CASA Arena Horsens 05 Jun 2010

In the beginning, the plan was to take a week off from our world tour "duties" and invest some time "interacting" with Swedish girls in Stockholm (which considering the founding principles of AC/DC Abruzzo is still part of our duties). But the temptation was too strong and we couldn't resist. We had to go to Denmark and get another AC/DC show under our belt. After all there's time for Swedish girls in the future, while this could be AC/DC's last tour. We got our priorities, right? So we rented a car and put an ad on our blog and Facebook profile to get another couple of crazy fans for this 24-hour mission...

A day later we were hitting the road headed for Horsens, Denmark. We had Bjorn from Sweden, historic fan (first AC/DC gig in 1977) and Jason from Greece (whom we met for the first time before the first Globen show and in Antwerp in 2009). We had 900 km to do and lots of AC/DC stories to hear and tell.

So we drove and drove and drove... We crossed the first bridge, then the second and then the third. And after 9 hours we arrived in this small town in the middle of nowhere... The scene looked a bit like Wels. Nobody around. Ghost city. Everyone at the gig, obviously... We got rid of the scalpers pretty quick, got a big Danish hot-dog and got inside for the show. We ended up on the seats again. We were too tired and lazy for the standing area (and also we are saving energy for Donington). The crowd was again another "scandinavian" crowd: so pretty calm and not moving a lot. But as for drinking habits, the Danish looked like the Scandinavian champions... But they were really loud. Probably the loudest... Anyway, the show was probably the best of the Scandinavian tour. Angus was just amazing... Even the intro of Rock'n'Roll was impeccable (we don't think coming out of the catwalk helps to be accurate). As for Brian, we don't know what he has been drinking or eating or taking. He's just getting better and better with age. Like an expensive bottle of Petrus wine. Malcolm was in excellent shape. So was Cliff. And Phil looked nastier than usual behind his drums with his brand new sideburns.

After the show, we dodged all the drunk Danish fans, especially those who were using the gates and fences around the stadium as toilets, grabbed a couple of sandwiches and got back on the car. No time for any sightseeing or chasing girls. We had to get back to Stockholm before 9am. We hit the road all night long keeping telling stories (Orangus and his adventures were mentioned several times -apparently he became pretty popular among the blog's readers). After all the passengers passed out because of the fatigue, the President kept driving and driving and driving... The energy of Powerage and Ballbreaker kept him awake all night long...

AC/DC Abruzzo's bat-mobile

Danish open air public toilet

Our dinner

TNT

Let There Be Rock

4am - Highway to Hell

PHOTOGALLERY from HORSENS

A few hours ago in AC/DC Abruzzo's headquarters in Stockholm

(coming out of the post-concert coma)

Matteo: What day is it today?

Stefano: Today it's the day after Horsens.

Matteo: Ah. Ok. Can we use the kitchen?

AC/DC Abruzzo is finally back in Stockholm after an epic 18-hour drive to Horsens, Denmark. Everything in a 24-hour time. 1900km, 3 bridges and probably the best AC/DC show in Scandinavia for this year. We got back 10 am this morning but woke up just a couple of of hours ago. Now time for some decent food...

Report tomorrow.

Stockholm, Olympiastadion June 3, 2010

Stockholm, Olympiastadion, June, 3 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

After the no-party boat trip we finally arrived in Stockholm. We reached the hotel where AC/DC Machine had organised a few special events for fans attending the show. We checked in at 8am. At 9am we got into a coma. We woke up at around 2pm, met some old and new friends in the lobby and headed for breakfast/brunch with Tommy from Norway. We managed to find a totally decent sandwich with prosciutto e mozzarella and we exchanged some stories till lunch time (which was 6pm for us). We realised it as getting late so we decided to go to the venue for the show.

We arrived at the Olympiastadion of Stockholm, a nice old stadium built in the early XX century. We were a bit puzzled by the low gates protecting the stadium from people with no tickets outside (about 1.5 metre). Can you imagine this in Italy, France or Spain? :D

Anyway, we met again the hordes of Swedish scalpers we recognized from the 2 Globen nights of February 2009, under the snow. Probably the most organised and efficient network of scalpers after the English and the Italians... But we survived again and got in around 8.30. The stadium was pretty small, again around 35,000 people inside, and only one level of seats. And it did look like a old historic stadium from outside. Nice big Australian flag on the left tower and big Swedish flag on the right tower. Again daylight for the entire show.

