Monday, December 31, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM AC/DC ABRUZZO




Monday, December 17, 2012

BACK IN BUENOS AIRES - Live in Argentina - 2012

Jennifer and Cristian

In Buenos Aires we also met with Jennifer from Sydney. We became really good friend with her after meeting her in Rome in 2009 and again in Australia during the 2010 tour. She liked Project AC/DC Abruzzo so much that she offered to design the cover of our first photobook: Black Ice World Tour 2008-2010 2 years on the road with AC/DC. After 2010 she established herself in Buenos Aires working as freelance graphic designer, taking tango lessons and drinking delicious Malbec wine. It was a pleasure seeing Jennifer again...

Designed by Jennifer


Juan from AC/DC Noticias, one of our good Internet friends during the AC/DC tour, recommended to have a drink with another Juan, one of the greatest AC/DC fans in Argentina, who was in Buenos Aires at the moment. Juan invited us at his place and he showed us his huge rock collection (not only AC/DC) gathered during his job as a music promoter! His stories from the New York 2000 meet and greet with AC/DC were pretty entertaining. He flew with his buddy specifically to meet the boys in Manhattan for the promotional signing session of Stiff Upper Lip. Malcolm and Angus were very warm with them after hearing their stories. They allowed them to spend extra time with them and signed many items including their leather jacket... We then talked about the last tour and the next tour, about Argentina, our mutual friends and of course about food, wine and girls... We promised to meet again in Argentina or somewhere else, possible at an AC/DC show...


AC/DC Stamp

AC/DC Wine and Slash's autograph


New York 2000 meet and greet pass

With the AC/DC Abruzzo Books, also in included in Juan's collection
Before leaving Buenos Aires we decided to follow Cliff's advise (from the DVD) and go and take a look at the Recoleta's Cemetery. It is quite a unique place, we must admit, with a really peculiar atmosphere... It contains mausoleums of notable Argentinians people decorated with sculptures and statues. Tombs that tell the glorious stories and works of Argentinian generals, politicians, writers, artists, scientists as well as normal Porteños. After some philosophical reflections on life and death we focused on... cats! Lots of them all around. It reminded us of Rome a little bit, except for the fact that they really looked malnourished and some of them also sick... Before leaving the place we bumped into the tomb of a young girl with a poem in Italian written by her father on it. On the left there was the statue of the beautiful young girl with her faithful dog... Quite touching...



EVITA PERON

AC/DC Abruzzo's 2012 Argentinian adventures finally came to an end. Cristian kindly gave us a ride to the airport. One of his dreams has been to meet Angus and take a photo with him but he hasn't succeeded yet... "There must be another tour" he told me in Spanish. Si, necesitamos otra gira... I answered


Cristian and his Rock'n'Roll car


Friday, December 7, 2012

AMARCORD BUENOS AIRES Live a River Plate 2009 - 3 years ago...


From AC/DC ABRUZZO BLOG - MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2009

The Vice President on the phone

SETLIST

01. Rock N Roll Train
02. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
03. Back In Black
04. Big Jack
05. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
06. Shot Down In Flames
07. Thunderstruck
08. Black Ice
09. The Jack
10. Hells Bells
11. Shoot To Thrill
12. War Machine
13. Dog Eat Dog
14. You Shook Me All Night Long
15. T.N.T.
16. Whole Lotta Rosie
17. Let There Be Rock
18. Highway To Hell
19. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Tonight we received a surprise phone call from Marcom and Andrea during the guitar intro of Highway to Hell live in Buenos Aires... It was really a pleasant surprise... Here's what they told us over the phone after the show:

Marcom: Chettaffatto! No extra cameras tonight. Don't ask me why but the DVD will be just the footage of the second night... I guess it will be enough anyway... Maybe they wìll add some audio from the other shows... We don't know... (The DVD probably won't be released before June). Anyway amazing performance of Brian tonight. He was on fire. Old school kick-ass performance of Angus. He was so happy about the response of the crowd during the LTBR solo that he took a bow in the middle of it to thank the audience. Incredible! The solo went on for some extra minutes. Possibly the longest LTBR solo of the entire tour... The audience was crazy as usual. One funny thing about Argentinian crowd is that you get to see people jumping wildly not only in the pitch but even on the second level on seats on the side in the Stadium... This time we decided to see most of the show in front of the catwalk, just in the middle. The sound there was so good that it was pure for our ears... Amazing!
One funny story for our readers. On Wednesday we were doing some grocery shopping in a local supermarket called DISCO in the centre of the city and we bumped into Ellen buying snacks ect. That was really funny! AC/DC Abruzzo and AC/DC Italia doing grocery shopping with Angus' wife in Argentina!!! AHAHAHAH. We also met Ross who was really cool with all his Facebook fans. We really loved his Ferrari jacket... Pretty nice! The band was pretty busy signing autographs with hundreds of fans. Always very cool... Another funny thing was the non authorised sellers of t-shirts outside the stadium. They mixed it up pretty well. Like you could see T-shirts with creative artwork such as Bon Scott on Razor's Edge album cover or souvenir t-shirts of the Argentinian tour with 4 dates instead of 3... AHAHAH

Andrea: Yesterday we went to the Boca Junior soccer match. Bellissimo! And today we had again 400g Argentinian steaks before the show... We love Argentina!

