AC/DC concert review: Angus isn’t as Young as he used to be. But does it matter?
By the midway point of AC/DC’s concert Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium, Angus Young looked like he’d lost a fight with his own schoolboy uniform.
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His tie was gone. His short-sleeved button-down shirt hung open. One knee sock had surrendered and slipped several inches lower than the other. Sweat matted his white hair a little more with every guitar solo.
At the same time, the 71-year-old guitarist looked like he was just getting warmed up.
That’s the thing about AC/DC in 2026. They’re not as young as they used to be. Most people wouldn’t expect a band this old to make 50,000 people forget how old they are. But then they start playing the hits, and holy heck, can they still power through them — imperfections and all.
If ever there were a night for AC/DC to empty the tank, this was it. Saturday’s BofA Stadium stop opened the U.S. leg of the band’s 2026 “Power Up” tour.
Fans in Charlotte, meanwhile, had waited 18 years for the band’s return and were ready to go all out. The last time AC/DC played here, the Hornets were still the Bobcats, many of Saturday’s concertgoers were still in elementary school, and Taylor Momsen — frontwoman of The Pretty Reckless, which opened Saturday’s show — was only 15 years old.
Momsen, the former Cindy Lou Who, is now 32 and seemingly the patron saint of gothic hard rock.
She emerged in a dark red minidress beneath a black leather biker jacket, chunky boots pounding across the stage as platinum-blonde hair whipped halfway down her back.
Like AC/DC, The Pretty Reckless is built around loud guitars, memorable riffs and a charismatic frontperson who isn’t afraid to yell. With eye makeup so thick it nearly touched her eyebrows, she prowled the stage with confidence, alternating between bluesy phrasing and full-throated scream-singing.
“Man, it feels so good to be here with the one and only AC/DC!” she shouted during a break between songs.
But while Momsen was opening a concert, AC/DC was presiding over something that felt like a reunion, judging by the sea of black T-shirts, blinking red devil horns and giant cups of beer.
And while Momsen exuded youth, AC/DC sold something else entirely: endurance.
Brian Johnson, now 78, embodies it better than anyone.
None of this is new. Everyone knows he struggles. He has undeniable vocal limitations these days. He occasionally croaked through phrases. He periodically seemed winded.
Yet the songs still work.
Not because every note lands perfectly. Because everything else about Johnson still lands perfectly.
He performed with such joy that, after nearly every song, he reacted as if his favorite World Cup team had just scored the winner — beating his chest, pumping both fists and grinning as though he couldn’t quite believe he still got to do this for a living.
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At times, he seemed less like an international rock star than a guy who’d wandered out of a Sydney pub and somehow found himself fronting one of history’s biggest bands.
He doesn’t look like a man trying to outrun age. He looks like a man who’s learned to perform within it.
Meanwhile, if Johnson is the heart of AC/DC, Young remains its circulatory system. He’s the reason the machine never stops moving.
At no point was Young rationing the moves fans had come to see. I lost count of the duck walks — six, seven, maybe a dozen. He sprinted up the stage, down the stage and across it, somehow making it all look both effortless and exhausting. He kept punctuating songs with that familiar leap-and-slashing-motion-with-the-guitar finish until every instance felt like another small act of defiance against time.
In fact, 90 minutes into the show, he looked like he’d just completed a marathon, sweat soaking his body, hair wilder than Doc Brown’s, the whites of his eyes ringed with redness.
During the later stages of the show, every time Young broke into a run to telegraph his finishing move, I worried he might trip. That’s what it’s like watching him now. I’m not worried because he’s bad. I’m worried because he’s 71.
Remarkably, there isn’t much he used to do that he no longer does.
He still does one-handed guitar tricks — specifically during solos in songs like “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” and “High Voltage.” He still plays his guitar with his necktie during “Sin City,” leaning over the fretboard and using it to strum and slap the strings.
And he still does his trademark 15-minute-plus guitar solo during “Let There Be Rock,” ripping through bluesy pentatonic riffs, stalking every inch of the stage, cupping his ears to demand even more applause, then riding a hydraulic lift skyward before lying on his back beneath a shower of confetti while continuing to play.
It was a spectacle that felt both spellbinding and excessive.
But if you looked around the stadium during Angus Young’s solo, or the opening riff of “Thunderstruck,” or the tolling bell before “Hells Bells,” or the cannon blasts of “For Those About to Rock,” or the dazzling fireworks display that closed the night, one thing became impossible to miss:
Everybody — from the band to the crowd — looked like they were having the time of their lives.
That’s what happens when a band becomes a tradition.
Fans don’t come because AC/DC still sounds exactly like the AC/DC they remember. They come because, for one night, the band reminds them that rock ‘n’ roll can still be gloriously uncomplicated.
Turn it up. Play it loud. Cheer for the bell. Pump your fist through the guitar solo. Roar for the cannons. Sing until your voice gives out. Then head home smiling, devil horns held high.
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1. “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)”
2. “Back in Black”
3. “Demon Fire”
4. “Shot Down in Flames”
5. “Thunderstruck”
6. “Have a Drink on Me”
7. “Hells Bells”
8. “Shot in the Dark”
9. “Stiff Upper Lip”
10. “Highway to Hell”
11. “Shoot to Thrill”
12. “Sin City”
13. “Jailbreak”
14. “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”
15. “High Voltage”
16. “Riff Raff”
17. “You Shook Me All Night Long”
18. “Whole Lotta Rosie”
19. “Let There Be Rock”
20. “T.N.T.”
21. “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”
This story was originally published July 12, 2026 at 4:33 AM.
