AC/DC – Live At River Plate

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Columbia Records
Produced by Rocky Oldham & Dione Orrom

AC/DC’s world tour for Black Ice, their first album for eight years when it was released in 2008, was one of the biggest they had ever undertaken in terms of both length and production. One of the most important moments was their return to Argentina, which had taken thirteen years, and saw three shows at the massive River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires sell out.

Those three shows were the ones selected to be filmed for the video document of the tour, and between them make up the 110-minute live show component of this new DVD. Using 32 high definition cameras all three shows were captured and have been seamlessly spliced together to present the best available version of each song in the standard setlist from the tour.

After the introduction video anyone who saw a show on this tour will be familiar with, the band kick off with lead single from the new album Rock ‘n’ Roll Train and throughout this and the next couple of songs the footage feels more like a music video, with a detached soundtrack, than it does a live recording. This is mostly down to a combination of unnecessary split-screening, and high-speed shot changes. It’s almost like editors/directors feel they need to prove their worth, or justify the use of quite so many cameras, by using as many shots as possible, and for some mediums that’s true, but not for concert footage, and it’s been the downfall of a lot of high-profile live recordings. Several of Iron Maiden‘s being prime examples.

After Back In Black this settles down though. The shot changes become less frantic and the cameras are allowed to dwell a little longer on their subjects, making it much easier to see that the sound does actually match the video. Once this happens the recording becomes far more enjoyable, and for anyone who attended the tour, memories of the band’s flawless performances will come flooding back. Live At River Plate is one of those recordings which genuinely captures and documents its tour accurately. It demonstrates exactly why AC/DC are still so highly regarded as a live act.

Bonus content is kept to a happy minimum. The main extra is a typical behind the scenes video equally divided between inane, clichéd comments from fans, arty footage of stages being set-up and crates unloaded, and largely uninformative soundbites from roadies and techs. Standard fare for most live DVDs, and this is no better or worse than any of the others. The other little bonus is the full tour intro animation. Some might complain this is a little “bare bones”, but all the best live DVDs are exactly that. Pointless bonus content has never enhanced a music DVD.

For fans who have AC/DC’s other three official live videos, this one ranks somewhere between the excellent Stiff Upper Lip Live, and No Bull. It’s obviously a much cleaner, sharper production than Live At Donington, but not as well edited as the other two. Either way, for anyone who saw the Black Ice World Tour, this is pretty essential. It’s being released at a respectable price, and captures the AC/DC stage machine as well as any of the previous examples managed to do.

“ genuinely captures and documents its tour accurately ”

Tracklist: Rock ‘n’ Roll Train / Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be / Back In Black / Big Jack / Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap / Shot Down In Flames / Thunderstruck / Black Ice / The Jack / Hells Bells / Shoot To Thrill / War Machine / Dog Eat Dog / You Shook Me All Night Long / T.N.T. / Whole Lotta Rosie / Let There Be Rock / Highway To Hell / For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
Bonus Material: The Fan, The Roadie, The Guitar Tech & The Meat / AC/DC Tour Animation

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Hard Rock, Live DVDs, AC/DC