The band hit the stage a few minutes after 9.15. The crowd, again was a calm/quiet scandinavian crowd, maybe a bit warmer than the Finnish, and probably a bit more drunk too. Brian, again in fantastic shape (although his voice was a bit less powerful than for the previous 2 gigs) showed his appreciation for the crowd several times ("you are making us proud up here" etc.). Maybe he was comparing to the Norwegians and the Finnish. Maybe he was just being kind... At very beginning of LTBR we got some light rain, but it stopped after 2 minutes (unfortunately). Again new Angus' duckwalking for The Jack and Highway To Hell.

Actually during Angus' duckwalking on Shot Down In Flames we got one of our moments of clarity. AC/DC are definitely one of the most hard working bands in music history. When we were observing Cliff, Malcolm and Phil, on the big screens, doing all the hard work behind the scenes as well as Brian and Angus jumping left and right like crazy and we realised that although the band obviously is very tired comparing to the beginning of the European tour nothing can't stop them 'till Bilbao... AC/DC is a war machine and the energy and the professionalism the band puts together during the shows is just amazing.

As for Angus, well, you can never get enough of Angus live on stage. The truth is we grew up listening to hundreds of AC/DC live bootlegs from all tours and finally getting to see the real Angus playing live so many times is just a gift to us. We enjoy every duckwalk and every move. Many people keep asking us why we enjoy watching all these "identical" live shows. Well, in fact, each live show by definition is just unique. We don't really care too much about our Vynil or CD or DVD collection anymore. To us rock'n'roll has become a LIVE experience. And it will be like this until the end of the tour...

After the concert, we met with historic fan Brian from Glasgow, one of our companions during the European and Australian tours. He told us some more stories from the '70s and early '80s. We made him tell us again the story about the Glasgow Apollo Theatre soundcheck (one of our favourites). We just love those rock'n'roll stories from the early days...

Then we met with Mikel, who was one of our correspondents from Buenos Aires, and the rest of the crew from the AC/DC Machine hotel, including Patrick from Finland who was with us at the London Hammersmith soundcheck in 2003... We went together to the Anchor club where a Bon Scott Live Tribute band was playing (very cool version of Kicked in the teeth BTW...).

That's all from Stockholm. Tomorrow we gotta wake up pretty early again and drive all the way to Denmark (and cross a couple of big and pretty expensive Scandinavian bridges).

Brian show

The brothers Young

Brian show 2

Tampere FI Ratina Stadium 01 June 2010

Tampere, Finland, Ratina Stadion
June, 1 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

Just got our breakfast after a long trip on the boat from Tampere and a long day sleep at the AC/DC Machine.com hotel. By the way, despite what we were told, it wasn't a party boat. Or maybe it was, but only for people aged 60+. And people who wanted to take advantage of the duty-free alcohol shopping. But the selection of wines was very good (e.g. Ornellaia 2001, Corton Charlemagne - maybe Brian Johnson's favourite white - and Hermitage "La Chapelle" Jaboulet)

Tampere show. After the "short version" concert 2 days before in Oslo, with "premature" ending, AC/DC went back to the old Black Ice complete setlist and played an excellent show in front of around 35,000 people in the Ratina Stadion.

Again the whole show was in daylight which was cool for photographers and crazy fans like us who saw them dozens of time and crave for some changes. Brian was on fire again. He kept the intensity of the Oslo show for the entire concert. Angus and the rest of the band was as good as usual. Angus changed something in his routines, such us the duckwalking on Highway to Hell (on the catwalk) or during the Jack when he went to the right of the stage instead of the catwalk. We love the small differences. The crowd during the show was pretty calm, as it normally happens in Scandinavian countries but again we gotta say that the Finnish people were really warm and kind towards us, before, during and after the show. Even after the show, walking around by the canal, still in daylight after 3am, we made some friends. Most of them were drunk, but generally speaking they have a very friendly way of being drunk. We had a great time in Finland.

