Hell’s Belles

It just had to be Dawn. Plus, she’s the girl that turned me onto heavy metal rock ‘n’ roll unlike I had ever been turned on before. It was hard getting her to the concert in Anaheim without giving in to telling her where we were going.

“Mike, this had better be a kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll concert!” she hollered over the stereo blasting the Scorpions. “You may have a lot riding on it!”

As I pulled in off the 5 freeway and snaked into the parking lot, she finally saw the Honda Arena’s massive sign proclaiming “AC-DC TONIGHT!”

Dawn went wild! “Back in Black is one of my favorite albums, Mike!” she squealed squeezing more pink lipstick on that mile-long mouth. “That one’s got ‘Hell’s Bells,’ ‘Shoot to Thrill’ and ‘Shake a Leg!’ Let’s go!”

Done. We walked through the parking lot where groups of guys were hanging out, drinking and smoking, while they ogled Dawn. A couple of dudes doffed their baseball cats in deference to the smokin’ So Cal heavy metal babe as ‘Let’s Get It Up’ blared from their Dodge Durango.

Inside, our seats were closer than I thought; we were going to be practically on top of the band. Dawn could hardly contain herself, but busied herself adjusting the settings on the blinking devil horns that I’d bought for her.

The lights dimmed and a video began of lead guitarist Angus Young riding an out of control train down the tracks until it literally exploded through the screen. A giant locomotive, with Young’s trademark horns jutting out of the engine, careened to a halt onstage in barrage of explosions and flame.

Brian Johnson and Angus Young

Dawn and I went nuts just like the over 18,000 other AC-DC fanatics screaming their lungs out and thrusting their fists into the air in unison as the band launched into a hit off of their new Black Ice album called ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Train.’

For the next two hours, Dawn and I were thrashed by a band with more energy, talent, and authenticity than bands half their age. It was a jaw-dropping, grab-you-by-the-collar, rock and roll free for all. Explosions from cannons, fireworks, and blasts shook the arena.

Yet in this whole time, I never smelled the fireworks which the EnviroReporter in me knows are chock full of dangerous toxins like perchlorate, which propels fireworks, and heavy metals which give the bursts their rich patina of colors.

Turns out that it takes twenty to thirty trucks to haul AC-DC’s show around the country. They carry all sorts of high-tech devices, gizmos, smoke pots, cannons and charges – “close proximity fireworks” – that are blown up close to the audience.

That takes a lot of preparation. Last fall, AC-DC’s crew headed to Philadelphia for a month of rehearsals at Center Stage. And then the whole production rolled into the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, October 26, for the first show. It had taken a week to set up the show and the band had checked the set once for about 15 minutes, such is the confidence in their crew. Then it was time to rock.

The excitement of the band’s first tour in five years is caught in all its glory on the AC-DC Rock N Roll Fannation website in a three-part video called “It’s a Long Way To Wilkes-Barre (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).” The first fan to arrive in the parking lot for the show, a goateed dude with a rocket car, had driven in from Sacramento.

“These are real people and this is real rock and roll, Mike,” Dawn says later. “Not these dopey dipsticks you gotta deal with here in La La Land. AC-DC fans rock harder than anyone else because the band rocks harder than anyone else.”

Angus and Dawn...

The undulating masses of fans in the Honda Arena wearing strobing red horns like Dawn’s added to the overwhelming sense of the show’s spectacle. For this tour, AC/DC’s stage construction included a scissor lift built at the end of a fifty yard long stage that would lift Angus Young into the upper reaches during his extended guitar solo.

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