Pop Music

By Rick Massimo
Journal Pop Music Critic

"Black Ice", this year's album from the legendary Australian hard rockers AC/DC, is their first disc in nine years -- nine years that have seen a lot of changes in the world. So surely, Tuesday night's show at Gillette Stadium on the Black Ice Tour would include some sort of acknowledgment of the tumultuous times, or at least the fact that they've aged yet another nine years, putting them deep in their 50s and 60s.

"Shake it, shake it/ Take it to the spot," singer Brian Johnson howled during the opener, "Rock 'n' Roll Train." "You know she made it really hot."

Good God, I love them so.

Actually, one could review the show by quoting the memorable phrases about AC/DC that other critics have coined down the decades: One can't ask for much change from a band whose lead guitarist (Angus Young) still does a spastic stomp around the stage and dresses like a short-panted schoolboy when he's halfway to bald.

Johnson prowls the stage like Andy Capp on steroids (throw in a demented Forrest McDonald, from F Troop). Rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young (Angus's brother, who still plays a guitar missing two of its three pickups), bassist Simon Williams and drummer Phil Rudd have a contest to see who can remain motionless the longest -- and they all win. Throw in Tuesday night's attendance figure - 46,543 - and you could be done.

The tropes don't change because the musical formula remains as it ever was: a combination of power-chord rock with blues-inspired lead guitar from Angus Young and the gut-punch drums of Rudd. The musical variations, such as they were, came in the slow blues crawl of "The Jack" and the relatively poppy "Anything Goes," from Black Ice. But the classics dominated: "Hell's Bells," "Back in Black," "You Shook Me All Night Long." "Dirty Deeds" -- you know the drill.

The stage banter went along the lines of "Here's a song from the 'Black Ice' album. It's called 'Black Ice'!" But the spectacle Tuesday night was Rolling Stones-big, including a train crashing through the back wall and giant inflatables that included a pair of red schoolboy hats with flashing devil horns on top of the stage and a Rubenesque whore for "Whole Lotta Rosie." And, of course, the cannons for "For Those About to Rock."

Angus Young traversed a long catwalk and rose through a platform in the middle of the audience for an extended solo during the closer of the regular set, the splendidly lunkheaded creation myth "Let There Be Rock."

With the exception of -- actually, even with -- the passing of original singer Bon Scott and the occasional drummer changes, there is nothing about AC/DC that is no longer true. They are rock in the musical and the mineral sense. They may not be eternal, but any changes are so slow as to be imperceptible. Is that a good thing? Your mileage may vary. But after enough decades, it's a fact of nature, and you can only look on in respect.

Singer and guitarist Steve "Lips" Kudlow, of the Canadian metal band Anvil, looked out at the crowd and exulted, "This is the biggest (expletive) gig I've ever played in America, that's for sure!"

It was a long time coming, of course -- the 36 years the band has struggled in the trenches was the subject of documentary "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" that was an unlikely candidate for most heartwarming film of last year. And while that assessment of the film still holds, their set preceding AC/DC didn't bode well for ending their 36 years in obscurity.

They started with a desultory "This Is 13," the title track from their latest album, that was way too slow for a stadium opener, and they sorely missed a second guitarist (they were a quartet on film and are a trio now). The rest of the set was a recap of the templates of the early-'80s New Wave of British Heavy Metal that in fact they helped create -- good for historical purposes, but not very inspiring. Kudlow was in shaky voice, but drummer Robb Reiner proved himself a major-leaguer (as evidenced by his solo on "White Rhino"),

The Answer, from Belfast, opened the show with a few songs of Les Paul-driven hard rock verging on metal, made distinct by the Robert Plant-esque wail of singer Cormac Neeson and the crunch of guitarist Paul Mahon. The obvious historical antecedents were Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy (especially on the poppish "Tonight" and "Demon Eyes," but they also recalled more recent groups such as The Darkness and Supagroup in their ability to be slickly, seamlessly derivative with enough melody to help the songs stick.

rmassimo@projo.com / (401) 277-7206

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