AC/DC to open U.S. tour in Minneapolis in April

Angus Young and Brian Johnson returned to the road in Europe in 2024 after an eight-year absence.

The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 2, 2024 at 1:21PM
Brian Johnson, left, and Angus Young performed at Xcel Energy Center in 2016, the last time AC/DC hit Minnesota. (Carlos Gonzalez)

Still rocking the schoolboy uniform ahead of his 70th birthday, Angus Young will see if his old band AC/DC can still pass the test with American audiences starting in Minneapolis.

The Australian rock legends will open their 2025 North American tour at U.S. Bank Stadium April 10, another spring booking at the Vikings’ stadium that can likely be attributed to its weatherproof roof. Minneapolis is the first stop listed on a new 13-city itinerary announced Monday for the band’s Power Up Tour, which began in Europe this past summer.

Tickets for the gig in Minneapolis go on sale at noon Friday via Ticketmaster. Prices, presale options and opening acts are not yet listed for any of the U.S. shows. Seats to the band’s European dates ranged from a little over $100 to around $500 in U.S. dollars.

This 2025 outing will be the “You Shook Me All Night Long” hitmakers’ first U.S. tour in nine years, and their first since the 2017 death of Angus’ brother, co-founding guitarist Malcolm Young.

Singer Brian Johnson — who famously joined the band after Bon Scott’s death for the landmark 1980 album “Back in Black” — is back in the fold after vocal problems found Axl Rose filling in for him on a swath of the band’s 2016 tour. Dates on the U.S. tour are spaced out in a way to help the frontman preserve his voice, according to industry reports.

Johnson and Young are touring with an otherwise remade lineup that includes another family member, guitarist Stevie Young, Angus and Malcom’s nephew. Longtime drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams both retired from touring in recent years, but they did perform on AC/DC’s last album, 2020′s “Power Up,” a record that updated the band’s sound with modern digital electronics and a shift away from aged sexual innuendos. Just kidding; it was the same old, same old AC/DC, as guitar-driven and politically incorrect as ever.

Set lists on the band’s European trek featured only one song from “Power Up” and instead leaned into the classics, also including “Highway to Hell,” “Thunderstruck,” “Hells Bells,” “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” “T.N.T” and “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You).”

AC/DC’s last time in Minnesota was a sold-out show at Xcel Center in 2016. The band marked its 50th anniversary in 2023.

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about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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