AC/DC Abruzzo in Sydney

The Sydney adventure is over for AC/DC Abruzzo. We had a wonderful time there and we will probably open a permanent office in Sydney after the last Perth show. We love Sydney!

Sydney harbour

As most of you know, 2 months ago part of the AC/DC Abruzzo staff relocated to Sydney. There were several reasons behind this decision. Obviously we were eager to see and live in the same places where Angus, Malcolm, Bon etc had started the band back in the 1970's and to experience the lifestyle and cultural environment that gave birth to our favorite band. But it was also a good excuse to skip the cold European winter! It was an amazing and enriching experience. Even AC/DC's lyrics, especially those of the Bon Scott era, have now a different meaning to us...

Sydney is a very expensive city and you have to work a lot if you want to survive. But unlike most big world capitals we've been to it is possible to relax on nice sandy beaches, doing sports, taking beautiful promenades in huge green parks. The urban landscape is very nice and the quality of life is very high.

Bondi beach, our favourite Sydney beach

FOOD DEBAUCHERY: Obviously, as Italians, we had huge problems with the local food, although there is a big Italian community in Sydney (especially for the lack of real fresh mozzarella and gelato, which is essential when it's too hot). In Australia they mix up everything: they even put cream and mushrooms in Spaghetti alla Carbonara and pineapple or meatballs on pizza (blasphemy in Italy!). We tried Kangaroo fillet a couple of times and even Kangaroo Pizza and Kangaroo prosciutto. They have so many kangaroos here they don't know what to do with them... In the Italian quarter (Leichardt, also suggested to us by Fifa Riccabono) you still can find some good products imported from Italy but honestly, as most of the Little Italys around the world, the Sydney Italian quarter looks as fake as the pyramids in Las Vegas....

Leichardt

Kangaroo Prosciutto

We met lots of interesting people. And we experienced the true meaning of the world "laid-back", which is often associated to the OZ people, even applied to rock'n'roll. We met some hardcore fans who have been waiting for this tour for years, just like us.

John-Hard core OZ fan

Beer is truly the national drink here and the "British Pub Culture" is very strong... So we found ourselvels on several occasions in pubs playing pool and drinking schooners of beer and talking to girls near jux boxes...

Local cover band

Speaking of girls the situation here is almost emberassing if compared to Italy... According to some sources, the men to women ratio is like 1:4. WOMEN TO THE LEFT and WOMEN TO THE RIGHT... Litterally! Not to mention the backpackers! And they have really a laid back attitude as we had the opportunity to witness, also during AC/DC concerts...

The Jack in Sydney

Sydney 3rd night

Sydney, ANZ Stadium,
February 22, 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

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS HERE

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

Hottest day of the tour. Maybe hotter than Germany last May. But we were there in the ANZ Stadium for our 6th show in a row. We were again back on Cliff's side, AC/DC Abruzzo's usual spots. The mix of hot temperature with alcohol led to a immobile and quite crowd. People were standing pretty far from each other, even near the stage or the catwalk. So no pogo, no fights, no jumping.

The boys seemed not to care too much about the temperature, especially Brian. Angus was back in the red uniform going back and forward as usual. Phil was hitting the drums like crazy, especially during High Voltage. You can tell he really enjoys playing that song... Excellent boobs parade during the Jack, probably the best of the entire Australian Tour, at least so far (we are preparing a special report on this!). The Stadium was packed again, impressive sight with flashing devil's horns everywhere. More than 400,000 people in 6 nights is not bad, is it?

Next stop Brisbane! Ci vediamo!

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...

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

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.

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