Rolling Thunder Pouring Rain - Paris II

 

One single Parisian thunder flash and some 20 minutes of rain was all it took to take another round and another swing in the ring called Stade de France in front of 75.000 rockers.  Here, in 2001, they sang Ride On. Someone handed Brian a French national team shirt to commemorate this moment.  Nearly 25 years later, they returned once more — a promise kept, a journey completed.  

 

Right after the rain, a rainbow appears in the sky above the stadium.  

  

 No unicorns, simply thousands of red and flashing bi-corns at an ac/dc show ha !

         

The French crowd was much louder than on Saturday.  Before the show the French national anthem was sung, and the chanting was really powerful.  Some unfortunately got hit by the heat and the long waits in the sun and had to be evacuated - I hope they are well.  Sneaky rain drops must have caused some interference with the microphones for backing vocals, causing an outage and general confusion at the start of Thunderstruck, heck... the charm of a live show. 

Temperature and humidity fluctuations means lots of guitar changes, sometimes back and forth.  Stevie playing the Belgian flag: Black, yellow, red.  

 

Way to go, Stevie! 

        

Angus' brown black&white and black SG 

No big surprises in the setlist with Dog Eat Dog/"Frog"(?) back in, even though Highway To Hell earlier in the set is great, but it feels weird not having it in the encores, craving for a banger right before TNT.  Brian’s vocals again a little lower in the mix compared to Saturday, he's visibly suffering from a cold.  The toll of constantly switching between outdoor heat and indoor AC?  We wish him a speedy recovery for Karlsruhe!

Have a drink on me – I’ll pay the check.  We’ll sure send it J, 4 beers for 48euros !

 

 Second Parisian show in 2025, 25th in history if you lost the count

    

Super Ang, the hardest working man in Rock n Roll Circus

       

Backed by a hard working team 

 

       

     

 

    

We salute you Paris, we salute you France! Bye! 

 

The 24th Parisian show: Hells Bell hits Angus *

From the back of the 2025 Paris event shirt, we learn that 9 August marked the 24th full show passage in Paris, setting aside the mini performance at Canal+ studios in 2000 and the fun Fun Radio performance in 1995.

 

I had been receiving feedback and reading reviews from shows all over the world, on how AC/DC has been topping their performances with steady increments, town after town.  Yet, tonight, they still struck me with the power and pleasure they put into the concert as if they were to conquer new territory and souls.  

 

 Well over 15 million fingers, learning how to play - Angus promoting the job 

Just when you think you've seen the point of max capacity - which I thought they had reached in Munich 2024, they manage to pull all the way up to 11.  The train keeps rolling.  In hindsight, using the image of a train for the Black Ice tour was an excellent choice: a diesel engine at tour start, but boy, once they're going it is unstoppable.  Full throttle on this 3rd leg of the Power Up Tour.

Coming to an intermediary conclusion: you HAVE to go SEE THEM - NOW!  How lucky we are to see these lads dancing their socks off.  Every night.

The sound was incredible, one of the best as far as I recall, with Brian's vocals confidently higher in the mix, roaring away fiercely.   High Voltage contained an a-political message, in celebration of this thing we call rock 'n roll, which no politics or religion could ever halt.  And you're right Brian, it feels good!

Angus played a little shredding variation at the end of the LTBR solo, a moment I could personally appreciate as it sounded like a high pitched Chuck Berry anthem.

 

 
* The headlines of Tabloids Closer and Paris match this week:  "Angus gets hit by Hells Bell"

      

     

     

   

Where is Wangus?