The AC/DC show was the third Heavy Metal concert of the season and fourth show this summer (I went to Billy Joel/Elton John 2 weeks ago at Gillette Stadium). Originally, I wasn’t going to go, I saw AC/DC on the STIFF UPPER LIP Tour years ago and I didn’t really want to pay the $100+ for a decent seat. I ended up getting the fever for the concert when Anvil was added to the bill and ticket deals started popping up on Ticketmaster. I grabbed 2 tickets at $50 each and went with my father-in-law to the show. Great seats: Section 102, Row 18, Seats 14 & 15 (on the aisle)…..2 sections over from my endzone Patriots season tickets!
The Answer setlist:
The tickets said the show started at 6pm so we were in the arena for 5:45pm and I showed my father-in-law the stadium. Around 6:30, The Answer came on…..they played about 30 minutes and there were definitely 6 songs. There was a small crowd and they got a decent reaction. Unfortunately, the two Answer CDs I own are sitting on my desk in a pile of discs I haven’t really listened to yet so I wasn’t familiar with any of the songs. The Answer has an AC/DC-ish sound so they are definitely a good fit for the opening slot on the tour.
Anvil setlist:
March Of The Crabs
This Is Thirteen
666
School Love
Winged Assassins
Race Against Time
White Rhino
Metal On Metal
I have been an Anvil fan for a long time. A lot of people say that nowadays because of the buzz the Anvil movie has created and the backing by VH-1 Classic but I remember listening to FORGED IN FIRE on a record store turntable back in 1983 and I’ve had some of the early albums since they were released. The latest album, THIS IS THIRTEEN (2007), is a great record and it’s getting a re-release this Fall and the band is gaining momentum with heavyweights like AC/DC in their corner. Rumor is that Angus Young himself wanted Anvil added to part of the tour because he thought the Anvil story was incredible! No matter the reasons, Anvil took the stage and I went mental! I missed the band this past April when they played a small venue outside Boston on their movie promotional tour so this was my glory moment.
Lips, Robbo and Glenn 5 tore into the instrumental ’March Of The Crabs’ and then gave up ‘This Is Thirteen’. I sang every word to the title track and the people behind me thought I was some weirdo. Actually, I sang every word to the entire set! The highlights for me were ‘This Is Thirteen’, ‘Winged Assassins’, ‘School Love’ and ‘Metal On Metal’. I could have done without a second instrumental but ‘White Rhino’ was a Robb Reiner drum solo showcase. I had looked up the band’s Castle Donnington set earlier in the day and they played a few classics that I hoped they would play at this show (‘Jackhammer’, ‘Mothra’ & ‘Forged In Fire’) but time was a factor and AC/DC was the main attraction. The band had a great response from the growing crowd and there were a few old school metalheads out there besides me who knew the songs. I was able to hopefully convert a few teenagers and turn them on to Anvil with my encyclopedic Metal mind and enthusiasm for the set. Anvil were my conquering heroes of the night and I went up right after their set and proudly bought my $35 Anvil tour shirt!
AC/DC setlist:
Rock ‘N Roll Train
Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be
Back In Black
Big Jack
Shot Down In Flames
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack
Hells Bells
Shoot To Thrill
War Machine
Dog Eat Dog
Anything Goes
You Shook Me All Night Long
TNT
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock (with extended Angus solo)
Encore:
Highway To Hell
For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
The band everyone came to see…..AC/DC came on about 30 minutes after Anvil as the sun was setting on the stadium and the band absolutely kicked ass! AC/DC’s music is timeless, everyone knows the songs and the crowd was singing along to almost every word. It was a high energy set of 20 songs, 5 came from the new album BLACK ICE (2008), 4 from LET THERE BE ROCK (1977) and 4 off the classic BACK IN BLACK (1980). The set had a few predictable songs along with the BACK IN BLACK tunes like ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, ‘Dirty Deeds’ and ‘TNT’ but there were a few songs for the diehards like ‘Dog Eat Dog’, ‘Let There Be Rock’ and ‘Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be’.
The show started out with a quick cartoon on the big screens to get the crowd pumped up…..nothing like seeing a devilish Angus, fighting some women and an out of control train to get the crowd cheering! The band roared into ‘Rock ‘N Roll Train’, complete with a big train engine on stage above Phil Rudd’s drums, and then into the deep track of ‘Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be’. I was psyched right away but the crowd picked up a lot more when they heard the opening riff to ‘Back In Black’. With the exception of the new songs and a couple of oldies, most of the set was songs everyone knew, AC/DC gets a ton of airplay in New England. I thought all of the new songs went over pretty well live but the highlights for me were ‘Rock ‘N Roll Train’, the heavy ‘War Machine’ and ‘Anything Goes’. That’s not to say that ‘Big Jack’ and ‘Black Ice’ were bad, I just like the others better. The good news is that there was a lot of sing-a-long to the new songs so the BLACK ICE record has reached a lot of people.
