Over the past seventeen days, I was able to take in live shows by the two biggest active rock bands in the world. May 11th, my niece and I took in Metallica. This past Wednesday, my daughter and I went up to Cleveland to see the one and only AC/DC. Both shows came as a surprise to me. My niece had picked up an extra ticket for the Metallica show when she grabbed tickets to surprise her boyfriend with. My daughter had apparently told my wife that she wanted to see AC/DC as her graduation gift. Unbeknownst to me, this plot involved a ticket for me as well for my birthday. Am I blessed or what?

AC/DC is one of those bands that, for some unknown reason, has kind of become mainstream to make fun of. It’s ridiculous. AC/DC and Led Zeppelin are the two most important hard rock bands of all time. Yet, it’s become cool for dorks in Falling In Reverse shirts to tell us that “If you’ve heard one AC/DC song, you’ve heard them all.” In honesty, that’s such a lazy take. Typically, the rhythm section is playing some straight forward blues based rock & roll but the late Malcolm Young also had some killer rhythm guitar lines as well. And brother Angus? Those leads are the stuff of legend and sound as great today as they did in the 1970’s.

A lot has changed since AC/DC played Ohio. They hadn’t played the Buckeye State since back to back shows in Columbus and Cleveland in 2016. Axl Rose, whom I thought did a great job, was on lead vocals for that tour after Brian Johnson was medically advised to retire due to him going deaf. Not everyone was keen on the Axl Rose led AC/DC however, as the arena date for Cleveland was attended by less than 9,000 folks. Thanks to the power of science, Johnson has been able regain his hearing, at least enough to allow him to sing. The band released their latest album, Power Up, in 2020 and unfortunately we all know what happened to any touring plans that may have came from that. It’s been a long road to get to this point, but they were finally able to start touring on their new album and the U.S. tour would finish with a stadium appearance in Cleveland.

To say their return was heavily anticipated is an understatement. Like I said, less than 9,000 people went and saw them in 2016 for their Cleveland date. Last week, over 50,000 people filed into Huntington Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. This was the third time that I’ve seen AC/DC and they were absolutely on fire. Johnson’s vocals were better than they were the first time I saw them back in like 2008. The star of the show, though, is Angus Young. He is 70 years old and his energy, let alone his guitar chops, blows away modern bands with players 30-40 years his junior. For anyone that says that you need an ocean of crowd surfers at a rock show to enhance the experience….all they need to do is watch footage of this concert. From the opening riff of “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” through the final cannon bursts of “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)“; the crowd was on their feet, pumping fists in the air, and singing back every lyric to these timeless songs. It’s almost as if when the songs are good enough, the fans don’t need to distract themselves with the world’s biggest game of “everybody look at me while I crowd surf.” Simply, it was two and a half hours (yes, you read that right) of pure rock & roll adrenaline.

My daughter and I were way, way, way up in the football stadium. Section 507. If you know anything about football stadiums, the seats closest to the field start in the 100s and gradually climb. We were as high as the stadium goes. It didn’t matter. With the exception of the band being so loud that at times the music was echoing by the time it reached us in the heavens, the band were fantastic, and the sold out crowd head banged for the entirety of the twenty one song set. I have no idea what the future for AC/DC holds. Brian Johnson is 77 years old. Angus Young is 70. If they come back, I’ll hopefully be there. If this turns out to be their swan song, then I salute them going out while they are still the biggest and baddest band in the world. Way up there in the sky where our seats were, I saw toddlers, teens, people my age, and people that appeared to be in their 70s and everyone in between. With that kind of impact and that kind of reach, surely, rock & roll ain’t noise pollution, rock & roll ain’t gonna die.

AC/DC Set List 5/28/2025 Cleveland, Ohio

• If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) – 1979
• Back In Black – 1980
• Demon Fire – 2020
• Shot Down In Flames – 1979
• Thunderstruck – 1990
• Have A Drink On Me – 1980
• Hells Bells – 1980
• Shot In The Dark – 2020
• Stiff Upper Lip – 2000
• Highway To Hell – 1979
• Shoot To Thrill – 1980
• Sin City – 1978
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Train – 2008
• Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – 1976
• High Voltage – 1976
• Riff Raff – 1978
• You Shook Me All Night Long – 1980
• Whole Lotta Rosie – 1977
• Let There Be Rock (with extra long guitar solo) – 1977
• *Encore*
• T.N.T. – 1975
• For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) – 1981