Foodwise we avoided the big paella-style Finnish "fish and chips" at the stadium and went for some "DECENT FOOD" with Nonno Alan and Michel (who is an expert in food and Lasagne). Good stuff. We love Scandinavian seafood...
That's it for now.

Now quick meal and off to the Stockholm show.

PS If anybody wants to come with us to Denmark by car drop us a line. We got 2 free seats.

Rock'n'Roll ain't noise pollution

UPDATE FROM FINLAND...

Finnish fish and chips

After the Tampere show AC/DC Abruzzo managed to reach Turku, pretty early in the morning but we missed the boat to Stockholm due to unexpected technical difficulties. Now we'll be forced to take the night boat to Sweden, also known as "Party Boat" (in Italian "Trombonave" which interestingly sounds like "Sex Boat") in order to get there in time for tomorrow's show.

For the record, yesterday's gig in Tampere was just great with an amazing performance of Brian, once again. The "old good" setlist is back. The Ratina stadium was one of the smallest of the tour and we just loved it. Again, we got to see the entire show with daylight which was pretty cool. The Finnish people were probably among the kindest and most friendly people we've met so far during the tour. And special thanks to Pekko and his friends for helping out with the tickets.

Soon report and photos from the Finland show. Ciao!

Exclusive Video from Tampere

AC/DC fan before the show (from Uncle Michel's Archives)

Oslo NO, Valle Hovin Stadion 30 May 2010

Oslo, Norway, Valle Hovin
May, 30 2010

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

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

Only a few AC/DC fans had the privilege to attend an AC/DC show that didn't end with For Those About To Rock. After Velle Hovin 2010 we are are in this small group too. :)

We got to the venue around 7.30 and it was already packed. This small stadium (used as a Ice Rink) was full of fans. After a few minutes inside we bumped into the 3 fans who were with us outside the Telenor Arena in February 2009 for the soundcheck. Lots of nice memories, including the freezing cold. This proves Looy's theory about entropy and AC/DC fans meeting each other again at AC/DC shows.

Anyway the show didn't start as scheduled at 9pm. We understood it wasn't a "normal" delay when the blues cd they put before the RnR Train intro started over... At 9.45 we thought there could have been some problems. The Norwegian fans didn't seem to care too much as long as they had their beers and their big pink ball to play with (see below).

The show finally started. A small mistake at the beginning of Rock'n'Roll Train then everything went back to normality. Brian said that they tried to get there as fast as they could and put on an amazing rock show, with incredibly intensity. You could tell Brian is in fantastic shape in this leg of the tour. Anyway, we felt something was wrong when Shot Down In Flames was dropped. Strange feelings for us. Then we got a "fast" version of The Jack" (no catwalk intro) and for a moment we feared that Angus wasn't going to strip!!! Black Ice and War Machine were dropped too, to our big surprise. An then we got the "fast forward" version of Let There Be Rock, which was very funny. Angus was doing all his moves but at a faster pace: catwalk, guitar on the head, solo on the right, solo on the left, elevator down, left, right, elevator up, on the floor, elevator down, confetti, run to the main stage, on top platform etc etc. AHAHAAH

After the encore we got Highway to Hell. Brian wanted to rock for more but the curfew limitation forced to leave the stage as quick as possible. You could tell from our video that the fireworks started immediately.

The reason for the delay was an alert signal in the Berlin Airport that forced them to leave with some delay with their private jet. The short setlist was mandatory to avoid troubles for the promoter/agent who could have his license suspended (actually a promoter in Italy was about to be jailed for 1 month because Bruce Springsteen ended his show in San Siro, Milan by 22 minutes). And then no more shows for Oslo. So guys stop complaining and welcome to the small club of those who saw and AC/DC show ending with Highway to Hell!

Now we gotta go and get on the train to Tampere. And try to digest the half kilo of Scandinavian salmon that we had for brunch...

One of the light guys stressing out because of the setlist change

The magic Pink ball that kept the crowd calm

Norwegian fan falling asleep before the show

The man is back in town!

