Review: AC/DC @ bp Adelaide Grand Final 30/11/25
Australia’s greatest ever rock band pulled out all the stops on their Adelaide return and left more than 100,000 spectators blown away.
Words Tobias Handke // Image supplied
AC/DC w/Amyl and the Sniffers & Oscar the Wild @ AEC Arena 25/11/25
Ten years since their last tour and five years since their seventeenth album Power Up, the mighty Aussie rockers AC/DC finally returned home for a run of shows. After near sold-out concerts in Melbourne and Sydney, it was Adelaide’s turn to have their ears blown by one of the loudest rock and roll acts on the planet.
Headlining the bp Adelaide Grand Final after-race Sunday concert, the state’s bogan population were out in force, with motorsport enthusiasts mixing with Acca Dacca fans, many clad in black wearing AC/DC tees and knocking back tins of bourbon. It didn’t take long for the crowd to fill up Victoria Park, with local indie rockers Oscar the Wild getting the chance to strut their stuff in front of one of the biggest crowds they have ever played to. While the reception was mixed, they did a fantastic job of warming up the punters and getting them ready for what was to come.
Amyl and the Sniffers were up next and demonstrated why they have become the poster band for modern Aussie rock. Despite only having an hour on stage, the band blitzed through a packed set that highlighted all three of their albums. Older favourites ‘Some Mutts (Can’t Be Muzzeled) and ‘GFY’ slotted in seamlessly next to new bangers ‘Chewing Gum’ and ‘Tiny Bikini’.
Frontwoman Amy Taylor, wearing her trademark short shorts with an oversized motoracing jacket, was a tornado of energy. Like a siren luring sailors to their deaths, Taylor sucks you into her world, and you can’t help but be enchanted by her enthusiasm as she bounds across the stage spitting lyrics with venom and being an all-around menace.
Amyl and the Sniffers are the real deal and brought their energetic time on stage to close with three cracking songs – ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’, ‘Jerkin’’ and ‘Hertz’ – before they “fuck off”, as Taylor so eloquently put it. The future is here, and it’s Amyl and the Sniffers.
An incredible 102,000 punters had gathered together on the grasslands on the outskirts of Adelaide by the time AC/DC made their grand entrance. A video of a car racing through the streets towards Victoria Park was quite apt, and when the intro finished, AC/DC strolled on stage and opened with ‘If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)’.
“Race cars and rock and roll,” flatcap-wearing frontman Brian Johnson told the crowd with a smile on his face. “It doesn’t get any better.” After witnessing AC/DC’s 21-song exhibition, it’s hard to disagree.
Anyone who has witnessed AC/DC before knows what you are going to get. This is, after all, a band that stumbled upon a formula of hard riffs and anthemic, sing-along choruses in the ‘70s that’s served them well ever since. The early years saw AC/DC led by the charismatic Bon Scott, who took the scrappy pub rockers to the brink of international success before his untimely death. Johnson was recruited in 1980 and, within a year, had helped AC/DC transform into stadium rock superstars. His blues-soaked rasp and Angus Young’s crunching guitar solos merged fantastically on songs about sex, drugs, and, you guessed it, rock and roll. AC/DC became known for playing loud and hard, which is exactly what the Adelaide crowd experienced during their nearly two and a half hours on stage.
Playing songs from ten of their seventeen albums, AC/DC kept the new material to a minimum, performing only ‘Demon Fire’ and ‘Shot in the Dark’ from Power Up, with both getting a decent reception from the crowd. It was the classic Acca Dacca tracks that had the audience singing along in full force and throwing their arms around each other. ‘Back in Black’, ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’, ‘Hells Bells’, ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘Have a Drink on Me’ went down a treat, and although ‘Thunderstruck’ was slightly slower than the album version, it whipped the crowd into a frenzy as the big screen showed the band infused with electricity.
Young, wearing his trademark schoolboy uniform, shuffled around like a character from The Walking Dead before he suddenly came to life during ‘Shoot To Thrill’, ducking walking across the stage as he shredded. His guitar playing is second to none, and he had more than enough opportunities to demonstrate his skill, even playing a solo with his tie during ‘Sin City. Johnson might not have the range of his younger days, but he does a more than admirable job, hitting the high notes more often than not. The rest of the band are like a steadying hand that helps steer AC/DC in the right direction. Rhythm guitarist Stevie Young, bassist Chris Chaney and drummer Mutt Laug might not get the spotlight like Young and Johnson, but without them, AC/DC wouldn’t be half the live band they are.
The hits kept coming, with ‘Jailbreak’, ‘High Voltage’, ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ and ‘Rosie’ more than satisfying the crowd, with ‘Let There Be Rock’ ending the main set. A song that is already long at six minutes, Young throws in a ten-minute guitar solo that saw him performing on a raised platform, on his back as confetti rained down on him and at the back of the stage on another platform in front of the big screens.
A short break saw AC/DC return to the stage for an explosive rendition of ‘T.N.T.’, which had people fist pumping, before ‘For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)’ signalled the end as fireworks lit up the Adelaide sky.
They might be a little slower and a little greyer, but AC/DC have lost none of their oomph, taking fans on a two-and-a-half journey through hard rock anthems that reminded everyone in attendance why AC/DC are one of the best rock bands to ever do it.