Argentinian Rock'n'Roll Train

In front of the Bombonera stadium

Thursday, December 6, 2012

BACK IN BUENOS AIRES - Live in Argentina - 2012

In front of La Cabaña restaurant...

As you know Andrea from followed the three sold out concerts of AC/DC in Buenos Aires for AC/DC Abruzzo, while Matteo and Stefano were already in Australia preparing for the 11 Australian shows of February and March.

After three years AC/DC Abruzzo went back to Argentina. This time it was Matteo who visited this rock'n'roll country, for the first time.

We met with our good friend Christian with whom we had travelled together from Sofia to Bucharest in May 2010 (by train!). In the meantime, Christian had become worldwide famous thanks to the Live River Plate DVD documentary, "The Fan, The Roadie, The Guitar Tech and The Meat" where his crazy rock'n'roll story was told (he applied for a bank loan only to follow AC/DC on tour in Europe!).



What we heard was true. Argentina is a rock'n'roll country. And if you missed the AC/DC in 2009 just try and go see a football match and you will get an impression of what an Argentinian audience can do in a stadium. No other crowd compares to the Argentinian. No doubt.

Matteo Abruzzo and Christian at the Boca Stadium

Of course we also followed Brian and Cliff's advice and went to La Cabaña, the restaurant mentioned in the AC/DC DVD. Yes, the Kobe beef medallion will probably be the best steak you've had in your life! So juicy and tender that it melts in your mouth... Quite expensive for Argentina but still considerably cheaper than Europe. La Cabaña is in a nice new neighborhood called Puerto Madero, near the water with a few skyscrapers and modern buildings. 

Kobe beef Medallion (half - too late for the other half...)


But the most authentic places are areas such as San Telmo, the oldest "barrio"of the city, full of colonial buildings and tango parlors, with lots street artists and dancers. A bit like La Boca, created by Italian immigrants from Genoa in the 19th century. The streets of "Caminito", in the same neighborhood, will provide a nice and colorful portrait of the joyful Porteños culture, with lots of murales. Of course, we had to go and check out the "cancha" (the stadium) where we saw the football match "Boca Juniors - Independiente" (2-1). It wasn't easy to get tickets at Argentinian prices (15-20USD) but we managed anyway, using our basic Spanish and our local connections... If you don't have AC/DC Abruzzo skills in getting tickets (more than 80 AC/DC shows under our belt, remember!) just but a ticket at "Gringo price" (about 150 USD). It will be worth! Tickets for the entire seasons are sold out from day 1 (only season tickets are available)!


Satan in Caminito


God, according to Argentians

We spent most of our nights in the Palermo and Recoleta neighborhoods, which look quite European to us. Bars and clubs are packed during the weekend and you will meet a lot of interesting people who will become your friends in just a few minutes. Locals are very open and friendly, and you can easily guess that the heritage of most of the people from Buenos Aires is Italian or Spanish. Actually, we read somewhere that there were so many Italians back in the 19th century that the official language of Argentina should have been Italian. But "official" Italian language didn't exist at that time and there were only dialects so Spanish was chosen for practical reasons.


Tango culture
  

Food. STEAK! It is just impossible to describe how good the Argentinian meet is. We basically eat steaks 3-4 times a week. And steaks come with lots of tasty side dishes. In some places you can spend only 10-15 USD and eat as much 400g of "Lomo jujoso" (rare filet mignon). Of course if you order a good bottle of Malbec the price will be considerably higher. Our favorite spot was "La Cabrera" restaurant. If you don't mind eating "early" go there for the happy hour between 7pm and 8pm and you will get anything in the menu for half price. Argentinians generally have dinner after 10pm. We tasted also some fresh pasta (quite popular for the dinner lunch, like in Italy). And of course empanadas, "milanesas" and other typical recipes. We tried also MATE, the most popular hot beverage in Argentina, like coffee in Italy and Alfajores, typical sweats.

400g of limo

Girls. Yes, there are a few beautiful girls in Argentina and if you are an Italian from Italy, or from Abruzzo, you certainly have a competitive advantage. But the beauty of local women is overrated, a bit like Italy and Spain. Girls' attitude is definitely European, and this means women will make you invest a lot of energy and resources. We actually read somewhere that Argentinian guys are so much into rock'n'roll because they have to unleash the frustration they accumulate with women... Quite an interesting theory. :D So if you are looking for the South American "exotic" beauties AC/DC Abruzzo Travel guide suggests to Brazil, Colombia or Venezuela. ;D


...

TO BE CONTINUED

(Juan, Jennifer and the Recoleta Cemetery...)

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

AMARCORD BUENOS AIRES Live a River Plate 2009 - 3 years ago...


