AC/DC, Shihad, The Checks, Westpac Stadium, reviewed by Dawn Tratt
“IS there blood on my face?” a guy asked my mate before AC/DC started playing.
Not only was there a circle of blood seeping from his cheek, but the wound was surrounded by little teeth marks. The girl he was hanging out with at the concert bit him casually before running off to buy more beer.
Upon her return he angrily told her to go home – instead she punched his chest, cried into the shoulder of her equally sloshed friend and then tried to attack my mate next to her. That was the only low point of the concert – and to be honest it was very funny.
The classics Thunderstruck, You Shook Me All Night Long, and Highway to Hell were incredible live. The excitement was heightened with Angus Young doing a striptease down to AC/DC undies – as if to compete with all the women perched on men’s shoulders flashing their breasts on the big screen. Young’s massive guitar solo before the encore was mind-blowing – really. It was as though he became one with his instrument like the Na’vi and their flying dragons in Avatar.
Blasting cannons, fireworks, and a train straddled by a giant blow up doll made for an extra special show.
The Checks and Shihad were good choices to warm up the crowd. One fifty-something-year-old woman was spotted singing every word of Shihad’s set, and the vocals of The Checks’ Edward Knowles rivaled Brian Johnson’s raspy screams.