The AC/DC Thread - RIP Malcolm Young

[bl5150]

Maybe a dumb question, but (aside from the president), is it really against the law to threaten to kill someone? I assume there has to be more to it than a 'threat?"

I can't speak for New Zealand but it's certainly a serious offence in Australia as long as it's proven that the threat was made with the realistic prospect that the victim would take it seriously.

https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ca195882/s20.html

Now the maximum tabled there wouldn't be very realistic I imagine (people get less for raping/killing people) but it's certainly an offence that is taken seriously.

[El Barto]

Maybe a dumb question, but (aside from the president), is it really against the law to threaten to kill someone? I assume there has to be more to it than a 'threat?"

It's assault, assuming you have the capability to do it when you say you will. Beyond that a gazillion different local, state and federal laws will come into play.

I'll also throw out that it goes beyond threatening the president; that'll just get you a courteous tea-time visit from the secret service. Threaten a teacher, principal or classmate and you'll be answering the same questions in a jail cell. Threatening anybody other than a straight, white, American, atheist male will suddenly get you federal charges.

[Cool Chris]

Anyone catch the band on the Grammys? I know the grammys are, well, the Grammys, but kudos to them for bringing it, even if most of the audience was all "Do I stand for this? Pump my fist? Clap? Do those devil horn things?"

[Calvin6s]

Anyone catch the band on the Grammys? I know the grammys are, well, the Grammys, but kudos to them for bringing it, even if most of the audience was all "Do I stand for this? Pump my fist? Clap? Do those devil horn things?"

My DVR has all Prime Time events available on demand, so I decided to watch it (well, listen to it in the background).  Most in the audience seemed to be very respectful to AC/DC.

But yes.  The Grammys are ridiculously lame.  I heard Tenacious D won best metal, for a Dio cover no less.  But it actually sounds about right for the Grammys.  It is why I really didn't care when DT were nominated.  Even if they won; nobody would know.  The only good thing the Grammys can really do for an artist is to give them air time for a performance.  The actual awards part of it is a joke and one particular *artist* can't grasp this.

[rumborak]

Thunderstruck was on the radio the other day, and I concluded that it might be the best hard rock song of all time.

[Anguyen92]

Anyone catch the band on the Grammys? I know the grammys are, well, the Grammys, but kudos to them for bringing it, even if most of the audience was all "Do I stand for this? Pump my fist? Clap? Do those devil horn things?"

My DVR has all Prime Time events available on demand, so I decided to watch it (well, listen to it in the background).  Most in the audience seemed to be very respectful to AC/DC.

But yes.  The Grammys are ridiculously lame.  I heard Tenacious D won best metal, for a Dio cover no less.  But it actually sounds about right for the Grammys.  It is why I really didn't care when DT were nominated.  Even if they won; nobody would know.  The only good thing the Grammys can really do for an artist is to give them air time for a performance.  The actual awards part of it is a joke and one particular *artist* can't grasp this.

The Grammys, hell any award show, is all one giant ego stroking pissing match and it's not like winning one of these actually raises an artist's profile and visibility level.  That said, AC/DC brought it and they brought it good.  And the fans that watched it that has tickets to the shows for the upcoming tour should be pleased with the end result.

[jammindude]

I thought it was OK.   Brian sounded better than he has in a long time, but he hasn't been completely ravaged by a full tour yet either.    The rest of the band sounded like they still needed to "shake the rust off".

It was kinda cool to see Slade back behind the kit again...but I'll admit I was hoping for Simon Wright.   But I think I'm in the minority on that one.

[sneakyblueberry]

I caught it, I thought they were looking and sounding great!  Great to see Slade back in the band. 

[Mladen]

Brian was so good, I was convinced he was lip-syncing for a while. I was proven wrong, though. There's a great video that features Paul McCartney rocking out in the audience to AC/DC's Grammy performance, I thought that was as awesome as a video gets. 

[Kotowboy]

Found a terrible quality film - the - tv upload of it and it sounded like HighWay to Hell was slower than usual.

I know they're all like 60 years old but It's not exactly a fast song to begin with 

[sneakyblueberry]

It was super slow, yeah.

[BlobVanDam]

Highway to Hell was definitely plodding. I don't know if they were playing to a click or whether or not, but the song didn't work well at that tempo. Rock Or Bust sounded very good though, close to the studio version, as you'd expect being a new song.

[Kotowboy]

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/acdc-forced-to-postpone-ten-shows-or-risk-total-hearing-loss-for-singer-brian-johnson/

Probably time to retire.

[Calvin6s]

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/acdc-forced-to-postpone-ten-shows-or-risk-total-hearing-loss-for-singer-brian-johnson/

Probably time to retire.

I'd agree, but then I worry about that whole retirement = death thing.  Let's not tempt 2016 any more.

[sneakyblueberry]

Just saw that too.  Scary.

[Dream Team]

Hey look at that! One show every 3 days. What a concept. Meanwhile LaBrie is being asked to sing 4 nights in a row  Wonder how he could hold up if he got 2 days off between every show.

[Adami]

Hey look at that! One show every 3 days. What a concept. Meanwhile LaBrie is being asked to sing 4 nights in a row  Wonder how he could hold up if he got 2 days off between every show.

Hearing loss.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Hey look at that! One show every 3 days. What a concept. Meanwhile LaBrie is being asked to sing 4 nights in a row  Wonder how he could hold up if he got 2 days off between every show.

I doubt very seriously he'd be holding up worth a damn after having sang AC/DC for 36 years.

