If you’re in North America, that sound you hear in the distance might be the ringing of Hells Bells preparing for the return of AC/DC.
The band has unveiled dates for their upcoming Power Up North American tour — the first time the group will tour the continent in nine years.
It’s a historic return to the continent for fans and the band alike. The Australian group hasn’t returned to the continent since their Rock or Bust World Tour back in 2015, which included eight Canadian stops.
The band’s singer, Brian Johnson, had to step away during the latter part of that tour due to severe hearing loss. He was briefly replaced by Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, but would return to AC/DC in 2018 for the recording of their 2020 Power Up album.
WATCH | AC/DC frontman on his recovery from hearing loss:
1st North American tour since death of Malcolm Young
The tour will also be the band’s first North American visit since the 2017 death of guitarist and band co-founder Malcolm Young, who retired from the band prior to his death due to an increasingly difficult battle with dementia.
The Power Up lineup is expected to consist of Angus Young on lead guitar, vocalist Brian Johnson, rhythm guitarist Stevie Young — nephew of Angus and Malcolm, American drummer Matt Laug, who has previously played for Slash’s Snakepit and Alice Cooper as well as former Jane’s Addiction bass player Chris Chaney. Both Laug and Chaney have also played with Alanis Morissette.
“My mind was spinning a little bit,” said Mike McCormick, a Canadian who’s seen the band four times in concert, after finding out about the tour.
One of McCormick’s fondest memories of seeing AC/DC live was during the 2003 SARStock concert, in Toronto.
“It was particularly special because I’ve been a fan of the band since I was 12 or 13. And so that was my first opportunity to see them … So not only was it my first time seeing my favourite band, you know, just the sheer scale and epic-ness of the festival itself was very, very memorable,” he said.
McCormick said the simplistic style of the songs, accompanied with Angus Young’s memorable guitar playing, are what originally attracted him to the band. A part-time musician who’s been playing guitar for 30 years, McCormick even credits Young with being the reason he wanted to learn the instrument.
He owns a Gibson SG, the same type of electric guitar Young plays, which he fondly named Angus.
The Power Up North American Tour is set to begin in April 2025 with shows wrapping up in March. The 13-stop tour features one Canadian stop in Vancouver, a city with a deep connection to the band.
Band recorded in Vancouver
The group has recorded multiple records in Vancouver. They recorded their twelfth studio record, The Razor’s Edge, at the legendary Little Mountain Sound Studios. Released in 1990, it featured a few of the group’s most iconic tracks including: Thunderstruck, Are You Ready? and Moneytalks, all of which made appearances on various Billboard charts.
Little Mountain became popular in the rock scene following its recording of Canadian rock band Loverboy’s debut studio album of the same name, according to Nathan Hesselink, a professor of global musicology at UBC, who has written about UBC’s connection to the storied recording studio.
Hesselink said Little Mountain went on to become the recording studio used by a number of big bands, including Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi and, of course, AC/DC.
Bands came to the studio to work with two Canadians: producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineer Mike Fraser, who developed what Hesselink described as a “hard-edge sound on a number of the really classic hard rock albums of the late 80s, early 90s.”
AC/DC was particularly fond of Fraser, according to Hesselink, who interviewed the engineer as part of his research into Little Mountain.
“There’s a kind of clarity, but also really like clean, rough edge,” he said of Fraser’s work.
In addition to The Razor’s Edge and Power Up, AC/DC recorded four other albums with Fraser: Ballbreaker, Stiff Upper Lip, Black Ice and Rock Or Bust.
The band recorded Power Up at another space in Vancouver, the downtown-based Warehouse studio. It was significant for featuring not only the return of Johnson, but of previous members, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams.
Malcolm Young also received posthumous songwriting credits for all of the album’s songs. It was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 64th Grammy Awards, but lost to the Foo Fighters album Medicine At Midnight.
Hesselink, whose upcoming book: Rush’s Moving Pictures: The Making of a Crossover Classic features a chapter comparing the drumming style of Rush’s Neil Peart to AC/DC’s Rudd, says he will “absolutely” be getting tickets to the Vancouver show.
As for McCormick, he says he and his wife will try to get tickets for one of the U.S. shows closer to the border.
“Road trip to Detroit, maybe that’s possible,” he said with a smile.