The other 15 songs were all AC/DC classics from both the Bon Scott years and Brian Johnson’s tenure. Obviously, the more popular songs were crowd favorites but I was excited when they played the songs off LET THERE BE ROCK. ‘Dog Eat Dog’ and ‘Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be’ were surprises for me. ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ had the band’s trademark “Rosie” balloon riding the big train above the drums and the set closer, ‘Let There Be Rock’, clocked in close to 15 minutes with an extended Angus guitar solo. The cool thing was the catwalk the band had from the main stage to a small stage in the middle of the floor…..this is where the majority of Angus’ solo was played, complete with pyro, confetti and smoke! A couple of other crowd favorites were ‘The Jack’ and ‘Thunderstruck’. Gillette Stadium is the home of the New England Patriots and ‘Thunderstruck’ has been a staple at the games since the mid-’90s to get the crowd pumped up for kickoffs. It’s almost a team anthem! The crowd went nuts for that song. During ‘The Jack’ the cameras focused on a lot of pretty girls in the crowd and put them on the big screen. Two people the camera caught (not women) were actors David Spade and Chris Rock…..Spade was clear as day singing along and fistpounding but Chris Rock was shown just as the camera started to pan away. It was cool though and the crowd threw up a big cheer, maybe bigger than some of the girls on the screen!
The band closed with the classic ‘Highway To Hell’ and the full cannon blast of ‘For Those About To Rock’…..both expertly done. As the band left the stage there was a nice fireworks display that delayed the bulk of the crowd, this helped my father-in-law and I get out of our section and up the ramps to leave before the bulk of the crowd created a massive jam to get out. Overall, AC/DC was in top form and had a great sound. Say what you want about all the songs sounding the same or the band getting older (Brian Johnson is 62!), the band can Rock and they blew apart the Foxboro crowd. Definitely a great concert and I’m glad I went. If the rumors are true and this is the band’s final tour, I’m glad I got to experience them live one more time.
Dream Theater – Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009) – $15: The new Dream Theater came out last Tuesday and I had a choice of 2 stores to pick up the 3 CD limited edition: Newbury Comics or Best Buy. I went with Best Buy because it was $5 cheaper. The 3 CD set breaks down as follows: Disc 1 is the new studio album, Disc 2 is a bonus disc of 6 cover songs and Disc 3 is the studio album again but as instrumental mixes only. All together it’s 3 hours and 17 minutes of music on 3 CDs for the price of one regulary priced album…..a good deal!
Primal Fear – 16.6 (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead) (2009) – $16: Picked this up a couple of weeks ago at Newbury Comics when the album was released officially in the U.S. The cool thing was that the only copy the store had was the European version with the 2 bonus tracks and the video…..I prefer the extra material even if that means paying a couple extra bucks. I have only had a few spins so far but it sounds like another updated sound added to the Classic Metal assault.
Spinal Tap – Back From the Dead (2009) – $9.99: New album from Spinal Tap, great sale price from Newbury Comics! A lot of extras included in the package: the CD has 19 songs (6 new and 13 re-recorded from the soundtrack), an hour long DVD and the CD packaging folds out to become paper dolls of the band and Stonehenge! The only complaint is that there is no slipcase to keep everything in but it’s definitely a cool way to put together a CD.
Axel Rudi Pell – Best Of (Anniversary Edition) (2009) – $8.99: I don’t have much Axel Rudi Pell in the collection except for a few of the newer records so I figured a retrospective release like this would give me a taste of some of the older material. I picked this up mostly based on the sale price and it fit in nicely with the Primal Fear and Spinal Tap purchases.
Jester – Digitalia/Tales From The Boogieman (2000 reissue) – $2.50: Back when print fanzines were still a viable source of info, I heard about New Jersey’s Jester. I think this was around 1997 when their debut TALES FROM THE BOOGIEMAN was released on Pulse Records. I always wanted to check them out but I never got around to it and now the CD is out of print, same with DIGITALIA, now that Pulse Records is no more. Escape Music came around in 2000 and reissued DIGITALIA with new cover art and TALES as a bonus CD. Some retailers still have this for $17-$20 online but I was able to snag this on Ebay for less than $3.
Lita Ford – Dancin’ On The Edge (1984) – $21: I have been after this CD for a long time. 
Anvil – Plugged In Permanent (1996) – $22: I’m slowly filling all the holes in my Anvil collection after seeing the Anvil movie. I noticed that a lot of the later albums have Japanese pressings with bonus tracks and this album gives Japan one with ’Stolen’. There were 2 copies on Ebay: this Japanese pressing from a seller I have bought from in the past and the regular U.S./Euro pressing without ‘Stolen’. Both were $17 so but the shipping was $2 more for the Japanese pressing. I paid the extra $2 for the extra track.
UFO – The Visitor (2009) – $22.50: I’ve had a promo copy of this album for a few months now but I have to have an actual copy when it comes to on of my favorite bands. The bonus track ‘Dancing With St. Peter’ isn’t on the promo and I wanted to hear the updated version by UFO…..the song was the title track of the Phil Mogg fronted side project $ign of 4. The album of the same name was released in 2002. The only copy of THE VISITOR readily available was the U.S. version without the extra song so I ordered the Euro version from 
Solna – Eurameric (2009) – $13: I knew nothing about this all-star project except for the fact that CD Inzane founder Zane Petersen (from China Blue)produced it and played drums. There are a lot of guests on this album including Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Pamela Moore (Queensryche) and Alex De Rosso (Dokken). There are more people included and it kind of follows the path taken by other projects like Ayreon and Avantasia. I haven’t given it a spin yet but I’ve read some great reviews.
