Powerage

"Rock 'N Roll Damnation... Take a chance.. while you still got a choice.."

Oakland Stadium - July 1978

Oakland Stadium - September 1978
Oakland Stadium - July 1979

Back In Black Tour - San Francisco 1980

AC/DC are one of the few bands that I can remember the exact moment when I first heard them... It was at a Cheap Trick concert circa 1978 and 'What's Next To The Moon' blared from the PA in between bands; I'm pretty sure my cousin, who was with me, clued me in that it was Angus & Co.. I've never been an AC/DC fanatic but, of course, they've always "been there"; I've always had their albums on vinyl and CD. Always.

"Exclusive San Francisco Engagement" - 1982

The AC/DC concert film Let There Be Rock was released into theaters in 1982 and my friends and I bought advance tickets and attended it as if it was a concert, as did a lot of other Rockers! In San Francisco, the tickets for each screening featured the picture of a different band member on it.

Phil Rudd S.F. Ticket (From the DeVito Archive)

They simply don't do that kinda shit these days... Kidz these days don't even fucking know. They don't. Arcade Fire THAT, muthafuckers!

In 1982, Rich Hellhound and I saw AC/DC at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on the For Those About To Rock Tour; Angus & Co. played 3 sold out shows. We were still in high school and we worked as clerks at a warehouse liquor store in our hometown of Sunnyvale (Birthplace of Atari), CA... You read that right: We were teenagers working at a liquor store. Not only that but the store manager and assistant manager would buy us liquor.. which explains why we had a bottle of Southern Comfort to keep us company as we waited all day in line. It was a rainy day and we spent most of the wait holed up in Rich's car eating sandwiches and drinking Southern Comfort. Man, I don't remember a lot from that show.. which is unusual for me.


The assistant manager at the liquor store was a guy named Jim who was an AC/DC fanatic. I remember him being a real life version of Otto from The Simpsons; a stoner Rocker dude who drove a gold Trans Am. He always said how he'd go see AC/DC with us but, alas, it was never meant to be. The last time I saw Jim was when he tore out of the liquor store's parking lot in his Trans Am; the next day he was turning himself in at the Santa Clara County Jail to serve a 6 month term because of unpaid traffic violations. We never saw Jim again. Whenever I hear AC/DC's 'Jailbreak' I send silent props to Jim, where ever he might be now.

"He made it out... with.. a bullet in his back.."

Fast forward to the glory days of Umlaut, when Cut 'N Paste / Xerox ruled the world:

From Umlaut #7 (1992)

At around this time Big Wayne and I, along with some of our friends, saw an AC/DC cover band called Long Gone Bon in downtown San Jose, CA at the now defunct Cactus Club. This was during my drinkin' days and by the time the band hit the stage (after an Ozzy cover band) we were all pretty toasty; I seem to remember the cover band's "Bon" passing a bottle of whiskey to us. Lock 'N Loll! I still have a fond, albeit hazy, memory of our band of bruthas standing at the front of the stage with our arms around each others' shoulders, swaying (staggering) back and forth and singing along with Long Gone Bon as they played 'Ride On'... Good times.

Anyway, AC/DC is a sacred band to the Umlaut Nation, so here's some cool stuff for y'all:

Bon Scott's Grave - Freemantle, Australia (Pic by Tour Manager Doug - Feb. 2007)

Angus Access (From the DeVito Archives)

Angus Pick (From the Umlaut Archives)

Angus Dollar Bill - 1990 Tour (From the Umlaut Archives)

"Going down, party time, my friends are gonna be there too... I'm on a Highway To Hell.."

Amen.