Sincere Rave-Ups from AC/DC.net

By Vic, Manassas, Virginia:

I think about those things in my past that are certified life-changing experiences - this was one of them!

 We went to see KISS; we were sixteen years old. The place was sold out. AC/DC was added on the bill at the last minute, no one had ever heard of them. Except us...a buddy had turned us on to "Let There Be Rock" about a month before the show.

 19,000 people there and we were probably the only six guys that had ever heard of AC/DC…well...they absolutely BLEW KISS AWAY!
I don't think anyone cared about KISS when they eventually hit the stage, and the people that did were deaf after that start-up band from Australia! You think Angus has energy now? You should have seen him when he was a teenager! Holy Shit! Who ARE these guys?
 Yep...I'm almost 50 now...a life changing experience...what's my favorite AC/DC song? Whichever one's playing right now!

By Charles Fredrikson, Lecanto, Florida:

I was at that show in 1977. Somebody in Piper had got sick and they said there would be a band and as you walked up and looked at the marquee: AC/DC. Okay, who the hell are these guys? 

The first two songs you're scratching your head watching this tall skinny guy all over the stage and this little dude in a uniform falling on the ground as if he's having epileptic seizures. By the third and fourth song you're actually paying attention thinking these guys ain't half-bad. Then Angus Young gets on Bon Scott's shoulders and they head out through the Capital Centre at some point as they came down the outside isle on the left, my buddy stuck a bong out, Bon took it and took a hit.

They were there to kick ass and take names and that's exactly what they did. So much so, at some point once KISS had took the stage - a chant started "AC/DC AC/DC AC/DC" and Paul Stanley actually said “You liked that band huh?”, and the place when freaking nuts. It was a big disappointment the next night when AC/DC wasn't there and Piper showed up (the original opening act). 

Needless to say the local head shops, Penguin Feather and Rainbow Tree, did not have any AC/DC albums, cassettes or 8 tracks. They did within a couple weeks and couldn't keep them in stock all from that show.


Kind of strange at 62-years-old I'm still talking about a show with a band who wasn't even supposed to be there back in 1977. That alone should tell you how good it was, a once-in-a-lifetime event that can't be duplicated. You had to be there and thank God I was.

Question! I am looking for a present for a mentor who mentioned this as the best show he’s ever attended. Where did you get the images? I was even going to just make a print from the poster (or newspaper clipping?) but was hoping to find slightly better quality image. Any advice? Thanks!

One Not-So-Good Night Kiss
By Jenefer Hirshberg — The Washington Post
Tuesday, December 20, 1977

Mass hysteria, usually reserved for the last few songs that climax a rock concert, raged among last night's Capital Centre crush and greeted Kiss as they appeared on stage. And appear they did, amidst flashing colored lights and minor explosives.

The fusion of music and theater on stage is nothing new - remember Little Richard; and if there is a forum for outlandish overstatement, it is in the rock arena. But this is ridiculous.

Kiss's two-to-three chord melodyless, lyricless music is so loudly repetitious as to be almost characterless. The character (if you'll pardon the expression) comes from their stage show, which by now is legendary with its blood-spitting, tongue-flicking and fire-spewing - yes, literal pyrotechnics.

Throughout the show Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons gratuitously tossed guitar picks into the audience, and during the last number (prior to their two encores) Stanley smashed his guitar, à la Jimi Hendrix and The Who, and threw that into the audience as well, as it rained confetti over the stage.

Kiss plays rock and roll with a heavy handedness that is supposed to be mistaken for energy but which has all the subtlety of a lead pipe. This perhaps accounts for the average age of their adorers. The accumulative age of the capacity crowd had to be one of the lowest ever.