Even though there were apparently no set list changes, THEY'RE BACK and that's the important thing. Comments and reviews indicate that Angus and Brian were really energetic and Angus stole the show (news on what planet?), and that Anvil could have been better. Wasn't that what their movie was about? In any case, they're in the US, in the news (from the pics, looks like Angus's hair is longer and Malcolm got a hair cut) and none too soon, I will see them again. WIthout a set list change, guess Las Vegas is not a reality. With a set list change and I win the Lotto, okay, I'm there. Fingers crossed!
As my vast readership understands, this blog is all about BIBILOVESANGUS, basically about Bibi and Angus. However, in this house, the person that doles out the food and treats keeps talking about someone named Sarah. "Sarah wouldn't like to see you on the table," "Sarah would be unhappy that you annoy Hendrix so much", Sarah will probably bring her cat with her at Christmas." Truth be told, once Bibi's sensitive and beautiful little ears hear the word "Sarah", she tunes out, but don't mention it to the keeper of the treats, okay? Who is this Sarah anyway? Some kind of princess? Did she invent cat treats and hold on to the patent? Does she have a direct line to Angus? Is she familiar with the AC/DC discography? Why should she care if I'm on the table or not? I wouldn't care if she were on the table, as long as she didn't crowd me off. But, I digress. What I wanted to say--on MY blog--is that for the last few weeks, all I've heard is that Sarah's birthday is coming up and lots of attention has been given to the selection and purchasing of suitable gifts, appropriate acknowledgement of the date, blah, blah, blah, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. sheesh! And now, the day, July 29, is finally here, thank the maker, right? So can we get back to talking mostly about me and Angus, important stuff, now? Bibi will even say: Big Happy Birthday shout out (meow out? purr out?), Sarah--whoever and wherever you are. Now, where are those treats--or did they get put in the presents that Sarah was sent?
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
AC/DC: They Shoot to Thrill
I’ve tried to figure out why I like AC/DC so much. Watched Shine a Light last night (Martin Scorsese concert film about Rolling Stones; RS executive-produced the film) and found their performance to be flat and unexciting. The Jack White and Buddy Guy segments with them were notable and near the end, there was some excitement and energy, but otherwise, too mannered, too polished, too “done this so many times before”.
If you are ever lucky enough to see AC/DC in concert, you won’t believe the energy and “coming to get you” attitude. Every song, they play like there’s no next song, ever. Sure, you know the material, but when they perform it, WHOA! Back in Black is killer-fantastic, Whole Lotta Rosie is CRANKED UP; The Jack is incredible….OK, name one of their hits and AC/DC delivers a rendition that promises: if you want blood--you've got it! Each song will be very close to the album version AND it will be just jumping, screaming, all the way out there LIVE. They really, really do get it hot! By the time they play Let There Be Rock, Highway to Hell and For Those About to Rock, the fans are in serious sensory overload (the earth is shaking, my mind is aching, won't be faking it) and at the same time begging: more, more, more, please!!
Of course, it's the entire rocking band that does this, but listening to Angus play those unforgettable guitar riffs and solos, watching the duck walking and running all over the stage--a high voltage performance that steals the show every time! He is and will always be a guitar god live wire for me.
In Vegas, if the set list has been augmented by Sin City, when they play it, the MGM concert venue will explode like Krypton in Superman's story. Would be so cool to be there for those fireworks, n'est-ce pas?
If you are ever lucky enough to see AC/DC in concert, you won’t believe the energy and “coming to get you” attitude. Every song, they play like there’s no next song, ever. Sure, you know the material, but when they perform it, WHOA! Back in Black is killer-fantastic, Whole Lotta Rosie is CRANKED UP; The Jack is incredible….OK, name one of their hits and AC/DC delivers a rendition that promises: if you want blood--you've got it! Each song will be very close to the album version AND it will be just jumping, screaming, all the way out there LIVE. They really, really do get it hot! By the time they play Let There Be Rock, Highway to Hell and For Those About to Rock, the fans are in serious sensory overload (the earth is shaking, my mind is aching, won't be faking it) and at the same time begging: more, more, more, please!!
Of course, it's the entire rocking band that does this, but listening to Angus play those unforgettable guitar riffs and solos, watching the duck walking and running all over the stage--a high voltage performance that steals the show every time! He is and will always be a guitar god live wire for me.
In Vegas, if the set list has been augmented by Sin City, when they play it, the MGM concert venue will explode like Krypton in Superman's story. Would be so cool to be there for those fireworks, n'est-ce pas?
Monday, July 20, 2009
Man looks in mirror and sees--Angus Young!
