Concert Review: AC/DC's Black Ice Tour Stop Leaves Fans "Thunderstruck"

Few bands can put on a stadium show like AC/DC. The Auzzie rocker's have had 35+ years to hone their craft and have earned an almost God-like status among their fans.

That God-like aura even seemed to extend to the weather last night as AC/DC brought their Black Ice tour to the Canad Inns Stadium before a sold out crowd of 46,000 rabid Winnipeg fans. Just before the band was about to take the stage, a couple of huge lightening bolts lit up the sky, followed by peals of thunder. The crowd dutifully broke into the chant for Thunderstruck, a crowd favourite from 1990's album Razor's Edge - just as if nature's display was simply part of the band's special effects.

Thankfully, the inclement weather held off. The stadium lights darkened. The crowd roared. The 3 giant jumbotrons lit up the night, flashing video images of AC/DC and a voluptuous entourage aboard a steaming locomotive, hurtling out of control down a railway track line - thus, setting the stage for diminutive Angus Young, clad in his trademark schoolboy uniform, to hammer through the opening power chords of Rock N' Roll Train, the lead off single from their hugely successfully 2008 release Black Ice.

Boasting one of the most expensive stage settings in rock history, the massive stage structure represented stadium rock spectacle at it's finest. A huge locomotive complete with steaming smokestack, straddled a wall of stacked Marshall amps that stretched nearly the entire length of the stage. A catwalk jutted out from the center of the stage, extending like a huge tongue almost half way across the stadium. Crowning the stage like bookends, were a massive pair of Angus' trademark schoolboy hats, complete with red devil horns, perched menacingly overtop the jumbotrons, glowing eerily in the night sky.

Anchoring the AC/DC sound are Angus' brother Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, Cliff Williams on bass, and Phil Rudd on drums. They keep the groove rock solid while the showmen, Angus and burly singer Brian Johnson, sporting his trademark tweed cap, cut off shirt, and clench jawed, banshee wail, work the crowd into a frenzy.

You would never guess watching Angus thrashing his flaming red Gibson SG mercilessly, sweating buckets, and doing his one legged duck walks from one end of the stage to the other, or from seeing Brian Johnson running the length of the catwalk halfway across the stadium - that the lads are fifty-something and sixty-something respectfully.

The Auzzie bad boys strolled, strutted and sneered their way through their well paced 20 song set list, using material culled from the entire gamut of their thirty-five + year history, including early Bon Scott era hits like Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Whole Lotta Rosie to cuts from their landmark album, 1980's Back in Black such as Hell's Bells, and You Shook Me All Night Long as well as material from their current smash album Black Ice.

As AC/DC brought the show home, fans were treated to a voluptuous giant size lady of the evening perched atop a steaming locomotive during Whole Lotta Rosie followed by a sizzling extended solo workout from Angus during Let There Be Rock that literally sent sparks flying and left the crowd howling for more.

After a deafening encore, the band returned to wrap the night with Highway to Hell and ForThose About to Rock, complete with mulitiple ear shattering canon explosions and a fireworks display to cap the night, leaving Winnipeg fans "Thunderstruck" in the aftermath.

Irish band the Answer opened the night with a punchy hard rockin' set.

R L Rheubottom

Set List:

1) Rock n Roll Train

2) Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be

3) Back in Black

4) Big Jack

5) Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

6) Shot Down in Flames

7) Thunderstruck

8) Black Ice

9) The Jack

10) Hells Bells

11) Shoot to Thrill

12) War Machine

13) Dog Eat Dog

14) Anything Goes

15) You Shook Me All Night Long

16) TNT

17) Whole Lotta Rosie

18) Let There Be Rock

19) Highway to Hell

20) For Those About to Rock