[BlobVanDam]

That sucks. That's not the way a rocker wants to go down.
With Malcolm out, and this, I think it's time to call it a day. They went out with a strong album, so it wouldn't be a bad finish. It just wouldn't be the same seeing them with a guest vocalist.

[Calvin6s]

BTW, my first thoughts when I saw this thread bumped was I was about to read about the sad passing of Malcolm Young.  So in a strange way, the news was ... don't want to say a relief, but at least I didn't have to hear about another death.

[Stadler]

For the record, it's been said that his hearing loss is not because of AC/DC but because of his auto racing side career (AC/DC is by far the loudest concert I've ever been to; only one close was Deep Purple). 

I think the calls to "hang it up" are a little insensitive, honestly.   For me, I can see Angus wanting to go on.   They've replaced singers twice now, they replaced the co-founder (and by all accounts, leader) of the band...  as much as I love Brian, he's not indispensable.   Myles Kennedy did an hour set of just AC/DC tunes with Gov't Mule not long ago, and nailed the shit out of it.   They can persevere.

But this isn't about Brian.  By all accounts, Mal and Angus are very focused, very driven people that have dedicated their entire existence to the entity that is AC/DC.   It's not a business to them (even if it is sometimes approached like a job).  I can very easily see Angus feeling like Joe Paterno: "If I retire, I die" (which Paterno did, less than four months after retiring). 

Let him put it out there, and we can vote with our wallets.  I have a feeling more people would go to that than you think (depending, of course, on who the singer actually is; I wouldn't go to Foxboro Stadium to see a Blackmore-type thing with some guy from Argentina... no offense to Argentina.  I would go to see Marc Storace or someone like that).

[TAC]

Yay, a Marc Storace reference!

[El Barto]

BTW, my first thoughts when I saw this thread bumped was I was about to read about the sad passing of Malcolm Young.  So in a strange way, the news was ... don't want to say a relief, but at least I didn't have to hear about another death.

Yeah, same here.


ACDC with Storace (great call, BTW) would work, but they won't be selling out arenas with that. It would depend on whether or not Angus wants to do a club tour. I just don't see them even playing midsize venues like that. Moreover, at what point does it A: stop being ACDC, and B: stop being Angus's passion? Losing Malcom or Johson is one thing. Seems like a tour with neither might be a bit depressing for the lad.

[Kwyjibo]

I think the name AC/DC alone will draw a large amount of people for some time to come, regardless of who is singing. Maybe not selling out the really big arenas, but I don't think they would have to reduce it to a club tour.

And when does it stop being AC/DC? One can ask this question with so many other bands (Queen, Yes, Deep Purple just to name a few) and I think this is up to personal opinion.

And I just can't imagine Angus hanging his guitar on the wall and calling it quits, I don't know in which form he could/should continue but to think of him not doing anything rock 'n' roll related just doesn't work.

[Stadler]

I understand there's a pretty big but under-served market for Renaissance music.  He could do that. 

[BlobVanDam]

Axl Rose is apparently official now.

[LCArenas]

Holy fucking shit, I'm kind of drunk so I don't know if this is actually real or not. Holy shit. Axl is on boeard.

[splent]

It's real, it's on yahoo

I threw up in my mouth a little

[IDontNotDoThings]

Well, shit

[Cool Chris]

What, in the blue hell? My friend mentioned this as a rumor to me, but I never saw it verified or posted anywhere.

[jammindude]

AC/DC has now lost 3 KEY members (2 of them original members) in the last year or two.   I feel bad for them, but maybe Angus needs to just hang it up.

I can see wanting to finish out the rest of the tour.   I think there were only 10 dates or so left, and it would be a shame to cancel them altogether.   But ya....seriously. 

[King Postwhore]

You guys are overreacting.   This is just for the remaining dates and then the band figures out the future of Brian Johnson.

It's unfortunate but they want to finish those dates.

[BlobVanDam]

AC/DC has now lost 3 KEY members (2 of them original members) in the last year or two.   I feel bad for them, but maybe Angus needs to just hang it up.

It's been a lot of change in a short span of time. Losing Malcolm was a huge loss to begin with, for obvious reason. Losing Phil Rudd wouldn't have been a huge deal alone, and they replaced him with a former established member, but together with Malcolm, that was a huge hit to the rhythm section of the band. And now on top of that, they've lost their frontman, the voice of the band for 36 years. That is arguably the most difficult spot to lose, because it's what people identify with. It's a make or break factor for many bands, and many times the difference maker between filling arenas, and playing pubs.
I'm still glad they managed to complete that last album (one of my favourites too), and am fine with them wanting to finish off the currently scheduled tour dates though.

Canceling the tour would have been the easiest and safest option, but obviously they didn't want to go that route. With that in mind, I think it was a good approach to choose an established frontman that was a household name in their own right. They're going to lose sales without Brian Johnson whoever they choose, but they'd lose more sales if they went with some no-name cover band singer, no matter how good. Brian Johnson hasn't been a great live voice in a long time, so I don't think that's the most important factor in choosing a replacement.
Of course the double edged sword of an established vocalist is that they come with their own baggage, bringing in new fans, and also pushing away others. Axl Rose is certainly a polarizing individual, and many people are put off by that, although personally I don't think it's a bad choice, and I think there's a decent amount of overlap in the Venn diagram of GNR / ACDC fans among the wider general public of rock fans that ACDC appeals and caters to. They weren't going to satisfy everyone regardless of who they chose.

[Kotowboy]

If I had millions upon millions in the bank and My Doctor said I had to stop playing live or i'd go deaf - that would be a no brainer for me personally.

Retire and enjoy what time I have left.

[KevShmev]

Rose is already touring with one washed up rock band this year; might as well make it two!