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Rating:
What do you get when a band at the peak of their career decides to document one of their fiery on-stage performances? Simple: one of the most thrilling live albums ever, captivating from the first to the last note.
Recorded in 1978 during the tour supporting 'Powerage', this CD gathers much of the best produced up to that moment by the Young duo and the one and only Bon Scott. A roar echoes. The five are on stage. Angus starts Riff Raff. The arena explodes. With the signature song of the new album, the concert opens, amidst cascades of electricity and Bon’s voice in full throttle. It continues with Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be, which fulfills its duty: warming up the audience. Now it's the turn of Bad Boy Boogie, which is definitely not one of my favorite songs, but it's undeniable that it’s one where the crowd is most involved; I use the partitive because the title of most engaging track belongs to the classic The Jack, still in their concert setlist.
The calm brought by The Jack vanishes as soon as Problem Child bursts in with its incendiary riff, establishing itself as the most exciting moment since the beginning of the performance. It continues gloriously with that little song called Whole Lotta Rosie; what can I say, one of the most beautiful and famous riffs in Hard Rock, one of the few AC/DC songs where the bass isn’t just for show, a wonderful chorus, a great solo: perfect.
But the adrenaline rush isn't over: Rock N’ Roll Damnation, in my opinion, the best episode of 'Powerage', one of the best lyrics written by the kangaroos (in the vein of It’s A Long Way To The Top), and with its energy manages to move anyone. Following now is the only piece from High Voltage, which is the title track, “High Voltage, Rock n’ Roll”.
We are now heading towards closure, but AC/DC couldn’t leave us without that masterpiece 'Let There Be Rock', which thirty years later hasn’t lost a shred of the energy it emanated in '77. To finish, there’s nothing better than the rocking Rocker, which makes the audience dance and sends them home satisfied. After the praise, however, there must also be critiques.
The first and most serious critique is having distorted the setlist, changing the order of almost all the songs (apart from Riff Raff and the final two) and not including Dog Eat Dog (without apparent reason, as its inclusion would have brought it just over 56 minutes, a more than normal length for a live). The second critique is more personal: how can you not include songs like Overdose, It’s A Long Way To The Top (which the previous year even closed the concerts) and T.N.T. (which finds its best incarnation live)!?
For this, I don’t feel like giving the 5 stars. This remains in any case a great testament to the greatness of AC/DC with Bon Scott (light years better than with Brian Johnson), a few months before recording that masterpiece 'HIGHWAY TO HELL'.
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By Hardrock92
AC/DC’s live ability is astonishing, everything is perfect and all supported by an impressive energy amid Scott’s screams and Angus’s solos.
A great live album, which shows us the perfection AC/DC achieves, unfortunately, two years later, singer Bon Scott would die suffocated in his own vomit after a night of alcoholic excess.
By sarced
They are the first band that introduced me to the world of hard rock (and not heavy metal because they are NOT HEAVY METAL!!).
'Whole Lotta Rosie' is the best track of the album where all members make a great contribution, reciprocated by a massive roar from the audience at the song’s end.
