Friday October 16, 2009. I'm walking with my dad down the streets of Washington D.C. to get to the Verizon Center for what, I'm sure, is going to be one of the best nights of the year. As far as the weather goes, it was not by any means the best night of the year. As for the music that was to be heard that night, it was indeed the best night of the year. We begin, as most stories do (unless you're Quentin Tarantino), with the beginning. The Verizon Center is about half-full for the opening act, a rock band from Belfast, Ireland called The Answer. Now, I'll give these guys some credit. They have the capacity to rock their balls off as much as the next band. They even have better music than a lot of rock bands today. There were only two things stopping them from getting the applause they probably deserve. The first thing was the sound; unfortuately for most opening acts, they do not get the same sound engineers as the headliners. The sound is good, don't get me wrong, but something is usually overshadowed, and in this case, it was the vocals. That's not the end of the world because you can't really understand the singer's lyrics anyway, and the rest of the band more than made up for it. The second thing that hindered their well-deserved positive reception was the fact that they were opening for AC/DC. It is very hard to win over an audience who can't wait for you to get off the stage. They held their own, though, so for that, I salute them.
After their set, a bunch of techs rushed onstage and began to hastily take apart The Answer's equipment. To give you an idea just how popular and loved AC/DC is, when lead guitarist Angus Young's guitar tech came onstage and did a soundcheck with Angus's guitar, the place went crazy. Myself included. What I would give to be that guitar tech. Anyway, after about 30 min of soundchecks and stage checks, the lights went down, the place went insane, and AC/DC's opening video began to play. This video consists of the band members on a train (a Rock N Roll Train- the hit single from AC/DC's most recent album, Black Ice) with Angus (depicted as a demon) in the control room. Things go awry when some attractive women catch Angus's eye and the train goes out of control and eventually crashes into the giant video screen, which splits in half to reveal a huge train prop that easily weighs several tons. The train has the AC/DC logo on the side and devil horns on top. As this is happening, a tiny, 5'2" figure comes running onto the stage, guitar in hand and ready to start the first song. Before he starts, the 53 year-old Angus Young first tips his hat to the audience and then begins the first chords of Rock N Roll Train. The guitars sound perfect. The vocals, courtesy of 62 year-old lead singer Brian Johnson, are better than ever. The rythym section could not be stronger. Rythym guitarist and older brother of Angus, Malcolm Young's slightly less intense sounding guitar compliments Angus's hard, edgy sound perfectly. It fattens and broadens the overall tone. Phil Rudd's straight, 4/4 time drumming keeps the band thundering all through the night, and Cliff Williams's bass brings everything together. The band played for 2 hours to the delight of all 20 some thousand fans who were present. They belted out the classics like "Back in Black", "Thunderstruck", and "Hell's Bells", and threw in a few older, more obscure gems to the absolute delight of myself, who knows every knook and cranny of their extensive catalogue. One of the highest points of the show was when Angus stepped onto a platform in the middle of the crowd and rose 20 feet in the air while doing a ridiculous guitar solo. The absolute majesty that a scene like that lends to the eye is amazing. There was not one single fault in the entire show. The only bad part was when it ended. After the last cannon fire in "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)," the show was, unfortuately over, but the memory of watching these men, who are twice the age of modern bands, and yet still, after all these years, exude twice the energy, will never go away. To the fans who were there and to the band themselves, I say, "Keep up the good rock and I salute you." CHYEAH!
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