21.35. This begins. The chords of If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) and it is possible that they can be heard even in Dos Hermanas. The decibel counting mobile application reaches the red stripe and the hand does not stop vibrating hysterically. AC/DC thundered last night in the first of their concerts in a practically full La Cartuja Stadium in Seville: 60,000 people (the second recital is on June 1 and there are still some tickets left). There are few groups that play at such a brutal volume, the volume required by the rudimentary rock of Australians. And it was seen that Angus Young endures. Pieces of AC/DC’s scaffolding come off, but if the little big man resists, the entire structure holds. His attitude in Let There Be Rock, In the final stretch of the concert, it offered the moment of the night. With his white shirt dripping with sweat, shaking his legs under his school shorts, with his completely white hair giving off signs that there are few handles left to hold his hair, gasping like a fish that has been taken out of the water…
He walked along the catwalk that left the stage and entered the dance floor. He was placed on a small platform and a platform raised him about ten meters. There, he simulated an epileptic seizure, fell to the ground, performed the rotating spasm, stood up, raised his arms, practiced Chuck Berry’s duck walk… You got tired just seeing the physical waste of this tiny 69-year-old man dressed as a schoolboy . But wait, he hadn’t finished the song yet. He went down to the ground, climbed again, this time 15 steps, to reach a hallway above the battery; and there he played with the audience to repeat his plucks with “oes”. And all this journey of about 20 minutes without stopping the devilish digging of the strings of his Gibson SG guitar. What viewers witnessed was a rock colossus in its purest form: Angus Young, a small human being driven by an inexhaustible power of energy.
Tonight in Seville was a great celebration of rock, that genre absent among the most listened to on digital platforms, but which continues to attract thousands of fans in concert. And there is no group that represents primary rock more than AC/DC, the genre stripped of all fat, straight to the core. Rock minimalism that everyone knew how to understand in Seville: it was about moving your legs, shaking your head and raising your hand with your index and little fingers stretched out. The concise guitar-bass-drums formula. Nothing else.
It was an exception who was not wearing a t-shirt last night with the logo of the four letters and the lightning bolt in the center. Tall audience, but also young people. Families and twenty-something rockers “because my parents have played AC/DC albums for me since I was little.” If the players were at the Bernabéu swifties, in Seville the ‘acedeceros’ came en masse. Like Patxi Rabanillo, 45 years old, who lives in Laguna de Duero (Valladolid), and who traveled to witness the group’s 18th concert. Before entering he left the general feeling of a good part of the public: “We don’t care if the ‘acedeceros’ are not at their best. We are faithful. It seems that this is the last tour, so how can I not see them.”
![AC/DC, a living rock legend, leaves its indelible mark in Seville.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/CFO2RWONTNBVVIUQK6BYYIJ4CI.jpg?auth=e09af54f0bc7b58315abf3657d5e10e489a9443c8090d74951ce78593652a7ba&width=414)
![The audience vibrates during the concert of the band AC/DC this Wednesday at the La Cartuja stadium, in Seville.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/XETEAFZQDJFXTPO5LJTFJ2HDVI.jpg?auth=cb40d7ed261a68fa5542201a760f6991eb7f08a80f30dda8be65e3d922d3bb18&width=414)
![Brian Johnson, during this Wednesday's concert.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/ZYYJNKXG3BDIRNRZNXT3JP4QXY.jpg?auth=ea0daa37bdbd41b7d1aaf11b7425a629c534d9676bde3bd1137cea137a344416&width=414)
![AC/DC guitarist Angus Young and singer Brian Johnson (left) during the concert offered this Wednesday at the La Cartuja stadium in Seville.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/CX3JHHC47VD53KK23JTYE7VFNI.jpg?auth=6bd731b9a3326208b4b54d1b7f36622336beab0533df1701df66160b4d3ea4aa&width=414)
![The Australian-British band AC/DC during the concert offered this Wednesday at the La Cartuja stadium, in Seville.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/B4BZXPY4Z772NJLHV2GF2F7H5Q.jpg?auth=e7fb26e621ffb556dfc0d786f1f1701f37178b206e0a56bbf11d011cd5b483d6&width=414)
