AC / DC provides high -voltage rock and rolls on pink Bowl masses

Precious groups can fill a stadium 52 years in their career. Much less game with an audience strongly populated by parents and their teenagers / pre -adolescents, the two generations applauding for the 77 -year -old singer Brian Johnson and the guitar icon with white hair Angus Young, 70 years old. Although dotted with Red Devil indicators chronometer bands, no less.

But AC / DC did exactly that, playing 21 of the tunes singing instantly recognizable of a considerable heaviness – the majority of them of classic rock radio staples and cultural touch stones – with a power and a passion that denies their many decades of service. Beginner with “If you want Blood (You Got It)” of 1978 “, Young, in his outfit of brand schoolchildren (Red Velvet for this show) and recognizable Gibson SG Black and White, went on stage for a thunderous appreciation.

Then, “Back in Black”, the song and the album that marked the entrance to Johnson in 1980 to the programming. The singer turned out to be expressive and animated despite serious hearing problems that have sidelined him for a few scary years, and a voice which, of course, does not always have the support and power of previous days. The quintet made some tracks of their latest “power up” from the 2020s, but as planned and appreciated, the successes judged, from “Shot Down to Flames” in “Hell's Bells” via “Thunderstruck”, favorite of the last days.

Pasadena, California – April 18: AC / DC's main singer Brian Johnson and guitarist Angus Young occur at Rose Bowl on April 18, 2025 in Pasadena, California. (Eric Thayer / For time)

(Eric Thayer / For time)

The whole group, despite the perfection and the implacable strident power of the rhythmic section, was not a quick flow, with fairly frequent darkened stadium breaks between the songs. The second half of the performance of two hours and more was stronger, Johnson's energy apparently renewed on this third show of 13 for this power tour.

AC / DC fans occurred in pink Bowl on April 18, 2025 in Pasadena, California.

The group's hardcore faithful may wonder if AC / DC can be slightly insensitive or simply motivated, as their careers suggest. Other fans do not know or do not care about the background of the range, which took its first devastating round in February 1980 with the death of the singer Bon Scott, 33. In less than six months, with the new singer Johnson, previously of the group Brit Geordie, AC / DC published what was going to become one of the most sold albums of History, “Back in Black” (to date) with Johnson.

Like a Dickensan Andy Capp, Johnson is a Lot Uber thug, a Bluesy all-in-one whose flashing humor with a suspicion of scoundrel is not entirely different from Scott's behavior, although the voice, inflection and presence of each man are / were clearly theirs. And beloved as such.

The main singer of AC / DC Brian Johnson and the guitarist Angus Young occur at Rose Bowl

However, on February 28, 2016, in the middle of the AC / DC “rock or bust” tour, the doctors told Johnson if he had not stopped performing immediately, he risked total hearing loss. On May 17, 2016, the singer of Guns N 'Roses Axl Rose joined AC / DC as a filling singer for two dozen shows, a movement that shocked many others. Apparently, nothing will stop the mastodon that is AC / DC. They are both a bunch of brothers, literally – founded by Angus and the late brother Malcolm Young – but not too. While the average age spectator next to me noted it: “Angus is all about money and his brother (Malcom) have the group.” That said, it was fans 10^th Show on several continents, although it has deliberately avoided seeing the pink version of AC / DC.

Johnson, his audience problems managed, was back in the fold by 2019, and Post-Pandemic, playing live with AC / DC by October 2023. Interestingly, one of the other groups that still fill the stadiums are indeed Guns N 'Roses. Even more titillating: Rose and the guitarist Slash, The Johnson and Young of American Rock, were present at the Rose Bowl, their walk in the crowd encouraging thousands of people to hale and crane the neck for a glance at the duo.

But all eyes were on stage for the show of two hours and more. AC / DC wrote songs in the blink of an eye on sexually transmitted diseases (“The Jack”); Large women (“all Lotta Rosie”); Voracious meetings (“you have shaken me all night”, “she has bullets”); And of course, hell (in the summary). The tunes are all exuberant and undeniable, and even with a new era of politically correct, never offensive.

Despite the challenges of health and attrition of members, AC / DC remains unstoppable, undeniable, the own version of Young by Chuck Berry's Duckwalk and proving its supernatural energy, as is its expected and still long solo section (10 minutes?

At least six songs in the whole have been infamous by Scott – including “Sin City”, “Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)”, “Riff Raff”, “Let here be rock” and “Highway to Hell”, but they are so much longer than Scott. Another constant: the titles of AC / DC songs are often user -friendly of BOD BOS WORD – “Take a drink on me”, “Hells Bells”, “steep upper lick” – now so common in the vernacular that the ACC / DC could have invented the sentences. At this stage, who knows; Maybe they did it.

A valid complaint noted in the group is also the secret (pas-si) of the AC / DC force and has continued and deserved worldwide success: they make the same disc each time. If it is not broken, do not repair it. And when things “break”, they are quickly fixed. Instead of the Hope of drummer Phil Rudd, completing the programming live, drummer Matt Lauug, with the group for two years; And the Bassist of a qualified companion Chris Chaney of the infamy of Jane's drug addiction. He replaced Cliff Williams, who joined AC / DC for the first time in 1977. And there are two “young people” on the guitar; Angus and his nephew, Stevie, 68, who replaced his uncle Malcolm in the group in 2014.

So, will AC / DC continue? Obviously, as long as they can. That's what they do. Will the public, young and older fans continue to appear? They will. That's what they do. The world around 2025 could use two hours of singing with 70,000 inhabitants with similar views, celebrating the workers' joys of alcohol, large and rock and roll. AC / DC remains the group to deliver this joyful bipartite escape. As Bon Scott sang (and Johnson has never done it) on the Cornemuse conlator “it is a long path to the summit (if you want rock & roll)”, and AC / DC has indeed struck this summit, and remains installed there.

AC / DC has rendered its audience an excellent service by having fairly reckless openers. The singer Taylor Momsen had a great presence on the massive scene, resembling the Cherie Currie tracks around the 70s, her perfect sensual voice, her dominant voice as authentic as her positively magnetic presence on stage. Heard from a neighboring seat: “I was completely blown away.”

Like AC / DC, the group is focused on the guitar and wrote large songs, their approach the perfect mix between rock accessible with the danger, volume and power of metal. It is a shame that AC / DC is so much by the book on stage, because a duo Momsen-Johnson would be a twinning for the ages.

Source Link