Solna – Sent From Heaven E.P. (2009) – $4: This 6 song E.P. was released prior to EURAMERIC and included 5 songs that are on the album and an E.P.-only bonus track titled ‘I Light A Candle Too’. Only 2000 copies were pressed and the CD was on sale for $3 + $1 shipping…..can’t beat that. I figured that I might as well grab the E.P. along with the proper album to have all the songs in the collection.
Bloodbound – Tabula Rasa (2009) – $12: I have to plead ignorance on Bloodbound because I’ve never actually heard any of the band’s music, the only thing I know is from the reviews I’ve read online and they all seem to be really positive about TABULA RASA. The album was $5 cheaper at CD Inzane than at NEH Records so I picked it up right away. I have the U.S./Euro version that includes a bonus video…..I hear the Japanese import has a bonus track instead.
Nocturnal Rites – The 8th Sin (2007) – $5: Over the years I have picked up almost all the the Nocturnal Rites albums as they have been released but, for some strange reason, I never bothered to pick up THE 8TH SIN a couple of years ago. I was going through the CD Inzane clearance section and there this CD was for $5! The bargain is better because it’s the limited edition with the bonus DVD with videos, live tracks, and documentaries on the band’s European Tour 2005 and Japanese Tour 2006. The regular version was $12 & the limited edition was $5…..easy choice! The bonus DVD is PAL format but my DVD-ROM drive on the computer plays PAL.
Gothic Knights – Up From The Ashes (2003) – $5: An online clearance section can be even more lucrative for finding CD treasure than your local record stores used bins! I couldn’t help but notice that this Gothic Knights album was a mere $5 so I grabbed it too! I looked at this album on Ebay for $15 to $20 depending on the seller…..even Sentinel Steel couldn’t match the price on a used copy! Now I only need the out of print debut from Gothic Knights.
U.D.O. – Infected E.P. (2009) – $12: I wasn’t going to make the same mistake of not ordering the E.P. that comes before the proper album like I did with THE WRONG SIDE OF MIDNIGHT E.P. in 2007 before the MASTERCUTOR album came out. U.D.O. always has E.P. exclusive songs and INFECTED is in different: 2 non-album tracks, a remix and a live track to go along with the title track that comes from the new upcoming record DOMINATOR. The E.P. is limited to 2222 copies worldwide so I acted fast.
After Forever – s/t (2007): I picked up this album January 2nd and it has remained in my playlist pile the entire year. I have always been a fan of female-fronted Gothic/Symphonic Metal bands and bands like The Gathering, Lacuna Coil, and Tristania have made me take a good look around the scene for bands I overlooked. What I like about After Forever is their use of beautiful operatic female vocals courtesy of Floor Jansen mixed with Death Metal growls while keeping everything heavy. This album would have easily made my Top Albums list if I had bought it last year.
Gamma Ray – Land Of The Free II (2007): LAND OF THE FREE II was released in 2007 in Europe and Japan, we had to wait until January in the U.S. I picked up the European version in January from a CD sale at the local record store the same day the album was officially released here in the States. Is there really any difference? Nothing bothers me more than when a CD gets released eveywhere else and we have to wait a few weeks, or months, for a proper U.S. release. It’s either that or buy the import! It’s an excellent Power Metal record by one of the best in the genre but it seemed to get lost in my playlist with all the new albums coming out.
King Diamond – Give Me Your Soul…Please (2007): Nothing can beat a new King Diamond album and I passed on this one too many times in 2007. Not sure why because it was on my list all year long and I just kept leaving it the racks. I bought this CD the same day I bought the Gamma Ray disc at a really good price and playing this regularly over the last year got me to fill some of the King Diamond/Mercyful Fate holes in my collection.
Nightwish – Dark Passion Play (2007): I have never been a big Nightwish fan because of the Opera style vocals of former vocalist Tarja Turunen but I had a couple of their CDs. Nightwish split with Tarja and the news wasn’t taken lightly by many of the band’s fans. When the band announced that former Alyson Avenue vocalist Anette Olzen would replace Tarja, I knew that it was a great move. I liked Alyson Avenue a lot and Olzen’s style is more to my liking. This is another one of those albums that had an international release in 2007 but a U.S. release in 2008. I ended up grabbing the last sale copy of the collector’s edition that included an expanded booklet and a 2nd CD of orchestral versions of the album.
U.D.O. – Mastercutor (2007): I missed the release date on MASTERCUTOR and I was trying to hold out until I could find the European limited edition with the bonus tracks. Unfortunately, that search continues but I picked up a U.S. copy used for $7 and it was one of the best purchases all year. I’ve been an Accept/U.D.O. fan all along and I usually pick up anything these bands put out but I missed out on one of the best releases of the 2007.
Dokken – Lightning Strikes Again (2008) – $13
Journey – Revelation (2008) – $11.88
