Review: AC/DC wins again with lovably loud, lowbrow rock at U.S. Bank Stadium

There was pyro. Of course, there was pyro. And a giant bell, blasting cannons, shrieking vocals and Angus Young in a schoolboy uniform. Of course, he wore shorts and a little cap even at the AARP-old age of 70.

It’s time to suspend any wokeness you have and get in touch with your inner adolescent, because AC/DC is back. With all those guitar power chords, anthemic choruses, loutish double entendres and lusting lyrics about doing the deed.

AC/DC, Australia’s biggest band and one of the world’s all-time bestsellers, kicked off the North American leg of its PWR Up Tour on Thursday night at sold-out U.S. Bank Stadium with a thundering, lovably lowbrow performance that enabled 60,000 fans to revisit the sheer exuberance of loud, unreconstructed rock ‘n’ roll.

Whether you were 11, 70-something or somewhere in between, it was a primal treat to play air guitar and sing along all night long to a band that’s been rocking us for more than 50 years with “Highway to Hell” and “Thunderstruck.”

Despite extensive personnel changes since AC/DC last played in the Twin Cities in 2016, it was the same old songs and dance from Young and company. OK, Young, the last original member from 1973, had fluffy white hair protruding from under his schoolboy cap, but he was as manic and vibrant as ever, duckwalking down the runway like the Energizer Bunny.

Lead screamer Brian Johnson, 77, sounded less frayed than expected but not exactly at full shriek strength for the entire two-plus hours. He’s had some hearing issues in recent years, which resulted in Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose subbing for him on AC/DC’s last extensive tour in 2016.

Fans weren’t certain there would be another tour. After all, bandleader Malcolm Young stepped away in 2014 because of dementia and died three years later. (He was replaced by his nephew, Stevie Young.) AC/DC took a hiatus, then surprised in 2020 with “Power Up,” the band’s 18th studio album.

Following the pandemic, the band did a one-off big gig in California in 2023 with a new drummer — Matt Laug, formerly of Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs — because Phil Rudd was convicted of drug possession and threatening to kill someone. Then before AC/DC’s 2024 European tour, bassist Cliff Williams retired, replaced by Chris Chaney, who played in Jane’s Addiction and Slash’s Snakepit.

With the new rhythm section that debuted 11 months ago, AC/DC didn’t miss a beat on Thursday. They still kept it as simplistic as ever — three chords and wham bam boom. In rock ‘n’ roll, there’s long been power in simplicity. AC/DC cranks up the volume and the bawdy humor.

Let’s face it: Rock ‘n’ roll has always been about sex (the moniker itself is a euphemism for it). And AC/DC has come up with myriad double entendres to say it, whether you consider them playful or puerile.

Which brings us to “Whole Lotta Rosie,” a staple in AC/DC’s concerts. With lines like “not exactly pretty” and “not exactly small,” it’s been deemed a sexist song objectifying women. On previous tours, the band underscored the “whole lotta” with a giant inflatable doll the size of a small house. No inflatable for the PWR Up Tour. Instead, a video of an animated Rosie, outlined in neon, appeared on giant screens, more cartoonish than ever.

That was about the only real change for the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers. Except they are playing in a stadium for the first time in the Twin Cities and that meant the stands were lit up like a sea of blinking red devil horns bought at the merch stands.

The only opening night glitches were regular prolonged silences in darkness between songs when there didn’t seem to be any technical difficulty or explanation.

For a stadium concert, the production was short on elaborate thrills. There was nothing as cool as a real fake train that came crashing through a bank of amplifiers to open arena concerts on 2008’s Black Ice World Tour. The opening on Thursday was animation of a speeding red car, with an Angus Young hood ornament, speeding into U.S. Bank Stadium’s main floor. At other times, the production was on the nose, like flashing lightning bolts on the giant video screens during “Thunderstruck” and flames during “Shot Down in Flames.”

This time, AC/DC was about the music. Johnson and Young really started to click performing face to face on “Have a Drink on Me,” a sludgy 1980 blues rocker during which Young took a fast solo in the middle. Johnson seemed fired up on the ensuing “Hells Bells,” as he and Young waddled down the runway together before Young tore into a blistering solo.

Animated and often scurrying around the stage, Young captivated with speedy solos on “Riff Raff” and “Whole Lotta Rosie” and showed a wider vocabulary and more emotion on an extended passage on “Let There Be Rock,” which closed the main set.

After a layoff since August, Johnson, who looks like an old-timer at the pub in a newsboy cap and black T-shirt, sounded in good form for about the first 13 songs. But then his shriek got less shrill. By “High Voltage,” his voice sounded a big ragged, and he was challenged to fulfill his duties on “You Shook Me All Night Long” and much of the rest of the long night.

AC/DC offered just two songs from “Power Up” — the hard-charging if generic “Demon Fire” and the Stonesian strut “Shot in the Dark.” But the show was mostly about songs of the past — 16 of the 21 came from ‘75 to ‘81 — that became staples on classic rock radio. The crowd was thrilled to experience “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” “Hells Bells” and “Highway to Hell” in concert. The punkish “Shoot to Thrill,” a deep track from 1980’s blockbuster “Back in Black,” also stood out.

AC/DC is all in good fun. They didn’t seem as urgent and dangerous as the sonic assault of Jack White and his band earlier this week at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul. But this was 2¼ hours of classic rock favorites by a beloved band, witnessed for the first time by some and probably for the last time by many.