Acca Dacca Sunday, P3
A Little Bite Of Our AC/DC Journey Each Week
Listen, I’m not going to lie to you - I saw AC/DC in their prime, 1988. They were absolutely blistering back then. I’m certain most of my hearing loss in my life happened during that two hour show in Buffalo Memorial Auditorium when I was a teenager.
Does singer Brian Johnson’s voice sound today like he did back then? No.
Is Angus Young as fast and as agile today as he was back then? No.
Did Little Bean or I care about any of that when the band burst out onto the stage to the ripping riff of “If You Want Blood?” We did not!
“How’s it going, Boston,” Brian shouted, his gravelly voice echoing off the upper decks of Gillette. “Are we going to have some fun tonight?” Indeed, we were.
Before the show, I had uploaded an image of the band’s set list, which they seemed to be sticking pretty close to, from what I could see of past shows.
No way we were going anywhere for the first five songs, which included “Back in Black” and “Thunderstruck,” Uma’s favorite AC/DC song. We decided to stay put for the first seven, because song seven was “Hell’s Bells,” and we wanted to see the big old bell come down.
Incredibly, Uma predicted it would start raining during “Thunderstruck” and she was right! We screamed to the Heavens as the rain came down!
After song seven, we ran back up to use the bathroom and grab a cotton candy, making it back in time for “Shoot to Thrill.”
As the show went on, the crowd around us got more packed in, with folks coming down and hanging out in the aisle near the front of the seating section. The couple next to me, I discovered, was there because the woman took her boyfriend to the show because today was his birthday. A crew of 60-somethings with long beards headbanging in the aisle let Uma take their picture and then fist-bumped us in solidarity. One shouted, “Way to go, dad!”
The show was loud, good-natured and I felt comfortable and safe. The guy behind us did spend the entire encore shouting “Angus!” at the top of his lungs, which Uma thought was hilarious. She named him the Angus Man. (More on him in next week’s post.)
Right at about song 15, which was “Riff Raff,” we headed back up for another bathroom break and grabbed a bag of Frito / Chicken / Nacho Cheese snacks.
I’m here to tell you, and Little Bean will back me up on this, sitting in a stadium with my daughter and 60,000 fans, listening to “Whole Lot of Rosie” while forking mouthfuls of Nacho Cheese Fritos into our yappers in between screaming and clapping, while Angus Young spins around on a raised platform in front of us, may be one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. Seriously, not quite getting married atop Mt. Lafayette or getting my first book published, but right in there.
The last four songs were “Whole Lot of Rosie,” “Let There Be Rock,” “T.N.T” and “For Those About to Rock.” Somewhere in there, I forget where, Angus had what seemed to be a three hour guitar solo. (“Daddy, how long is he going to play!?”)
And by the time the final cannons were firing and the fire works were spiraling into the cloudy, misty sky, the kid and I were wet, filthy, exhausted and starving despite the Frito Nachos!
We hung out a long time at the end, waiting for the crowd above us to clear out. Uma pocketed a few fist fulls of the confetti that rained down on us because it was imprinted with AC/DC logos.
One of the stadium crew finally came around and chatted with us for a bit. He was about my age and had also seen the band the first time as a teen.
“Her first time,” he nodded at Uma.
“Yup,” I said.
He reached under his rain slicker and pulled out a folded up pamphlet, and bent over toward her.
“Listen,” he said, “this is the little newsletter the crew gets before a show. Some info and pictures and stuff. Maybe you’d like this as a souvenir.”
Her eyes light up. “Thank you!” Once again, the kid, without even trying, made out like a rock and roll bandit.
Here’s the last couple minutes of the finale with cannon fire and fire works and also Uma screaming!
Acca Dacca Sunday: Thanks for joining us for our little weekly story about our incredible concert day. We’ll do this every Sunday for two more weeks. You can read Part One here Acca Dacca Sunday Part One and Part Two here Acca Dacca Sunday Part Two. And as always, please feel free to share with any AC/DC, music or culture fans! Onward!
Rock on!