What a great show!  I’ve been listening to AC/DC for, dare I say, more than 30 years now, but last night was my first chance to see the legendary rock band live in concert.  Along with, and due to,  WOOD-TV 8 Sports Anchor Jason Terzis, Photographer Larry (L-Dog) Gron, and Engineer Steve Gurd, I walked into the Palace of Auburn Hills with very high expectations.  I was NOT disappointed.

The band was extremely tight, energetic, entertaining, and.. well… loud.  Really loud.  As L-Dog so eloquently put it last night, “They were loud as hell, yet clear as a bell.”  In fact, I’m still hearing the hum of that bell in my head, some 18 hours later.

The set list was a little shorter than their last visit to Michigan, more than seven years ago… they played 18 songs in about an hour and 40 minutes… but the performance made it is easy to forget that the front men,  Angus Young and Brian Johnson, are well into the 50’s and 60’s respectively.  Both put on great shows.

The audience was also a great mix. .. some kids (teens), and then a pretty even mix of young adults, middle-aged folks like me (I still can’t get use to describing myself that way) and a host of people certainly old enough to be grandparents.  It actually made for a great crowd as well.

The set included five songs off the hot selling new album “Black Ice”.  While I would of preferred a couple less of those, in exchange for a couple more classics, “Rock & Roll Train” proved to be a good show opener, and the live version of “War Machine” was excellent.

Brian Johnson also made a reference to President Elect Obama after the opening song, saying “Contragulations…  I hear you have a new boss today.”  In fact, Obama was a topic outside the arena as well.  Our Canadien “parking lot tailgate neighbors” from Sarnia, Ontario, were very interested in our thoughts on Obama. They wondered what the change in adminstrations will mean to the overall American economy, and ultimately, to their economy.

The show closed with a bang… literally…. ’TNT’, ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, ‘Let There Be Rock’, ‘Highway To Hell’ and ‘For Those About To Rock’, accompanied by the booming sounds of cannon blasts.

In our group, and amongst many of the others we talked to, the top song of the night? ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’.  Just a great, loud, well played, precise, energetic rock-n-roll performance.

The only downer of the night came when Brian Johnson addressed the Palace crowd as….”Cleveland”.  After receiving a few boos, and obviously some very confused and disappointed faces looking back at him, Johnson acknowledged and, in so many words, apologized for his mistake.  “I know where I am, Detroit”, Johnson said. “Just a slip of the brain”.  He did seem genuinely upset with himself and bummed about the mistake, as he made his way out of the spotlight and over to the speakers at the rear of the stage, shaking his head.

Nevertheless, it was a great show, and a great opportunity to finally see one of the greatest rock bands of all-time, on what could be their FINAL world tour, ever.

Let There Be Rock.