UDINE, STADIO FRIULI, May 19, 2010

Udine, Italy, Stadio Friuli,
May, 19 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

"When I saw so many young people at the AC/DC concerts in Milan last year, I said to myself:
Thank God! Even in Italy sometimes things go the way they should."

Pino Scotto
Italian old school Rocker and Philosopher

We arrived in Udine after a couple of days of absolute relax in Brescia and Milan as guests of Marcom of AC/DC Italia. Of course we had the time for some Italian food debauchery. We chose the Forum of Assago in Milan as meeting point for a briefing with Orangus and other friends the day before the Udine concert… Kiss happened to play the same night there so we also had a look inside...

The landscape outside the Friuli stadium was similar to the other locations we had seen before around the globe. But in a NON-rock'n'roll country like Italy it really looked quite unusual. The 47,000 tickets had been sold out since February and scalpers had been selling for double the price for weeks...

Before the concert several Italian fans stopped us to say hello and to thank us for our blog. That was quite a surprise considering that we've been writing in English since the beginning of the tour. We also met legendary fan Looy who came to Italy for the show. Nonno Alan and Zio Michel were also in Udine for the show but unfortunately we didn't meet them. Next time, maybe Scandinavia...

The Stadium was filled with fans with their flashing (unofficial) horns sold by bootleggers from Naples. Quite a spectacular view anyway. On the other hand, the opening band, Le Vibrazioni, as expected, received a pretty cold welcome from the audience (to use a euphemism) together with all sorts of heavy objects thrown on stage. According to some, it was the Italian rocker Pino Scotto, aka the Italian Socrates of Rock'n'Roll, who saved them, by getting on stage with the excuse to pay tribute to Ronnie James Dio who passed away a few days ago.

Then we got the same "old/classic" Europe 2010 performance from the boys. We are sure that those fans who couldn't find a ticket for the Milan shows in February last year (which still rank in AC/DC Abruzzo's top 3 best shows of this tour) or saw them for the first or second time had a total blast and will never forget this day. As for us, after so many show, we realized we have been spoiled. Especially with the 2009 European indoor tour, with the intimate arenas, the low catwalk, Brian constantly shaking hands and Angus' sweat reaching the first 2-3 rows of fans… Not to mention the novelty of the Black Ice setlist during the first legs of the tour... Things have changed...

Some people argued that the venue and the audience were not adequate for such a historic rocn'n'roll event. A bigger venue like San Siro in Milan would have been probably more appropriate but unfortunately the 70,000 people stadium wasn't available to AC/DC due to the low decibel limit established a couple of years ago by the local authorities… What a shame for rock'n'roll... Italy is a complicated country indeed...

Last but not least, we want to salute Brian who wore the official Italia football team shirt on For Those About to Rock!

Guess who gave it to him... ;) FORZA ITALIAAAAAA!!!

MORE PHOTOS HERE

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOGALLERY FROM UDINE

Yesterday, AC/DC played in front of 50,000 crazy Italian fans at the Stadio Friuli in Udine. And this night will be remembered for ever as a historic night for rock'n'roll in Italy.

Here's a few exclusive pics from yesterday's night. More photos and full report by AC/DC Abruzzo HERE.

SEE YOU IN UDINE!!!

The day of the most awaited show of the tour has finally arrived! AC/DC Abruzzo's steering committee is now on the highway to Udine with AC/DC Italia's Marcom and friend Francesca. Yesterday, we have made a stopover to meet some old friends ad the Filaforum of Milan for the Kiss show. Orangus was also there too so we had a preliminary meeting with him and the other boys of AC/DC Italia... SEE YOU IN UDINE!!!

The boys outside the Forum

Bucharest, RO May, 16 2010

Bucharest, RO, Piata Constitutei,
May, 16 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

When we came to Bucharest we didn't expect to see AC/DC playing in a big square in the middle of the city in front of a massive Governmental palace (the second biggest building in the world after the Pentagon). The atmosphere was quite unique as you can see in our photos and videos and we loved every second of it but maybe the venue was not suitable for a rock concert.

But nobody really seemed to care. Especially the three generations of fans gathered to see the greatest rock'n'roll band on the planet. The Romanians were pretty cool and laid back (we were offered a beer for the second show in a row by some random fan before the concert). Not many girls at the show (or at least less that we expected). On the other hand there were a few street dogs in the crowd (they rule the streets of Bucharest). Dog eat dog would have been appropriate for the situation.

