Mr V V Happy

1/07/2009

AC/DC is tonight

This is what my whole trip to America was for. To go and see AC/DC at Giants Stadium.

Yesterday, the weather was perfect. Beautiful sunshine and clear blue sky.

Today … well …. rain ….. rain …. rain!

There are flood alerts, but the show must go on.

This is the weather forcast

Tonight
	Showers Lo: 65° POP: 90%	Showers and thunderstorms…Mainly in the evening. Some thunderstorms May be severe with damaging winds…Heavy rainfall and frequent lightning…Then some thunderstorms May produce heavy rainfall after midnight. Lows in the mid 60s. Northwest winds around 5 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.

Arrive at Giants Stadium

It takes about the 3 hours to travel the last 3 miles to Giants Stadium. The traffic is bumper to bumper. And when we make it there, we just keep getting directed round and round in circles. This place is huge. Roads and parking lots that are closed one circuit are open the nex lap. We find a park and walk.

As our seats are on the field, there is only one entry into the stadium we can enter from …. and everyone with field tickets have to make it through that tiny tunnel. That takes another 20 minutes.

The atmosphere is electric. The stadium is almost packed to capacity.

AC/DC Rocks Giants Stadium

We had awesome tickets on the field only 40 rows from the stage.

Here’s AC/DC performing their opening number ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Train’ before 80,000 fans at a packed Giants Stadium.

In his 4^th decade with the band and at 61 years young, Brian Johnson and Angus and the rest of the band still has everything it takes to punch out the most awesome show. And here is Thunderstruck.

(By the way, why do people wear earplugs at AC/DC concerts? The whole point behind seeing the band live is to willingly deafen yourself for a few hours. And deaf you will be. There are levels of loudness. There’s teacher-yelling-at-a-bad-student loud, Hiroshima-bomb-exploding-followed-by-the-screams loud, and AC/DC-live-in-concert loud. AC/DC quite simply is the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s as if an invisible force shoots from the roughly 1,000 amplifiers mounted around the stage, penetrates your skull and beats the crap out of your eardrums like your eardrums owed the force money, and physically pushes you around.)

Brian Johnson starts ‘Hells Bells’ by running down the walkway and swinging off the rope hanging from the menacing Hell’s Bell that looms from the stage.

Hell's Bell

The huge inflatable version of Rosie (the plus-sized babe who allegedly, um, bedded former lead singer Bon Scott) straddles the train, and the cameras zooming in on pretty women to display them on the big screen during The Jack, a song about men contracting STD’s from promiscuous women. (You’d think these women would be slightly offended by being depicted as slutty in front of tens of thousands of people, but they act like they

Angus is completely crazy, throwing himself everywhere, lying on the floor playing constantly, kicking around etc. During ‘Let there be rock’, Angus does a guitar solo that lasts for at least 10 minutes. This was when my memory card was full, so sorry, no more video.

Amazing 10+ minute long solo by Angus

AC/DC would have to be the highest energy band I have ever seen. They are without doubt one of the best live acts you can see. If your lucky enough to have tickets to one of their remaining sold-out shows, your in for one of the most memorable events you will ever see in your life.  Simply Awesome!

The Set List

1. Rock ‘n’ Roll Train
2. Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be
3. Back in Black
4. Big Jack
5. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
6. Shot Down in Flames
7. Thunderstruck
8. Black Ice
9. The Jack
10. Hells Bells
11. Shoot to Thrill
12. War Machine
13. Dog Eat Dog
14. Anything Goes
15. You Shook Me All Night Long
16. T.N.T.
17. Whole Lotta Rosie
18. Let There Be Rock
19. Highway to Hell (Encore)
20. For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) (Encore)

I have heaps more video to post, but it is now 5am so time for sleep. Check back tomorrow for more …..

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19/07/09

Feeling incredibly great. In the past my Jet Lag used to take a week or more to get over – this time I feel fine after only a couple of days. Maybe I will have to consider giving up the grog when flying. Maybe you aren’t going to feel like crap anyway, so I don’t need to drink up to have an excuse for feeling like crap.

Caught up with Max and Leon (my old mates from Camp Sloane) and Jesse and we went to the beach for the afternoon. The weather was beautiful – clear blue skies. I think everyone else had the same idea as it took about 1 hour longer then it should.

The drive to the Beach. It was a crawl for about 1 1/2 hours.

First up at the beach was 9 holes of pitch and putt golf. Basically, pitch and putt golf is a short course where most of the holes would only be about 100 – 150 m each, so about a par 3 on most holes. The course had beautiful scenery with the beach and ocean on one side and the harbour on the other. So we dragged the esky around and got into some beers while playing – no buggies on this course.

Jesse & Leon

Playing Pitch and Put Golf

Max and Jesse decided to play the final 18 holes while Leon and I went to the beach for a swim. First some food and I think I just met the dumbest server in the world. I ordered a cheese burger and a cheese burger with bacon. I didn’t think that was too much off an ask. The cheese burger came straight away, but maybe they had to catch the pig or something to put some bacon on the other burger. After about 10 minutes it obviously wasn’t coming, so I swapped my order for a chicken burger. He serves me a beef burger. ‘No – a chicken burger please” and he replies “that is a burger. “Yes … that is a plain beef burger; I would like either a cheese burger with bacon or a chicken burger please.’ So after about 2 minutes of thinking, he works out what a chicken burger is and makes me one. The burger consisted off bun roll and chicken. No butter, no salad, no mayonnaise …. nothing like the picture.

After a quick feed we went for a swim. The beach was really crowded, but virtually no one in the water. Not many waves and they were small. After running and diving straight into the water I realize why no one was in there. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN IS BLOODY FREEZING – EVEN IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER, But at least I have now swum in the Atlantic.

After dinner we went into the city and I had dinner with Leon & Max’s family at a beautiful Italian restaurant. Italian in New York ….. you just can’t beat it.

Max, me, Al, Mum, Grandma, Jessica, Cathy, Leon

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18/07/09

Woke up at 4.30am. This is a bit ridiculous. I am determined not to suffer from Jet Lag so there will be no naps today. Just going to have to push through and resist the temptation to sleep.

More searching for Yankee’s Tickets. Still the best priced ones I can come up with is $125. Apparently there is a site you can get resale tickets from, but I haven’t found it yet.

In the evening we went to the ‘Beach Hut’ for dinner with Barbara (Brookes’ mum). The beach hut is this huge open eatery on the beach. During the day they have a heap of beach volley ball courts and when we were there they had a live band having a jam session. They were pretty good (though the people dancing …. well … let’s not go there). A classic car club was holding a meet in the car park as well.

The Beach Hut volleyball Courts looking towards the Beach.

Bought fish and chips for dinner, and there was a live band belting out some tunes.

Go To USA – Day 4 – Golf, Beach and a swim in the Atlantic Ocean (click here)