Funny article about men's summer city shorts:
I have never considered shorts an item of fashion. As far as I'm concerned they don't even count as being all-the-way dressed. They're fine when you're on holiday in a country where your status as a tourist makes you unsightly anyway, but they're far too jaunty for any sort of formal occasion – a wedding, say – where your role as a middle-aged man is to bring everybody down a little bit.
The shorts aren't that revolutionary: flat-fronted and slim, in a dark grey herringbone fabric. They look like my suit trousers, only shorter; they reach to just below the kneecap. I pair them with a polo shirt. "How do I look?" I ask my sons. "Like you're wearing a school uniform," says one of them. He isn't wrong. When I put on the jacket of the aforementioned suit, I instantly recognise the man in the mirror as AC/DC guitarist Angus Young.
Well, I think: he should be so lucky as to look like Angus.
It may be hard waitin' round to be a millionaire, but it's really tough waiting for the Black Ice Tour to get back on the road. Particularly hotly awaited/debated: the US Summer Tour set list. I've been listening to Let There Be Rock and Powerage a lot and really, so many great, under-played songs: Go Down, Bad Boy Boogie, Overdose, Rock n Roll Damnation, Gimme a Bullet, Sin City, Gone Shootin', Up to My Neck in You, Kicked in the Teeth--well those are just about all the songs on those two albums that the boys haven't had in the most recent set list, so the problem is huge. There are so many great songs in their discogpaphy, there's no way they can play them all. If I had to, my top three additions to the set list would be Girls Got Rhythm, Sin City (Cliff would have a bass solo), and Live Wire (or High Voltage). Like anyone's reading this, but if someone in the AC/DC management is, stick that in your fuse box and include them in the summer tour.
I have never considered shorts an item of fashion. As far as I'm concerned they don't even count as being all-the-way dressed. They're fine when you're on holiday in a country where your status as a tourist makes you unsightly anyway, but they're far too jaunty for any sort of formal occasion – a wedding, say – where your role as a middle-aged man is to bring everybody down a little bit.
The shorts aren't that revolutionary: flat-fronted and slim, in a dark grey herringbone fabric. They look like my suit trousers, only shorter; they reach to just below the kneecap. I pair them with a polo shirt. "How do I look?" I ask my sons. "Like you're wearing a school uniform," says one of them. He isn't wrong. When I put on the jacket of the aforementioned suit, I instantly recognise the man in the mirror as AC/DC guitarist Angus Young.
Well, I think: he should be so lucky as to look like Angus.
It may be hard waitin' round to be a millionaire, but it's really tough waiting for the Black Ice Tour to get back on the road. Particularly hotly awaited/debated: the US Summer Tour set list. I've been listening to Let There Be Rock and Powerage a lot and really, so many great, under-played songs: Go Down, Bad Boy Boogie, Overdose, Rock n Roll Damnation, Gimme a Bullet, Sin City, Gone Shootin', Up to My Neck in You, Kicked in the Teeth--well those are just about all the songs on those two albums that the boys haven't had in the most recent set list, so the problem is huge. There are so many great songs in their discogpaphy, there's no way they can play them all. If I had to, my top three additions to the set list would be Girls Got Rhythm, Sin City (Cliff would have a bass solo), and Live Wire (or High Voltage). Like anyone's reading this, but if someone in the AC/DC management is, stick that in your fuse box and include them in the summer tour.
Monday, July 13, 2009
See you there, Angus! AC/DC in Mexico City, November 12, 2009
YESSSSSS!! I got the tickets! This should be fantastic and why not? With AC/DC playing, how can it be less than unbelievable? And with Austin now on the concert date list, how can Houston be far behind?
Already had some on the negative end of the spectrum comment on the wisdom of paying to see them in Mexico when they will be so much closer in Austin. phhhttttt....let's think about that....Austin (a place I've always thought was overrated) vs Mexico City (have never been there, the Aztec calendar I've always wanted to see is there, along with the ruins I've heard about and seen in movies, it's a foreign country)....hmmm, is there a contest here?
Honestly, some people! They obviously don't get adventurous cats that want to explore and see some of the world...and AC/DC. Bibi's come a long way already, LaPorte to Houston--talk about light years' of difference right there--Paris, Amsterdam and now, Mexico City. Bring it on! Along with another Houston concert, of course!
Already had some on the negative end of the spectrum comment on the wisdom of paying to see them in Mexico when they will be so much closer in Austin. phhhttttt....let's think about that....Austin (a place I've always thought was overrated) vs Mexico City (have never been there, the Aztec calendar I've always wanted to see is there, along with the ruins I've heard about and seen in movies, it's a foreign country)....hmmm, is there a contest here?
