AC/DC @ Hampden Park, 30 Jun

Article by Dave Kerr | 10 Jul 2009

With a combined age of 285, it seems miraculous that AC/DC should make it back to Hampden Park in the year of Homecoming, the legendary quintet literally crashing on stage to the backdrop of an animation depicting a hedonistic train trip that ends in inevitable derailment.

Ever the band to play a theme out to its logical conclusion, the wreck appears on stage flanked by two gigantic ‘A’ (see 'Angus') caps before the original monsters of rock launch into a few select cuts from the blindsiding success that was last year's Black Ice. Reassuringly, Brian Johnson screeches at his banshee-best to the tune of Back in Black while an energised Angus Young plays with abandon in his trademark attire. The clear highlight arrives midway when a colossal AC/DC emblazoned bell is winched down on stage, tasking Johnson to dart down the catwalk and make a lunge without coming a cropper. He succeeds, of course, and 80,000 revellers lose their shit.

However, amid the celebratory nature of the night, there's something sadly elegiac about all this. Free from the occupational complexities that dog most modern bands who look for an unironic niche to sustain the public's short attention span, AC/DC are a dying breed. And when a 70ft high inflatable dame by the name of Rosie wobbles out and starts straddling a train, it's a clear matter of fact that we'll never see their like again.

 

http://www.acdc.com