From AC/DC ABRUZZO BLOG - THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2009


SETLIST

01. Rock N Roll Train
02. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
03. Back In Black
04. Big Jack
05. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
06. Shot Down In Flames
07. Thunderstruck
08. Black Ice
09. The Jack
10. Hells Bells
11. Shoot To Thrill
12. War Machine
13. Dog Eat Dog
14. You Shook Me All Night Long
15. T.N.T.
16. Whole Lotta Rosie
17. Let There Be Rock
18. Highway To Hell
19. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

From the Vice President in Buenos Aires (December 5 - 10 am Argentinian Time)

NGULA! (this means F***ing Hell in Abruzzese!) So we were in the pitch tonight. Marco, Alessandra and me... After 3 songs we basically lost Marco (during Shoot to Thrill he twisted his ankle but apparently he kept jumping till the end anyway). During Dirty Deeds we were so pressed we couldn't even move or raise our arms! AHAHAH From the beginning to the end of the show we were going left and right, backward and forward, up and down. It was like going on the roller coster with AC/DC playng a few metres from you....AHAHAHAH... We had a hell of a time! But listen to this: During Whole lotta Rosie a circle of a 10 metre of diameter suddenly opened and we ended up just in the middle. In the eye of the vortex... Then the pimball effect started! Pazzesco! It was a lot of fun!! The weirdest thing to understand for those who were not there it was that we never felt it was violent, like it happened to us in England or somewhere else during the tour. And nobody was drunk! Umbelievable! People were just jumping and singing and hugging each other. Like Spain but way more energetic! Everyone was having the time of their life. Big gracias to the Argentinians for this...!

They recorded the whole show with extra cameras everywhere! During our going back and forth we saw the camera on that trolley going left and right in the middle of the audience. What do you call it? No, it's not a steadycam. Anyway you got the idea... We stopped by to say CIAO! AHAHAHAH The performance of the band was much better tonight than on the other night. They were warming up for the first take... Marco says the crowd was less wild... I don't agree. At least that's the impression I got.... Ah... We also had some juicy Angus Argentinian T-bone steaks... before the show obviously... Delicious... Pics and videos soon! ;-)

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

BACK IN BUENOS AIRES - 2012




And after 3 years AC/DC Abruzzo went back to Buenos Aires, Argentina! We visited some of the iconic places of this wonderful South American cities and met with some old and new friends.

Of course we went eat lots of steaks including the juicy Kobe beef, medallion. As suggested by Brian and Cliff...
Stay tuned for more!

With Christian, crazy fan from the Live at River Plate DVD Documentary
With Juan

The River Plate Stadium



Monday, December 3, 2012

AMARCORD BUENOS AIRES Live a River Plate 2009 - 3 years ago...


From AC/DC ABRUZZO BLOG - THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009


Dec 02, 2009, Buenos Aires, River Plate Stadium


SETLIST

01. Rock N Roll Train
02. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
03. Back In Black
04. Big Jack
05. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
06. Shot Down In Flames
07. Thunderstruck
08. Black Ice
09. The Jack
10. Hells Bells
11. Shoot To Thrill
12. War Machine
13. Dog Eat Dog
14. You Shook Me All Night Long
15. T.N.T.
16. Whole Lotta Rosie
17. Let There Be Rock
18. Highway To Hell
19. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

We just managed to reach the Vice President in his hotel room in Buenos Aires. Here's what he told us.

When describing the Argentinian audience he used the untranslatable Abruzzese expression "Natre passe", which means something like "Just another league/Something unique"... Comparing to the other crowds seen around the world during the last 12 months of tour the Argentinians seemed to be the hottest and the wildest... The standing area of the River Plate Stadium was constantly jumping during the whole show, even between the pauses. (!!!) All the songs were accompanied by loud chanting, even Black Ice. (!!!). Highway to Hell was the loudest song of the entire tour. Satan himself would be proud of this audience...

The performance of the boys was excellent as usual. Obviously the setlist remained the same. Apparently the extra cameras expected for the recording of the live DVD were not there last night. Probably the shoot will take place tomorrow and on Sunday...

Soon more on the Argentinian trip of AC/DC Abruzzo... Stay tuned....


Sunday, December 2, 2012

AC/DC FANTOGRAPHY 2003-2010 - SPECIAL OFFER: 10% OFF

To celebrate the third anniversary of the Buenos Aires 2009 concerts our Limited Edition Photobook about the  Black Ice World Tour "AC/DC FANTOGRAPHY 2003-2010 From Hammersmith to Bilbao" will be on sale at a SPECIAL DISCOUNTED PRICE only for the next week. Don't miss this opportunity to get a of this book! Only on AC/DC Abruzzo blog!








AC/DC FANTOGRAPHY Photobook + Shipping



Ad for those who missed the first photobook "AC/DC Black Ice World Tour - 2 Years on the road with AC/DC" with more than 200 exclusive photos from the last World Tour, here you will have the chance to grab one of the last few copies available together with the new photobook at a discounted price.




AC/DC FANTOGRAPHY + BLACK ICE WORLD TOUR

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