AC/DC, that little rock 'n' band from Australia, are kings of the world right now. In its first week, their new album, Black Ice, shot straight to number one on 29 countries' sales charts around the world.
From Belgium to New Zealand, the album is a monster. Interestingly, Argentina prevented Black Ice from dominating a 30th chart (the album is number two there). In the US, Wal-Mart will sell an estimated 780,000 copies of Black Ice as it cruises easily to the top of tomorrow's charts.
In all, nearly five million copies of Black Ice have shipped worldwide. And when you take in to account the roughly five million albums from their back catalog AC/DC has sold this year - hard physical copies, mind you, no downloads - and it's safe to say it doesn't suck to be in that band.
Tonight AC/DC will kick off their world tour at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania with a 13-song set that is weighted heavily in favor of tried-and-true classics.
The AC/DC set list
Rock N' Roll Train
Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
Back In Black
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Thunderstruck
Hell's Bells
You Shook Me All Night Long
TNT
Black Ice
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Encore:
Highway To Hell
For Those About To Rock
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Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.