Вторник 30 Июн 2009, 6:46

Sun 28 Jun – AC/DC Black Ice Tour

TO quote the AC/DC song title, the road to Punchestown quite literally became a highway to hell. However, it's amusing to witness excitable fans being more than capable of entertaining themselves. Sights seen on the M7 include a wrestling match, the customary streaker and countless buses that resembled exceedingly well-stocked bars.

Thankfully, we're here to watch gloriously dumb and neanderthal rock n'roll. Seconds into the opening song 'Rock 'n' Roll Train', Angus and Brian strutting and pouting down the centre stage runway makes all cares about the weather and traffic evaporate.

The sole minor criticism of nearly two hours of brilliant, blistering rock is that this is essentially the same set they performed in the O2 in April.

Yet it's a show that's well worth seeing twice. A massive bell for 'Hell's Bells', an inflatable Rosie, Angus's school uniform and the majestic good-time stomp of 'Thunderstruck' puts 'DC live into a category of their own.

Perhaps one of the best career moves the band made was not to tour extensively in the past decade. In not playing Ireland since 1996, the anticipation for their biggest Irish show to date reached a fever pitch that's rare at a time when international acts visit here ad nauseam.

There isn't a solitary moment of introspection in an AC/DC show – just full-throttle entertainment and old-fashioned fun that's second to none.

The band look like dinosaurs and offer the comforting thought that they've been around thrashing out these power chords forever. It becomes hard to imagine a pre-AC/DC world before 1973. 'For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)' sums them up beautifully. Their raison d'etre is to rock, and they do it ever so well.

- Eamon Sweeney

Source: Irish Independent