For those about to rock

A few years ago I went hometeaching with my roommate Bill. We were chitchatting with the girl's roommate and she asked us where we went to school and where we worked. I worked in finance at a hedge fund of 200 and went to BYU. Bill worked in finance at GE, the world's largest conglomerate, and went to the U of U. She says-'So you guys are basically the same.' Well, by the narrow definition of going to school in the same state and working in the same general field, yes, we are the same. Now, we have one more similarity. Bill had told me several times how awesome AC/DC was live and I hadn't really lived since I hadn't seen them. Saturday night that changed as my dad took me to an AC/DC concert at the formerly Great Western Forum.

By way of background, fifteen years ago I really wanted to go to a Nirvana concert and the only way we could go is if we were chaperoned but nobody wanted to take us. So my dad stepped up to the plate and we went to this same Forum for my first concert. We sat in the second to last row way off to the side. While it did rock, we were far away and part way through could hardly see the stage through all the haze. As we left and Nirvana destroyed their instruments, I really thought they might do some damage to the building because it was shaking so bad.

This time, dad called me up and asked if I wanted to go. You may recollect this conversation Tamara and I had. Tamara said yes even though we had plans that night (I'm sure a post detailing those will come). I was so stoked. When we rolled in, none of the ushers knew how we actually got to our seats. We were on the floor six rows back from where the stage juts out into the middle of the floor. Angus' sweat nearly landed on us as he rocked. A bit of a different situation this time.

You can see a set list here. They played all the ones you'd want. The songs from the new album sounded just like the old AC/DC. A few of the big highlights were Thunderstruck because that song just rocks. They played an extended version of The Jack which is one of their mellower songs. During the end I pulled out my earplugs to see how loud it was. I lasted as long as I could, about 30 seconds, before I had to put them back in. It was unreal. I have no idea how those guys do it every night. It was loud with earplugs. I'll give them this though. While loud, the sound was amazingly clear and crisp. Angus also played like a ten minute solo at the end of let there be rock. Here's a youtube clip. The guy was on fire. He doesn't get as much credit as he should because AC/DC's stuff tends to be straightforward but this guy can rock. Even at 53. For such an unattractive guy, you can't take your eyes off of him while he plays. Maybe it's the duck walk. Probably not the balding. Either way, it was a highlight. The background of the stage was a huge locomotive train and during the Dirty Deeds there were four holes that were blowing fire along with the song. Pretty rad. As for Rosie, you'll have to look that one up.

Anyway, pics are forthcoming. I used a disposable camera in case there were metal detectors and they still have to be developed.
As a final thought, I hope I still have as much life as these guys do when I'm that age. I'm not sure what we'll do for an encore but I'm sure it will be epic.