Julio Munoz (EFE)
![AC/DC returns to Seville eight years after their previous stop in the city, as part of their European tour, which is titled 'Power up Tour 2024'.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/A5EPVWLDABCAZHI66M2FL5UC3Q.jpg?auth=fc71150fb93d21bbc3589b98e6849c588afba28bfe42a1a19bed29f8a0e83f56&width=414)
![A moment from the AC/DC concert.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/Y2BFLO6SBFHKFOS4PAVUZ36SZE.jpg?auth=e71d530bb2c27e1ad9cf11265dea29db4e460b72209529494783c439f30d6cd5&width=414)
![AC/DC guitarist Angus Young (above) during Wednesday's concert.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/XNR3TGN6LPJASAGGQNGLVT4JKA.jpg?auth=b0491016ef80a33fe156e6ae90cea2543fd68009209c5c5f9daf36d6d58925bb&width=414)
Julio Munoz (EFE)
![The legendary band AC/DC stars this Wednesday in the first of their two concerts planned at the Cartuja stadium.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/4CTXBMQH4FBIXC25XQ5OAKQY64.jpg?auth=8333e55af5e9ff674ac42ca149cffed76a205d99f41bf042ae3e4bb8aaed840e&width=414)
![AC/DC guitarist Angus Young.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/4XFZQ6EBHZCJTHCXS5QI7AKHII.jpg?auth=6aaf1898058b85ce9fb0fda3d3bb79296321bf526f99d917fb00b87b4c9b59fe&width=414)
Everyone was sending energy to Brian Johnson. It has been years since Johnson no longer has that voice that shouted down buildings. As the concert consumed songs, his voice became weaker. On the giant screens the brave singer was seen suffering, clenching his fists, hitting his thighs with his hand, desperately searching for air after grunting a verse. He endured the two and a quarter hour concert, but ended up exhausted. His lack of vocal energy may be the reason why the group has dispensed with three songs compared to the repertoire they played at the start of the tour, on May 17 in Germany. It’s curious, because the singer moves in a small space on the stage, to the right of Chief Angus. He is not allowed (or is not allowed for many races) to cross the catwalk to position himself near the audience, as if he had drawn an imaginary line on the ground with a red message written in capital letters: “No entry, Brian. Over here, just Angus.”
Angus was always to the rescue, with his racing and his incendiary solos. And, above all, there are the songs, rock psalms that are capable of saving any concert. All his hymns sounded: Thunderstruck, Hell Bells, Back In Black, High Voltage, Riff Raff… Just a couple of songs from their latest album, Power Up (2020). There is the cliché that all AC/DC songs sound the same. No: whoever says that doesn’t understand AC/DC, and he knows it. How to resist the rhythmic sway of You Shook Me All Night Long. Or to the murderous chorus of Highway To Hell, already in the final stretch.
There were fewer extra-musical distractions than on other tours. Yes, there was the bell Hell Bells, the cannon shots at For Those About To Rock (We Salute You), the last of the lot, or the giant screens. But when Angus was resting from his cavalcade, the five musicians played together in the center of the stage, almost crowded together, as if they were in a club. It was edifying to see them like this, although the sound was not optimal in many phases of the concert: in the upper stands it bounced and in some phases it was a sonic ball without the defined instruments.
The classic line-up no longer features drummer Phil Rudd, bassist Cliff Williams and Malcolm Young. They are missed, especially Malcolm, the rhythmic engine of the group, with his violent guitar hits that were like barks; We even long for his physical presence, with that permanent AC/DC trademark body shake. Last night he was replaced, as she has been doing since 2014, by his nephew Stevie Young (67 years old); Two new faces took over the bass and drums, Matt Laug (56) and Chris Chaney (53). The three, good musicians, more than fulfilled their expectations. But it’s not the same.
Despite the absences, Johnson’s brittle voice or the fact that no one would wear a schoolboy suit at 69 years old, things are what they are: it was a fantastic rock and roll concert.
All the culture that goes with you awaits you here.
Subscribe
Babelia
The literary news analyzed by the best critics in our weekly newsletter
RECEIVE IT
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#ACDC #demonstrates #front #people #Seville #rock #indestructible