[kj] (OT) AC/DC Last Night in LA

[TB]

Caught AC/DC last night in Los Angeles at the Forum arena.  It's been a long 
time since I've been to a show that wrecked my hearing like this one did.

I had the "paperless ticket" entry which is something I suppose Ticketmaster 
came up with to prevent people from scalping the best seats in the house. 
Basically, you buy your seat(s) online at TM, they give you a confirmation 
code but you never get a physical ticket, not even a PDF file ticket so in 
theory you have nothing to sell, especially the day of the show if you're a 
scalper unless you're going in with the person(s) you sold your tickets to.

I originally got a pair of 21st row seats right next to the end stage in the 
center of the floor and when a friend bailed a couple days after I bought 
them, I was able to sell my extra on eBay for a few hundred bucks, thus 
paying for both my tickets.  The buyer met me at the Forum at a 
predetermined time and location and what I had to do was present the credit 
card I bought the tickets with at the door, the security dude scans my CC 
with a handheld ticket printer which spit out a little receipt for each 
ticket that looked like it came from 7/11 that had the seat number and in we 
went.  Congratulations, TM - nice try.  No problem for me but the couple 
behind didn't have the right credit card they bought their tickets with. I 
dunno what happened with them but they were freaking out.

After a few drinks we caught some of the opening band's set.  "The Answer" 
was kind of like a more boring, anonymous version of The Darkness.  Some 
solid tunes but nothing revolutionary or memorable.

AC/DC came on right about 9pm on the money and man, they were fucking loud. 
Not only loud, but really crisp and clear, especially Angus' guitar which 
could have cut through a nuclear blast.  Although singer Brian Johnson was a 
bit buried in the mix, he sounded very strong for the entire show and 
overall, I'd say the sound was among the cleanest, sharpest hard rock shows 
in an arena (especially the notoriously shitty sounding Forum) I've heard in 
years.  Angus Young (and his brother Malcom) have one of the purest rock n' 
roll guitar tones especially live of anyone you'd see and hear.  the live 
album "If You Want Blood" is one of the best sounding live records imo, and 
last night's show has that same direct, clean live sound.

Following a short CG animated cartoon introduction video on a set of big 
clear video screens, they opened with "Rock and Roll Train" off the new 
album followed by what I'd call the only semi deep classic cut of the night, 
"Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be."

Of course, as per any AC/DC show, you get the big hits, meaning the four 
main cuts from "Back in Black," as well as the usual suspects from the Bon 
Scott era.  What breaks the current set up is the inclusion of 5 tracks 
spread throughout the main set from the new "Black Ice" album.  Of those 
tracks, I'd say "Anything Goes" came off the best.  The title track, Black 
Ice is a beer run song.  Interestingly, aside from "For Those About To Rock" 
and "Thunderstruck," there were no songs in the set from any Brian Johnson 
album after "Back in Black" up to the new album which is basically a 20+ 
year chunk of their career ignored.

The band are physically really showing their age.  Angus looks pretty creepy 
these days and someone should tell him it's just fuckin' weird for a guy who 
looks like a trollish, balding grandpa to be doing a semi-striptease in the 
middle of "The Jack."  Still aside from struggling a bit with the intro to 
Thunderstruck, he still has all his chops even if he has slowed down a tad 
as far as running around the stage from the old days.  But from a musical 
standpoint, the band as a whole sounded every bit as sharp and solid as they 
ever have.

If I had one complaint, the Forum crowd wasn't really that loud, kinda tame 
overall.  Pretty wide mix of ages, a lot of people my age or even older for 
whom this was and will be their only rock concert in the past few years but 
a lot of 20-somethings and younger kids as well.  Pretty much the same kinda 
crowd as the Van Halen show I caught last year.  At least the drunken 
asshole factor was non-existant.

Overall, a really solid, kinda predictable (if you know anything at all 
about AC/DC's history) but highly enjoyable nearly 2 hour show right down to 
the silly giant inflatable "Rosie" which gyrated on the huge train backdrop 
during "Whole Lotta Rosie."

T.B.