Events and Reports - AC/DC - Live In Horsens. June 5th, 2010
Written by Tommy

"Est. 1973" covered a guy's T-Shirt outside CASA Arena in Horsens, the venue rock giants AC/DC was to play a couple of hours later, 37 years I thought to myself, that's some kind of achievement. Now it's been fifteen years since I saw them the first time and honestly that's one of the best memories of my life, first off, they pulled out a hell of a show, second it was one of the first concerts I went to and thirdly I had been growing up listening to this band more than any other.

So I was quite excited to find out if they still could create that kind of magic and luckily the queue to the bar was reasonable, cold drinks and AC/DC kind of go together.

As the lenghty intro video ended with a runaway train making its way "onstage", Angus entered the stage playing the opening riff from Rock N' Roll Train and as the other guys showed up, it became quite apparent that they all have been in the game for quite some time.
The first two tracks laid a solid fundament before the first real highlight was hammered down with a monster beat, in all honestly Back In Black sounded so forceful that I could feel the concrete below my feet begin to shiver.

Much to my surprise a lot of the audience didn't really seem to know more than the most popular of the band's songs, Shot Down In Flames has been a personal favorite for years but didn't generate much action from the crowd which didn't stop the band for having fun with it, the beginning gets me every time. The scenario changed quite a bit as Thunderstruck hit with a massive wall of huge choirs and splendid guitar playing, at this time I stood on the side wing and had a good view of things, seeing around 33.000 people go mental at the same time is quite a sight.

The obligatory strip-show during The Jack was fun if a bit short, songs as Shoot To Thrill, You Shook Me All Night Long with a superb slick solo and the groovy High Voltage sounded fantastic, you just have to acknowledge the immense importance Malcolm has for the bands sound, his riffs cuts with extreme precision and has this wonderful dry ring to it.

Brian Johnson had chosen a limited vocabulary mostly consisting of "Yes sir", "Baby" and the quite amusing "Oki-doky", it's not that I wanted him to say a lot between songs but a bit more improvisation wouldn't have hurt, when it comes to his voice it doesn't sound as impressive as twenty years back but it sure comes close. The rhythm section sounded extremely tight and sharply adjusted but again with no room for just small diversions from the plan.

Off the Black Ice album we got the title track which didn't leave much of an impression, the energized Big Jack worked out way better with Cliff Williams throwing in some chunky bass chords, later in the set a super groovy War Machine also left a positive impression.

In some instances I think Phil Rudd could have put a bit more weight behind his playing and it was as some songs had a tempo reduction of ten percent or so. I was rather impressed by his forceful stamina during the monster Let There Be Rock though. Angus treated us with a 15-minute solo during this one and impressingly it didn't appear a second too long.

After a short break Angus appeared in a cage from below the stage and with that kind of entrance it was no surprise when the first legendary riff of the crowd pleaser Highway To Hell resounded, you just can't go wrong with a song like that.

When it comes to the song selection I know there's quite a lot of songs people expect them to play but a couple of surprises as Riff Raff, Bedlam In Belgium, Put The Finger On You or Rocker would mean so much to the more hardcore fans. Looking at the Black Ice World Tour setlist they have played almost the same set each night, a shame really.

For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) ended the rock spetacle in high scale explosions, the tempo-break midway through has always been a favorite AC/DC moment and even more so this splendid evening.

So to sum up there were a bit too much autopilot on an otherwise steady rolling train, the setlist was once again too conservative and even though the sound was nicely balanced it should had been louder. What counts the most though is the bands fantastic charisma and extremely solid execution of some of the best Rock songs ever and here you just have to admit that they still have the magic flowing between them.
 
Setlist:
 
Rock N' Roll Train
Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
Back In Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Shot Down In Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack
Hells Bells
Shoot To Thrill
War Machine
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
T.N.T.
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Highway To Hell
For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Written by Tommy
Thursday, July 15, 2010



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Comment by Sandra (Member) - Saturday, July 17, 2010
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Sounds like an awesome night, great read!

Posted by Sandra
Saturday, July 17, 2010

Comment by staccato (Member) - Monday, August 2, 2010
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koszi

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Monday, August 2, 2010






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