AC/DC unleash greatest hits marathon in explosive return to home city

Three generations of AC/DC fans packed Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Friday night to witness rock’s most enduring band deliver their signature high-voltage performance.

Fans at AC/DC’s Accor Stadium concert on Friday night. Picture: Thomas Lisson

AC/DC, we salute you!

The world’s greatest rock’n’roll band, led by guitar god Angus Young, brought it back home to Sydney with their blistering Power Up show on Friday.

“We’re bringing this back home to Sydney; this is where all this shit began 50 f..king years ago,” frontman Brian Johnson said.

More than 70,000 fans erupted at Accor Stadium with a deafening roar as Young, frontman Brian Johnson, guitarist Stevie Young, bassist Chris Chaney and drummer Matt Laug locked in tight on opening track If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It).

Brian Johnson (left) and Angus Young back home in Sydney. Picture: Thomas Lisson

The cheers lifted higher as they smashed into the monster hit Back in Black, one of three AC/DC classics which have busted the 2 billion streams ceiling on Spotify, confirming the Aussie rock giant’s relevance across the generations of fans.

And those generations – grandparents, parents and their children – fuelled the energy and excitement of this stadium rock extravaganza, with their blinking red horns and prized tour T-shirts.

Guitar god Angus Young on stage on Friday. Picture: Thomas Lisson

AC/DC remain a defiant musical force in an era where doubters proclaim rock is dead.

They stand strong because Young and his late brother Malcolm stayed locked in their lane, acutely aware of what their fans want and continue to sate the fans’ desires, song after song, album after album.

The Power Up show is a greatest hits marathon that stretches for more than two hours and features all the songs that have soundtracked millions of BBQs, road trips, sporting highlights and Hollywood blockbusters, including Highway to Hell, Dirty Deeds Done Cheap, Hells Bells, High Voltage and You Shook Me All Night Long.

While the tour is named after their 2020 album Power Up, the band play only one song from that collection – Demon Fire – in the epic 21-song setlist.

Blinking red horns were the acceossry of the night. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Angus, now 70, drives the show as the quintessential rock showman in his school uniform with his signature duckwalks, spins on his back and searing solos.

He shed layers – the cap and jacket – by the time the unrelenting set hit its fifth song with the epic Thunderstruck.

Young later put his tie to good use to shred his guitar during Sin City.

Johnson, at 78, may not be able to screech to the heights that he did when he joined the band after Bon Scott’s death in 1980, but you can tell he’s having the time of his life up there after being benched for a few years because of severe hearing loss.

And his voice is a hell of a lot stronger than crap TikTok videos from previous shows might suggest, as he demonstrated on Jailbreak, which is now a fixture of the setlist on the Australian leg of the world tour, making its live return after 34 years.

AC/DC returns to Accor Stadium on Tuesday.

Originally published as AC/DC unleash greatest hits marathon in explosive return to home city