JJ Reviews: ACDC in Wellington

ACDC Black Ice Tour Wellington, New Zealand

Hell Bells indeed. Opening up with the forgettable Rock and Roll Train, Westpac Trust Stadium when nuts when the classic riff to Back in Black was played third song in.

I realised during the show that ACDC are a 'buy the numbers' rock band. This is forgivable, however, as they were apparently the guys that wrote the actual numbers down in the first place. Songs like Dirty Deeds and Shoot to Thrill are rock standards, it's great to hear the guys that made them that standard. That said, some people complain that ACDC have made the same album 10 times - those people weren't in Wellington tonight!

The crowd was a sea of black t-shits sporting various incarnations of ACDC. They were well behaved and smoked a lot of weed (not the glyphosate killer). Early into the set a mongrel mob member collapse right in front of me. His head landed on my toes. He was skull fucked and couldn't get up. Me and another dude pulled him up and his girl nursed him away. Classic.

Angus Young is a manic. Being 60 doesn't slow him down. He was all over the place. An epic 10 odd minute solo consisting of baiting the crowd with blues riffs in return for crowd adulation was a highlight. Two years ago I saw Zakk Wylde play a long solo during a Ozzy Osborne show which I thought could not be topped. Angus did it in a pair of shorts and with a bald spot and.

 When Angus played his 'War Machine' for the crowd, rather than for himself as I suspect Wylde may have, I said to myself, this is why I paid $160 bucks for the privilege.

The rhythm section were tight and know their place on stage. Play the monster chords, hit the skins (with a fag in your mouth all night looking bored!) and the bass kept chugging along all night - that said the bass playing was fairly understated.

Lead singer sings the songs with gusto and says the lines the crowd wants to here. The star of the show is Angus Young and that's pretty much why he takes the lead on so many of the album covers.

Overall it was great to see ACDC, not a completely thrilling night but a night filled with some great songs, fist pumping and a whole lotta rosiness going on....

ACDC Wellington Set list:

Rock n Roll Train

Hell Ain't a Bad Place To Be

Back In Black

Big Jack - nice blues feel, a totally diffferent side of ACDC for the casual fan like me.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Shot Down in Flames

Thunderstruck

Black Ice

The Jack - with an Angus strip show to reveal his ACDC underwear.

Hells Bells

Shoot to Thrill

War Machine - going to featured in Iron Man 2 Soundtrack

High Voltage

You Shook Me All Night Long - crowd favourite of the night

TNT

Whole Lotta Rosie

Let There Be Rock - with epic Angus Young solo performance post song.

ACDC set encore:

Highway To Hell

For Those About To Rock

Brian said after the song, 'We salute you, New Zealand'.

The opening bands were The Checks, and kiwi legends, Shihad - who I only saw one song of, something from the General Electric Album I think.....

Well, there was this one time the Turians tried to wipe out our entire race. That was fun

 One of these ladies is a Smurf. Did you notice?*

22 hours and 10 minutes and 146 game saves later I completed the original Mass Effect.

Wow. What a game. Easily the best Xbox game I have played since Halo 2 (or 3). Even better than Gears of War 2, which some may recall I thought was pretty awesome. My intial thoughts on Mass Effect were pretty much on the mark. As I played on and figured out how to use the weaponry known as Biotics better I got more fluent with the game play however that play overall was less that stellar. It was only enjoyable when one had mastered the various power ups - and even then it was clunky. The Mako jeep which with one explores strange planets on makes Halo's Warthog look like a...pig.

It is the story of Mass Effect where the majority of the appeal lies. It's a huge space opera that doesn't quit until the fat alien from Covenant sings. It's your usual 'the universe is doomed and only one man (or women!) can save the universe from the race of aliens who've destroyed organic life as we know it for eons' type of saga. It's kind of like the Matrix in that regard - the robots just wipe out humanity when they are about at the cusp of taking back the world again (or universe!). Rinse and repeat, only this time as Commander Shepard, you are Neo. Especially if you go the biotic route with your character and can like, make robots stop dead with your hands.

The music, when it needed to be was, superb. In the quiet times it was classic 1980's arcade Synthesizer which made it amusing.

Graphics, ok - it came out like 2 years ago so no dramas.

The twists and turns are fun as you get to choose the plot at certain points - do I care about this person's race in terms of my goal? I'm I an alien racist? Really? Should I obey Star Trek III's message that some times the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the one, or is my choice to be the needs of the one out weighed the needs of the many? Or was the The Wrath of Khan? The ending gives you 3 options on how to finish - the trick is in knowing if you've played the game like Plato or a Punk.

Mass Effect 2 has just been released. The game has an option where you can load your character from the original. This means all the plot actions you have taken will account for plot points in the sequel. Mass Effect's producers have warned players to be careful who you let live and who you let die.....or kill.

All up, I rate Mass Effect as O for Awesome story wise, C for combat play. A+ for general allround good vibeness from a game. Now go watch Alien 3. 

*Blue Smurf's in space. Take a note Avatar freaks, this came out before that film.

Check out reviews of Mass Effect: Andromeda