Honestly, some people! They obviously don't get adventurous cats that want to explore and see some of the world...and AC/DC. Bibi's come a long way already, LaPorte to Houston--talk about light years' of difference right there--Paris, Amsterdam and now, Mexico City. Bring it on! Along with another Houston concert, of course!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tomorrow! AC/DC Tickets for the Mexico City Concert
I've bought the second acdc.com membership in preparation for buying the Mexico City tickets--now, just worried about the m-moment of buying the tickets tomorrow! FINGERS SO CROSSED!!
Bibi will let you know asap!
Bibi will let you know asap!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Bon Scott, Long May He Be Remembered
It's Bon's birthday--he would have been 63.
Watched a 28-minute video of an AC/DC from 1977 last night. Kept saying, just one more song and you've got to stop, until, the entire video had played. Bon and Angus just would not let me go. They played Let There Be Rock, Rosie, TNT, Rocker to a seemingly comatose audience. Angus was all over the stage and eventually in with the audience. Bon danced and sang his heart out--fabulous! He'll live on as long as AC/DC, that's for sure. After all, isn't the song we all wait for Highway to Hell?
We won't ever forget you, Bon!
Watched a 28-minute video of an AC/DC from 1977 last night. Kept saying, just one more song and you've got to stop, until, the entire video had played. Bon and Angus just would not let me go. They played Let There Be Rock, Rosie, TNT, Rocker to a seemingly comatose audience. Angus was all over the stage and eventually in with the audience. Bon danced and sang his heart out--fabulous! He'll live on as long as AC/DC, that's for sure. After all, isn't the song we all wait for Highway to Hell?
We won't ever forget you, Bon!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Angus Young: Let There Be Rock, essential guitar god
Enrique (from Madrid, met him outside AC/DC’s hotel in Paris the day after the June 12 concert) sent a link for Angus’s scorching Let There Be Rock performance at the Punchestown show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Td0j59Ze8
As you know, Angus is Bibi’s favorite and watching him play Let There be Rock at a concert is just one example of why. He’s a complete guitar god up there on the riser—his usual place during the first solo; in the rain or not, fabulous fingers flying, yet with a focus that is amazing to behold. It’s such a cool effect when the spotlights are on him, bathing him with a golden glow and sometimes his image is gone and all you see is a confluence of the lights, like a sun that’s so bright that you have to squint your eyes to look. You can’t turn away because you hear the fantastic guitar and you want to see how and where it's coming from, so you keep watching until Angus reappears out of the light, always playing, never missing a beat, having a great time performing. Watch any Youtube video of LTBR, you’ll see what I mean; you won’t be able to look away from that small, yet incomparably bright sun up above us all.
Check it out.
As you know, Angus is Bibi’s favorite and watching him play Let There be Rock at a concert is just one example of why. He’s a complete guitar god up there on the riser—his usual place during the first solo; in the rain or not, fabulous fingers flying, yet with a focus that is amazing to behold. It’s such a cool effect when the spotlights are on him, bathing him with a golden glow and sometimes his image is gone and all you see is a confluence of the lights, like a sun that’s so bright that you have to squint your eyes to look. You can’t turn away because you hear the fantastic guitar and you want to see how and where it's coming from, so you keep watching until Angus reappears out of the light, always playing, never missing a beat, having a great time performing. Watch any Youtube video of LTBR, you’ll see what I mean; you won’t be able to look away from that small, yet incomparably bright sun up above us all.
Check it out.
Angus Young: I Know It's Only Rock n Roll, but WOW!
I was explaining to a cool person today that I love to get projects and then just really focus on those projects until I'm full; happens that right now, AC/DC (especially Angus Young) is my project. My fascination can be explained by a tiny fragment of Michelangelo's ceiling work. The gap between Adam's and God's fingers--that's how I see the creative process that makes AC/DC's music so special. How do they cross that small and yet crevasse-like span from their initial ideas for songs to something like Thunderstruck or Highway to Hell or Let There be Rock or Little Lover or Night Prowler? How do they put the bits of guitar riffs, snatches of words, all those years of being on the road and the experiences they've had into songs that are so full of electrifying energy and indelible images and sounds into a segment of 3 to 5 minutes? How do talent, ability, guts and guitars backed by drums transmute into something that brings so much joy to so many different kinds of people that do a countless number of different kinds of work, have different levels of education and don't even speak the same language? AC/DC puts it all together and they are AC/DC, greatest rock band on earth with Angus Young, guitar god. Others put their music together and they're Band Nonentity or (fill in the blank, don't want to start any wars).
Anyway, then we started talking about Dylan--amazing that I got back to work at all. How do I put all this into a 30-second meeting with Angus? When and if that momentous meeting happens. Just babble incoherently while someone takes our picture and hopefully I get an autograph? Of course, it could be like that cool person said: they don't know how it happens either. And as someone in the band has said before when we try to make their music deeper than it is--it's just rock n roll. Don't you just love it?
