El Paso -- There's a simple reason why Sunday's
AC/DC concert at the Don Haskins Center sold out nearly 9,000 tickets in four hours last month.
"Because it works here," UTEP Special Events Director Carol Roberts Spence, who thinks the Australian hard rock legends could have filled the Sun Bowl. "This is an
AC/DC town. This is the quintessential band, the perfect harmonic convergence of music in this community."
El Paso is and always has been a hard rock and heavy metal town, and this is one of the defining bands of the genre. But El Paso is also a town notorious for slow advance ticket sales, so a sellout in four hours is "unheard of" here, Roberts Spence said.
"We haven't seen that in years," she said. It "sold out in a heartbeat."
Maybe that's because
AC/DC hasn't performed here in 21 years. The band last played El Paso on July 21, 1988, at the County Coliseum, according to venue officials. That show was packed, too, prompting an El Paso Times reviewer to marvel: "How this crowd got past the fire marshal I'll never know."
Anthony Bozza understands the group's appeal. The former Rolling Stone magazine writer recently wrote "Why
AC/DC Matters," a 137-page examination of the band, its accomplishments and its nearly unprecedented success.
Only the Beatles have sold more records worldwide.
AC/DC, which started in 1973, has sold 200 million of them, 22 million copies of 1980's "Back in Black" in the United States alone.
The band -- known for hits such as "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" -- is the model of consistency, even though it has endured one tragedy (the 1980 death of singer Bon Scott), a handful of personnel changes, and some creative and commercial peaks and valleys.
"It's
Angus Young of
AC/DC. no-frills rock 'n' roll. No B.S. They're all playing everything. There are no effects, no lip-syncing, no guitar overdubs," Bozza said. "They record live in a room. That's (also) what you get when you see them onstage doing it."
He marvels at their energy onstage, especially that of impish lead guitarist Angus Young, who still runs and duckwalks around the stage nonstop for two hours like a madman in a schoolboy's uniform.
"One thing that's so amazing about them is -- as classic rock bands age, they always start adding players to round out the sound. You see the Rolling Stones now and they have a little pack of backup singers on one side, and a guy who plays guitar on a couple of things," Bozza said. "That's not the case with
AC/DC. It's just them. They do it all by themselves.
"To see them do it and see Angus run around and sweat literally 3 pounds of body weight at 54 is pretty incredible."
The group, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, will sweat on three generations of fans Sunday night.
"You can market them as a family show," Roberts Spence said. "The granddaddy, daddy and son all will be jamming to 'Hell's Bells.' "
"They are huge," said Glenn Garza, midday jock for rock station KLAQ-FM (95.5), who'll see them for the first time.
"They are a rock standard like Aerosmith or Kiss," Garza said. "People have grown up with them, raised kids to their music, and now grandkids, even. They span generations."
Bozza, whose book is a reaction to critics who have dismissed the group for years, said the fans see what the critics don't.
"There's always kind of been very little mention, or a few mentions that just kind of covered it like,
'AC/DC's back, we love them, it's loud and obnoxious music for bikers and strippers,'" he said in a mocking tone. "No one is seeing it's the roots of rock 'n' roll -- turned up to 12."
Make plans
Who:
AC/DC, with The Answer.
When: 8 p.m. Sunday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Opening act Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights will play from 8 to 8:30 p.m., and
AC/DC goes on at 9.
Where: Don Haskins Center, UTEP.
How much: Sold out. Some tickets, at $93.50 plus fees, could be released Sunday.
A small number of fans -- about 800, UTEP Special Events Director Carol Roberts-Spence said -- had to buy tickets for the
AC/DC concert online using a ticketless system.
Ticketmaster, the country's largest event ticket company, experimented with the system last year for Tom Waits' show at the Plaza Theatre. The concept, which is now widely used by major touring acts, is designed to cut down on scalping and other resales.
The paperless system requires fans to produce the credit card with which they bought their tickets and a valid ID. They also have to bring everyone for whom they bought tickets. The credit card is scanned into a handheld device, which prints out a receipt with the seating information.
"I advise them to get there early, definitely, especially if they are on the floor in the first 10 rows (where ticketless tickets are located). It is sold out," Roberts-Spence said.
The south and west entrances of the Don will be closed to better facilitate the processing of ticketless purchases at the east and north entrances.
Oregon Street is closed between Robinson Street and Glory Road; part of Glory Road will be closed to accommodate all the band's trucks and buses, she said.
AC/DC tribute band in the 2nd Saturdays night Downtown, its a monthly celebration and that's also a junction to all of them free concert and street performance.
