09.03.2010 

For AC/DC fans over in the United States, this weekend is Labor Day weekend, a holiday that's become synonymous with kicking back with family, friends, the grill and a few beers. As we head into the weekend, we here in the world of AC/DC are kicking back with a look at some big concert dates in Acca Dacca history that took place this week. And since it's the weekend, we're kicking back with a few beers too in solidarity with the American fans.

On tomorrow's date back twenty-five years ago, fans at Binghamton, New York's Broome County Arena became the first to hear the sounds of songs like "Shake the Foundations" and "Sink the Pink" blasting from the stage as AC/DC kicked off their Fly On The Wall Tour. It would be the first of some forty dates that they'd play in the U.S. and as they headed into the new year, they made their way over to Europe for another forty-or-so shows.

While the start of a world tour's pretty big, it's summer festival season, so of course our thoughts wandered to the mid to late seventies, when this week marked AC/DC's appearance at a couple of big festivals. Yesterday back in 1978, AC/DC played their second "Day on the Green" of that year at Oakland's Coliseum. The famous festival, organized by promoter Billy Graham, also featured Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, Journey and Cheap Trick.

For AC/DC that summer, Day on the Green won out over the Reading Rock Festival, which the band had played back on August 29th two years earlier. The band's spot on the Reading bill was one of their first appearances before such a large crowd, many of who didn't yet know of AC/DC, and with rain falling from the sky, the show turned out to be less of a success than the band had hoped for. Luckily, the experience was one that helped shape and strengthen their balls-to-the-wall approach on stage.

A year after that second appearance at a Day on the Green, AC/DC was back over in Europe for the summer starting their tour behind "Highway to Hell." This past Wednesday back in 1979, the band joined Cheap Trick and Scorpions before 60,000 fans at Nuremburg's Open Air as openers for The Who. While Angus was the one intently watching The Who's Pete Townshend work his magic during The Who's set, after the show it was Townshend who reportedly quipped that AC/DC had stolen the show.

That's it for this week's The Week in AC/DC. Happy holidays to all you Yanks. See you next week!