LTBR
Let There Be Rock – This has been a great couple of years for re-releases of great rock ‘n’ roll concert films – first the little-seen “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones”, and now AC/DC’s classic “Let There Be Rock.” Awesome!
The film starts off with some pretensions of offering a backstage look, and there are mini-interviews with the band. There is a bit with the bit tractor-trailer trucks pulling into town, the crew setting up the wall of Marshall amps, roadies playing soccer in the pit, then the band backstage getting ready for the show. The PA has 3,000 watts, the lights 300,000 watts! Judas Priest was the opening band (?!!!!!?). Pre-concert, we see the band getting psyched up, Malcolm changes his shirt in the men’s room, Angus plays guitar, Bon does a photo session, the rhythm section (Phil and Cliff) duct-tape their own hands. There’s dodgy anti-Star Wars “Let There Be Rock” scrolling intro, which looks like it was done on pre-TSR80-level graphics. Flames (of course – it’s AC/DC!). Finally, we see the darkened stage, hear the low rumble of “Live Wire” – those magical three chords – and then you see Angus on the top of the amps, he jumps, and off they go.
The audience is alive and sings along with “Shot Down In Flames” from the start. Angus has his first guitar solo spaz here (he has three more stage-munching incidents ahead of him). Part of “Sin City” is a chilled out blues buzz, but then it just mounts back into insanity – there’s nothing else where AC/DC is concerned.
The directors break in here with a weird interview section. “Are you waiting for the third world war?” Bon answers: “That’s a good question…” He believes that musicians always do well during wartime. Far out… The other guys give slightly less coherent answers. There’s a brief flip-out as the band goes to visit World War I biplanes, with Phil Rudd driving a Ferarri onto the airstrip, they fly around in a biplane, Malcolm is a co-pilot, and Bon does a little dance on a snowy tarmac next to a lake…
Angus and Malcolm are still young in this movie. Bon will always be young (the film ends with a big “To Bon” card).
In “Bad Boy Boodie,” Angus does his striptease. There’s a great blues solo jam, crazy. Scene of Malcolm playing soccer, kicking the ball with one foot and drinking beer with one hand (AUGHHH!!!). Everyone in his interview has either a drink or a cigarette (or both) going. Angus sketches out his Angus devil cartoon. Bon signs autographs for les boys, then tells story about how he was a chauffeur who got the word that AC/DC were auditioning for a lead singer, so he went from being a chauffeur to being a singer (yes, he conveniently forgets to mention that he had already been a pop star before he was a chauffeur, singing in other Australian bands like The Valentines and Fraternity…). Admits that he drinks too much (famous last words…). The interviewer tries to coax him out of the closet, doesn’t quite work. The boys are de-corking their champagne, doesn’t work too well, even with a cutlass.
Camera is on Angus onstage as he switches guitar in “Whole Lotta Rosie”. Music seems off and overdubbed at times. Weird slo-mo editing during one part. At one point in “Rocker”, Bon goes backstage, he looks like he disappears in thin air, but it’s just the lighting. Angus goes off to the side-stage for oxygen (they put a hospital-grade mask over his face) and water, then heads out into the audience on the shoulders of a roadie, playing furiously, then he come onstage and plays from Bon’s shoulders; eventually, he rolls on the ground in a furious solo, finally climbing on top of the Marshall stacks to finish the thing off., doing a magnificent one-hand solo. YEAH! The guitar talks, the audience responds – I’ve never seen anything like it!
The packaging is crappy – no booklet!!!