Anyway, then we started talking about Dylan--amazing that I got back to work at all. How do I put all this into a 30-second meeting with Angus? When and if that momentous meeting happens. Just babble incoherently while someone takes our picture and hopefully I get an autograph? Of course, it could be like that cool person said: they don't know how it happens either. And as someone in the band has said before when we try to make their music deeper than it is--it's just rock n roll. Don't you just love it?
Sunday, July 5, 2009
South of the Border: Angus Young & Co, November 2009
One of the acdc.com members posted the huge news today: AC/DC is scheduled to play in Mexico City on November 12!!!! YES!!!! Bibi goes south of the border for the first time in her life--or for the concert of a lifetime?
Have checked the flight and hotel costs and although there is absolutely no money, honey, for anything besides essentials--that's what happens when you take the European Grand Tour in these economic times--well, drastic measures will have to be taken to get this within the realm of possibilities.
Will do some tourist-type research to get an idea of where to stay, then where would AC/DC stay, and costs associated with a very short list of sights to see while there. Do I take a chance on visiting The Ruins? (That book wasn't great, but it was really scary in parts.) Can I convince any of the fam to go with me, at least to the city, if not the concert?
In the meantime, holding fingers crossed for an added Houston concert. Either way: Angus Young, finally, we meet--concentrate really hard on this--it could happen!
Have checked the flight and hotel costs and although there is absolutely no money, honey, for anything besides essentials--that's what happens when you take the European Grand Tour in these economic times--well, drastic measures will have to be taken to get this within the realm of possibilities.
Will do some tourist-type research to get an idea of where to stay, then where would AC/DC stay, and costs associated with a very short list of sights to see while there. Do I take a chance on visiting The Ruins? (That book wasn't great, but it was really scary in parts.) Can I convince any of the fam to go with me, at least to the city, if not the concert?
In the meantime, holding fingers crossed for an added Houston concert. Either way: Angus Young, finally, we meet--concentrate really hard on this--it could happen!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Back to the Daily Grind--Without Having Met Angus Young
I knew it had to come, right? The letdown blues after the huge rush of the AC/DC European Tour/Bibi Prowls Around Europe swing. Especially since one of the primary goals: meeting guitar god Angus Young, wasn't met. This can only mean that my quest to do so must continue. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of my life...oops, I'm watching Casablanca, so getting carried away. What I meant to say was, we'll always have Paris and Amsterdam and--don't start thinking I've gone all rat street crazy--I'm convinced that AC/DC will add more dates to their US tour and/or the purported Mexico-South American segment of their world domination and then, I will meet Angus.
Face it: lots of saner people than me have more outrageous dreams and hopes than mine to meet Angus. So, pre- and post-BPAE I steadfastly and in complete sincerity maintain that I will meet him and I won't embarrass myself royally like I did with Ralph Fiennes, although, to my credit, I bet he still remembers the fan that brought up his sex scenes in a movie.
Life in Houston has been hectic, hot, and costly--the darling car just required $1400 as a form of devotion today--and so the sense of being under a heavy shroud since I got back is all too with me. Life without the anticipation of seeing the guys in action in the near future, adds to my palpable feeling of oppression. There are no real plans for seeing AC/DC during the US/Canadian dates, although I did say to luci_martini that if they came to Toronto (her city), I'd be in touch. Especially with the recent car expense, funds would basically have to fall out of the sky to even consider a trip to Galveston, much less an AC/DC concert.
The saving elements have been the emails from the AC/DC fans I met during the trip, the fantastic photos they've sent, their really positive energy all focused on AC/DC. Reading the email has brought back all the great moments, fabulously mild weather, wonderful sights and memories...THANKS, you guys!!!
Face it: lots of saner people than me have more outrageous dreams and hopes than mine to meet Angus. So, pre- and post-BPAE I steadfastly and in complete sincerity maintain that I will meet him and I won't embarrass myself royally like I did with Ralph Fiennes, although, to my credit, I bet he still remembers the fan that brought up his sex scenes in a movie.
Life in Houston has been hectic, hot, and costly--the darling car just required $1400 as a form of devotion today--and so the sense of being under a heavy shroud since I got back is all too with me. Life without the anticipation of seeing the guys in action in the near future, adds to my palpable feeling of oppression. There are no real plans for seeing AC/DC during the US/Canadian dates, although I did say to luci_martini that if they came to Toronto (her city), I'd be in touch. Especially with the recent car expense, funds would basically have to fall out of the sky to even consider a trip to Galveston, much less an AC/DC concert.
The saving elements have been the emails from the AC/DC fans I met during the trip, the fantastic photos they've sent, their really positive energy all focused on AC/DC. Reading the email has brought back all the great moments, fabulously mild weather, wonderful sights and memories...THANKS, you guys!!!
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