1946 - February 19, 1980)

Today is the 30th anniversary of the tragic death of great singer Bon Scott. R.I.P. BON.









Bon winking at the audience at the end of High Voltage Live in Sydney 2010

Feb 18, 2010


We would like to thank AC/DC.com for posting our photos and linking our blog on the news page of the official AC/DC website (toxictwin is one of Matteo's nicknames). One of the aims of the AC/DC Abruzzo blog has been to share our stories following the band around the world with the rest of the international fan community so we are particularly happy that our pictures were selected for the official website. We hope we can still contribute during the continuation of the tour.

February 18 is an important anniversary for AC/DC Abruzzo because exactly one year ago we started the European Tour in Oslo, Norway. That night was the official come back of the band to the old continent after almost 6 years and the beginning of our adventures on the road in Europe. We remember it was quite cold in Oslo (approx. -5) but inside the Telenor Arena it was as hot as Hell...

The Secretary General duckwalking on the snow in Oslo...

KOSP - ITALIAN SEDUCTION SCHOOL

CAN I SIT NEXT TO YOU, GIRL(S)

I met this girl for the first time on Saturday night
Standing in the queue at the Odeon alright
Then I took her by surprise
When I threw her one of my lines
She started smiling and being real fine
That`s when I say-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
Can I sit next to you, girl?


A large number of AC/DC songs talk about the interaction with women and seduction techniques, especially those from the early days. In today's Italian Seduction lesson we decided to consider the lyrics from one of the first AC/DC songs. In fact this AC/DC classic provides a basic but very effective technique to approach girls successfully. According to the song the following steps are necessary:

-Throwing a pick up line (also known as OPENER)
-Waiting for positive reaction
-Sitting next to the girl to achieve physical proximity (the technical term is LOCKING IN).

Sitting next to the girl(s) will contribute to create comfort, build rapport and speed up physical escalation (also known as KINO escalation) leading to sex.

Under the supervision of The KOSP and KK, this technique was fieldtested on several occasions here in Australia and it proved very effective, especially on OZ girls.

KK's assistant sitting next to OZ girls

ARRIVEDERCI MELBOURNE

AC/DC Abruzzo spent the day after the last show in Melbourne going back to the Family Jewels exhibition for the third time in a week. The more you go the more you appreciate the rare items displayed. You actually discover something interesting that you hadn't seen the previous time... We spent a few hours reading Bon's letter and some old newspaper articles and discovering more rare photos. It's like going back in time to the early days of the band. A fantastic Rock'n'Roll journey!




We also went to St. Kilda to a few record shops and rarities and back to AC/DC Lane for a few more photos of the wonderful poster installation. Soon there will be a special report on the AC/DC Italia website.


We finally spent some hours in the Little Italy of the city on Lygon street. Actually, we ended up in the Abruzzo Club of Melbourne, big building with a very good restaurant and lots of Abruzzesi immigrants everywhere. We spent a couple of hours with a few Italian Australian gentlemen discussing all sorts of things: from Abruzzo recipes to Italian politics. It felt like home. It was also interesting to find out that these immigrants who left Italy 40 years ago don't regret their choice at all. They managed to build fortunes from scratch and lead wealthy and happy lives in Australia whereas in Italy most Italians of their generation are now struggling to make ends meet...


And now SYDNEY!!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Melbourne 3rd night



Melbourne, Etihad Stadium,
February 13, 2010

Setlist:
Rock'n'Roll Train
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds
Shot Down In Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack (incl Angus strip)
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
War Machine
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
TNT
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Highway to Hell
For Those About To Rock

MORE EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS HERE

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

After 2 shows on the seats AC/DC Abruzzo is back on his usual spot on Angus' side in the GA standing area. We really missed the clear sound of his guitar coming out of his Marshall amp stacks...

For us this was the best show of the three. Great performance of the band as usual. Obviously we got the same setlist. No surprise. Green uniform for Angus. Stadium roof was closed again. From the standing area we realised that the catwalk was way higher than in Europe so it wasn't wasy to see the opposite side of the stage (Malcolm's side). TNT and Thunderstruck were the highlights of the night.
At the end of High Voltage we didn't see Bon winking , maybe because the final video was faded out too early on the stage big screens...

As for the Australian crowd we have mixed feelings. In the GA section OZ fans tend to stay still during the whole show except for some songs when they jump a bit (only vertically) so you will never see a moshpit like in Europe. You can enjoy your show quite confortably from your spot without being squeezed or being pushed back and forward like in Italy, France, Ireland and Scotland... However, although it looks like a calm US reserved seating crowd OZ people in the front of stage section will do some crazy thing such as crowdsurfing. So during the show we kept seeing fans falling down on the floor because people were not close enough to support them. But OZ crowdsurfers were so dedicated and determined to surf the crowd that they kept trying and falling down during the whole show. Funny! The other peculiar thing about the crowd was OZ girls' behaviour. They were so eager to catch Brian's attention (as well as the cameras) that they started flashing their boobs during Dirty Deeds (!!!) and they continued until You Shook Me All Night Long. The boobs parade was as good as the previous night, maybe even better. We guess you have to come to Australia to understand the real meaning of songs such as The Jack or Rosie... During You Shook me we invited a girl to jump on our shoulders. Obviously she accepted and got on the big screen with our AC/DC Abruzzo flag and trident too! AHAHAAH We'll keep doing this for the rest of the tour... We love the OZ crowd!



At the end of the show a random guy managed to get on stage. The crowd cheered. It took about 10 security guys to stop him. A few more fights broke out in the stadium after the show. Fights are an integral part of AC/DC After shows here in Australia. At the end of the concert we met an Argentinian friend we had met at the London Hammersmith gig in 2003!! Crazy globetrotter like us...


With Sebastiano from Argentina

AC/DC Abruzzo's concert groupie