Fox Reviews Rock

The Fox Reviews Rock team attended both the 1st London AC/DC show as well as the final show of the tour in Dublin. Sit back and enjoy both experiences in our first ever 4 person review!

Travel

Not being based in either of the host cities meant travelling to each show , although the distances and methods differed greatly. How was travelling to London/Dublin?

Cozzer – London was easy to get to as it was a simple drive to the outskirts and then a quick tube ride in.

Fox – Well, I guess that is true… but let’s not forget the scramble at the station when we couldn’t find a parking space, and I ended up getting us a last-minute spot on someone’s drive!

Rex / St Jimmy – breakfast at the airport, straight on a plane, taxi into Temple bar. Easy peasy! (Other than the 4.30am wake up to get to the airport) then from the centre of Dublin it was a half an hour walk to Croke Park, which was mostly easy except having to walk through a herd of Angus’. They had different routes into the stadium which we haven’t seen before but it really helped with the flow of people and we got into the grounds in less than 5 minutes!

Pre-gig Activities

So when you got to London/Dublin what did you do to fill the time before the show?

Cozzer – We passed the time by visiting a pop up shop and a pop up dive bar.

Fox – To be honest, I was rather underwhelmed by the pop-up shop; however, the dive bar was amazing! First, to get to it, we needed to take the Elizabeth tube line (Very swanky), then we made our way to Camden Market. Despite being told by a Scottish guy that we “Cannae Miss It,” we very much could. Eventually, though, we made our way inside to see someone get a tattoo, buy three very expensive drinks, and take in the atmosphere, as well as amazing AC/DC related memorabilia.

Rex / St Jimmy – lego shop to collect our passport stamp, acdc pop up shop we were also pretty underwelmed with it, for the amount of merch types in there, there was only one design of vest top! I always find the women’s selection of band merch is lacking. Did all the touristy stuff around Temple bar – remembered about when we were here last and met Tre Cool (Greenday’s drummer) in The Oliver St. John Gogarty pub!

Arrival

When first arriving at Wembley/Croke Park what was your first impressions, did things go smoothly inside the venue?

Fox – I’ve been to Wembley three times with the football team I support, so I have mixed feelings about the place in general. But that being said, one cannot help but be impressed when seeing it! Getting inside went very smoothly, which was a relief!

Cozzer – My first impression was that Wembley Stadium was as grandiose as I had been led to believe.

Rex / St Jimmy – Croke Park is the 4th largest stadium in Europe, and it’s surrounded by a housing estate! There was a huge security presence guiding people in the right direction, as well as plenty of Gardaí (police). Although an old stadium, the set-up and one-way systems they have in place work incredibly well. It does look a lot like a prison from the outside though!

Did you buy any merchandise? What did you think of the selection?

Fox – We got t-shirts each, well I might have had to trade mine at 2 further stalls to get the size I actually needed, but we got there in the end. We both ended up with the same shirt, with Angus in front of the Flag of the United Kingdom. It also has a cool design on the back with tour dates, etc.

Rex / St Jimmy – St. Jimmy bought the football AC/DC shirt from the pop-up shop, and the tour t-shirt from the gig. However, although there were pictures of two women’s t-shirts/vest tops, only one was available at one merch stand in the whole arena, and not even in a small! So we had to settle for a medium.

The Pretty Reckless

The Pretty Reckless were the support for both shows, how do you think they got on, were they a strong support for AC/DC?

Fox – I think they did well bearing in mind with every warm up act there is teething issues with the sound levels. I can’t help but think though that for the amount the gig cost that they could have had two support acts! Granted the band and Taylor Momsen did a fantastic job , plus it helps that I have a crush on her…

Cozzer – To echo the above they were a good support act but I feel like we could have maybe had another act inbetween The Pretty Reckless and AC/DC.

Rex / St Jimmy – We thought they were very good, but we don’t think they were the right support for AC/DC. We think another ‘Legends’ band would have been amazing! (Thin Lizzy or Deep Purple would have been our dream support)

Which song by The Pretty Reckless stood out to you the most?

Cozzer – Id Say probably “Make Me Wanna Die”

Fox – I really really want to say “Where Are You Christmas” from the film “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” (Taylor plays the little girl in it) but despite my pleading they didnt play it. So i’d say i was most surprised by how great “Death By Rock And Roll” sounded!