Brian at his best

"Fast forward" version of Let There Be Rock

DIRTY DEEDS

After the concert we were invited at a cool aftershow part at the Smuget club in the Oslo city centre organized by the local cover band Dirty Deeds. After the Australian Dirty Deeds we also get to see the Norwegian one. And it was a hell of a show. You can tell they've been playing for 13 years together. They rocked the small club, like AC/DC used to do back in the 70's with Angus going several times inside the audience. The band is more orientated towards the Brian Johnson era repertoire but when the singer decided to sing the first verses of Touch Too Much Bon Scott's style we were really impressed. Excellent version of If You Want Blood too. Keep on Rocking guys and see you soon on the road!

SETLIST CHANGE!!

Yes! The rumours are true! The setlist was changed yesterday in Oslo! In fact there a curfew problem due to the fact that the concert started 50 minutes later than scheduled. Apparently the band arrived late to the venue.

So in end, the Norwegian crowd didn't get to listen to Shot Down In Flames (2nd time they drop this song in Oslo on this tour), Black Ice, War Machine and For Those About to Rock.

Here's the exclusive video of Highway to Hell as last song. Soon the official report.

See you in Finland!


Midnight curfew: Highway to Hell in daylight but no time for cannons...

AC/DC ABRUZZO INVADES POLAND!!!!

Warsaw, Poland, Bemowo Airport,
May, 27 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 PHOTOS HERE

AC/DC ABRUZZO OFFICIAL REPORT

Another incredible night of rock'n'roll in Europe! AC/DC rocked Warsaw and around 100 thousand crazy Polish fans! The concert took place at the Bemowo airport, pretty far from the city centre. Interestingly, the promoter decided to leave a very small Front of Stage Section and an disproportionately large GA section behind where it was possible to access for less than half the price (around 40 euros). Technically, "only" 65,000 tickets were sold, but considering that beyond the barriers there was still a lot of room for a few more dozens of thousand people we are that sure many more people were there to listen to the the concert for free, even at a couple of km from the stage...

The ocean of fans was really impressive! We couldn't see the end of the crowd from the elevated seats on the right of stage. A massive audience like in Wels or Hannover… Nonno Alan who was with us told us that it reminded him of Donington (the 1981 one!) whereas Uncle Michel said that it looked a bit like Donington 1991 but there definitely more people in England. And again, being with these 2 fans, we got a lot of exclusive "on the road stories" from the Razor's Edge and the legendary Ballbreaker tour that according to most historic fans was the best of the Brian Johnson's era. (Curiously, we noticed that most hardcore fans, including us, have the tendency to complain about the present tour as opposed to the "the good old times". Actually we do this when we compare the last two legs with the 2008-2009 indoor tour while these historic legendary fans talk about the soundchecks in the late 1970's in Scotland or Brian's voice during Black In Back tour etc. etc.…) And all the days where internet didn't exist or when fans slept in airport and train stations to save money for the following shows...

Anyway, going back to the Warsaw concert this was probably the best performance of the 2010 European tour. Especially Angus! He looked like he enjoyed so much his LTBR on the catwalk solo that he even grabbed a baseball cap thrown from the audience and wore it for a while. Definitely something pretty rare and cool!

The Polish audience was pretty calm. We noticed that no alcohol was admitted on the premises (the first time on the tour!). There was just a small "alcohol zone" and security was very strict on this. We guess that it was done to prevent any accident from alcohol abuse (the Polish are quite famous for bending the elbow quite a lot-see the pic below).

At the end of the show two local girls approached us after seeing the flag and told us they had lived in Abruzzo for a year. Of course they told us they now miss the excellent food and the golden sandy beaches of the Adriatic coast. Ciao Patrizia!

That's it from from Oslo where the Eurovision Contest, probably the most anti-rock'n'roll music event we could bump into, is taking place right now...

Nonno Alan, N'Goulash, The President and Uncle Michel (totaling approx. 500 AC/DC shows altogether)

A drunk Polish fan 3 hours before the show about 1.5 km from the stage in the second standing area

Highway to Hell

Angus on fire