The show: Same fantastic intro with Angus coming back from the catwalk end after pyros. The boys were in good shape but it looked like they were a bit more tired than Sofia. We got to hear even a few rare mistakes of Malcolm and Angus (our theory is that there should have been some echo/sound problem maybe due to the venue). Anyway, it was quite cold and windy comparing to Sofia and Angus didn't sweat as he normally does (maybe he was not even too happy about stripping during The Jack either). The Let There Be Rock piece in the middle of the square was really cool. Rosie was the best song of the set.

Now it's time to get ready for Udine which will be one of the milestones of this tour with one of the best rock'n'roll crowd in the world. We're just about the opening band (Le Vibrazioni) which is in real danger in front of this crowd....

Dog Eat Dog in Bucharest

The Rock'n'Roll train arrives in Bucharest

From PIATA CONSTITUTIEI

Amazing view from the catwalk

We're just back from a dinner with Uncle Michel, Goulash (one of the biggest fans and friend of the band since the early days) after the gig in the beautiful Bucharest square. The food was surprisingly good and again we had our share of stories from the previous tour (especially Razor's Edge and Ballbreaker). Michel was still very happy about the train adventure of yesterday night from Sofia. He had this fixation about taking a train in Eastern Europe for the tour since the Stockholm Globen gig in 2009. For us it was a nightmare... But still a rock'n'roll experience. On the other hand, Goulash was a bit worried about the volcano ash crisis that apparently caused the closing of the UK airports. But he was also happy about the show and he agreed with us that the two major mistakes that Malcolm and Angus made tonight (Shoot to Thrill and For Those About to Rock) were actually gold for real fans like us who follow the band everywhere and would kill to hear some changes. Yes, we are not ashamed to admit that we did enjoy hearing those mistakes.
Full report tomorrow!

BUCHAREST!!!

After a long night on a 1970's Rock'n'Roll train we just arrived in Bucharest. We spent the night with other fans from Argentina, Belgium and Germany of course. Legendary fan Michel (aka Zio Michel, good friend of Nonno Alan) was with us and told us lots of stories about his 140 shows. Including the glorious time of the Ballbreaker tour...
See you in Piata Constitutiei tonight. Now we go to sleep...

Sofia Train Station

Sofia-Moscow

Uncle Michel

The Secretary General in the AC/DC Abruzzo train office

Bucharest 5.40 am

SOFIA May 14, 2010

AFTER THE VIDEO INTRO
Matteo: Where the f*** is Angus?
Stefano: Look over there!!!
Matteo: :-O

Sofia, BG, Vassil Levsky Stadium,
May, 14 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

AC/DC are officially back in Europe for the last leg of the tour in Sofia, Bulgaria. AC/DC Abruzzo obviously couldn't miss the first night of the tour and was there with all the staff. Matteo, Andrea and Stefano + Marco from AC/DC Italia. Actually, Andrea was not supposed to come but he couldn't resist and showed up in Sofia only for 24 hours. Honestly, our loyalty to the band starts to be surprising even for us...

Most fans were expecting a setlist change. But obviously there wasn't. We had discussed this before the tour and we don't care anymore about the setlist. What counts for us is to get to see as many shows as possible before it's too late. In the end, the setlist is tight, the boys are in great shape, we love to travel around the world with them, we created a mechanism that allows us to do it so we'll continue till Bilbao anyway... And you'll keep getting our stories, report, photos and videos...

The major change was at the beginning, just after the intro. If you're reading this obviously you don't care too much about "spoiling the surprise" so here's what the 2010 Eurocrowd will get as extras. Some pyros on the catwalk after the video intro and Angus coming from the end of the catwalk (which was pretty cool). For the rest is exactly the same show, including the high catwalk (which we don't like) we got in Buenos Aires and Australia...

Brian's performance was one of the best of the tour. Hat's off to Jonna! Angus, in green, is clearly growing his hair and looks really cool. Maybe he put on a few extra pounds since Australia but he keeps jumping and duckwalking like crazy. The Bulgarian crowd was very warm; we could tell we were back in Europe. Brian seemed to love it and decided to cheer up the crowd by waving a Bulgarian flag during Dirty Deeds.

Ok. That's all from Sofia. See you in Bucharest. Or maybe on the Rock'n'Roll train we're taking tonight...

Jonna on fire pointing at us

With Bulgarian friends before the show

The Italian Bosses in Sofia

UPDATE FROM SOFIA

The AC/DC Abruzzo crew has finally arrived in Sofia for the kick-off show of the final leg of the Black Ice World tour. We met with some old good friends that have been with us around the world in the past year and half since the Wilkes Barre shows. We had a few pints of Wymehcko beer and some food as well...

We also spent some time around the Vasil Levski Stadium and took a few exclusive shots of the stage despite the heavy rain...

If you don't care about "spoiling the surprise" you can have a look at AC/DC Abruzzo photo gallery.

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