Rex / St Jimmy – We agree that they played ‘Make Me Wanna Die’ was a highlight, but we think that ‘Only Love Can Save Me Now’ really highlighted Taylors incredible vocals!

AC/DC

What were your emotions before the band were due to come on ?

Cozzer – Sheer excitement and a bit of anxiety that I hoped it was going to be as good as I thought it was going to be.

Fox – I’d say I echo the above sentiment exactly!

Rex / St Jimmy – We were getting pretty tired at this point, Rex even spoke to strangers to get an adrenaline rush hahah! But we were excited, also hoping they were going to start half an hour early as The Pretty Reckless did.

What was the first song of the set that really wowed you?

Fox – For me it has to be “Back In Black” purely because its a fantastic song and that they fixed the sound issues from the first song of the set.

Cozzer – “If you want blood”, its one of my favourites and was a great choice to start the setlist with.

Rex / St Jimmy – We think all the songs were performed as well as they could be, but ‘Hells Bells’ was the first song that we got excited for when the massive bell started descending towards the stage!

Which song was your favourite from the setlist?

Cozzer – Thunderstruck, especially with the arch of Wembley lighting up to the rhythm of the intro.

Fox – While I agree the changing of the lights across the Wembley arch were amazing during Thunderstruck, for me it has to have been “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”. It’s a song that on record I never really connected with till that night seeing it live.

Rex / St Jimmy – We were 100% going to say ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ as that is our favourite song, but it is actually a hard choice between ‘Highway To Hell’ and ‘Back in Black’ We thought both were performed incredibly well so we pick both (one each!)

Was there anything that surprised you about AC/DC?

Fox – I think the sheer amount of energy and drive they all still had when you consider their ages!

Cozzer – Nope, as awesome as I expected

Rex / St Jimmy – That they’re still alive? Ish, and how well the guitarist and bassist could match Brian’s voice, they did an amazing job with the backing vocals!

What was your favourite moment from the AC/DC performance?

Cozzer – My favourites moments where when the whole crowd would become the backing vocals for example, everyone shouting “THUNDER” in thunderstruck.

Fox- I think it has to have been the cannons I know its a bit silly as many around me knew that was going to happen but as I had no idea that was cool as hell!

Rex / St Jimmy – Definitely the finale, the cannons and Fireworks absolutely made ‘For Those About To Rock’

If you had to score the show out of 10 what would you score it?

Fox – 9/10 I’d say it’s the best gig I have ever been to , and to get to 10 I think another support act would have elevated it up that extra point.

Cozzer – 100/10

Rex – 7.5 it was good, but like a lot of old bands you can hear they’re getting old unfortunately! The songs they played were good but there was almost no crowd interaction and Angus guitar solo was just too long!

St Jimmy – 10/10 I would’ve happily gone and seen it again the next day. One of the best gigs I’ve been too! I love the old man version of Angus.

How was exiting the venue and getting home?

Fox – I think we walked down Wembley way for around 1hr after the show, no biggie but for sure it extended our trip back , although looking at Rex and St Jimmy’s answer I’m going to choose to not moan too much!

Rex / St Jimmy – It was really easy getting back to Temple Bar and the center of Dublin, we had to have a little taste of the night life before our 5am flight back home. Getting from the city centre to the airport was a chore, the busses only took coins and it took us about half an hour to get a taxi! The plane was surprisingly full but judging by all the sleeping people in the departures area, a lot of people looked like they’d done a similar trip to us.

Finally do you believe the band will return to Europe again for another tour, and if so would you buy tickets?

Fox – Well if it was to happened I’d have zero hesitation in getting tickets , but sadly I don’t believe its going to happen.

Cozzer – I hope so, I expect we’ll possibly see a farewell tour soon

Rex / St Jimmy – We think they may try to tour again in a few years, but Brian’s voice is definitely struggling after his incident a couple years ago (he has improved since we saw him at the Taylor Hawkins memorial concert though) but we don’t think we can handle a longer than 20 minute guitar solo, no matter how great Angus is! We would still buy tickets again though hahah!

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Let us know if you liked our first four person two locations review in the comments section!