Confusingous

AC/DC w/ The Answer
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA
November 12, 2008

The year was 1990. The day was November the 11th. The place was the Brendan Byrne Arena at The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ. The experience was mind blowing. A fifteen year old is taken to another world of rock and roll decadence. Where a thirty something gentleman commented, with the aid of several tins of American swill, that we certainly do not see woman like that on ‘The Outside.’ And, truly, everything beyond the walls of the arena that night was ‘The Outside.’ We, hard rockers of New Jersey, were inside The Asylum. And, that night, our psychiatrist was a five pronged attack known as AC/DC.

The night had altered Confusingous. He had a new purpose. The next day he bought a used Telecaster knock-off guitar from a friend for $10 and a cassette copy of ‘’74 Jailbreak’ and, suddenly, anything was possible. It took him another 4 years to actually play a noticeable chord on said guitar, but the seed was set.

Fast forward eighteen years and one day to November 12, 2008. Confusingous was off to see AC/DC again. This time about five miles away from the site of his first Mass. This was Madison Square Garden. The same stage as ‘The Song Remains The Same.’ If rock and roll had a kingdom, it lies on 33rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City. And truly AC/DC were worthy royalty to take the throne.

But eighteen years is a long time. Alice Cooper said at eighteen you are a boy and you are a man. Could the fire that was struck within Confusingous when he was fifteen still burn at thirty-three? Only time would tell.

Confusingous dragged his wife to see the opening act, The Answer. Quick research on the band told him that Joe Elliot and Jimmy Page were big fans of the band (certainly that amounts to something) and that they were the rebirth of Free. The band won over our resident fortune teller with screaming notes from a Les Paul shot through a double stack of Marshalls. The sound had some of the hard grooves from the 70’s and the songs were well crafted. A good show overall. Confusingous saw the Free comparison but felt The Answer is the test tube concoction between UFO, Humble Pie with a couple of chromosomes from LA Guns thrown in for good measure. A great sound. A great band. A great performance. Their catalog is not available through normal channels in The States so Confusingous was forced to eBay a copy of a Korean version of their CD. These are truly wondrous times.

Thirty minutes later the crowd was treated with a cartoon featuring the patented AC/DC sophomoric humor filled with innuendo and rock. The band took off at it’s conclusion into ‘Rock and Roll Train’ off their latest release, ‘Black Ice.’ They screamed through an hour and forty five minute set which covered all ends of their thirty five year history. The band was as tight as ever and Brian Johnson sounded as well as Confusingous has ever heard him. There was pyro, the famous inflatable ‘Rosie,’ canons that actually kicked-back after firing like those on some British galleon hunting the Spanish Armada. Wearing their customary stage gear (though drummer Phil Rudd looked more like an IT architect living in Park Slope than a drummer playing for one of the highest selling artists in history), the show was typical AC/DC: A party from start to finish that keeps you smiling, dancing and leaves you satisfied.

Confusingous did not hear he was going to the show until two days earlier. For those two days he was a man. About 4:30 the late afternoon of the show, while at his 9-5, he changed into his concert gear: blue jeans, a black t-shirt with an Iron Maiden long sleeve over it. Suddenly, he went from man to boy. That rock and roll fire that burned within him on that November night in 1990 had returned after it had been extinguished the last few years. That fire that caused him to buy a guitar, learn how to play it and rip through the Northeast club scene for ten years was back. AC/DC was good for what ailed him. And while he is not going to buy a guitar (as his wife would kill him), UPS has informed him that his brand new copy of ‘Black Ice’ is due to arrive in his hands today. Some things never change. Thankfully, AC/DC is one of them.