Backseat Critic: Review of AC/DC's "Shot in the Dark"

AC/DC's new album "Power Up" is set to be released Nov 13

At roughly this time of year 12 years ago I had my first real experience with classic rock. And not just any classic rock: I was on my way to see AC/DC. 

The legends from down under were the pinnacle of rock n’ roll in my mind and in my heart. No other rock band could get me bobbing my head and on the verge of bumping my fist in the air like a deranged maniac faster than the high voltage crew. 

I’d only been playing the guitar for a couple years at that point, but as me and my two close high school friends made the drive from Portland up to the Tacoma Dome I couldn’t help but feel giddy knowing that the riffs I had been teaching myself on the guitar would soon be played to perfection in front of me by the man, the myth, the legendary guitarist Angus Young himself. 

Being that this was the first concert I had actually desperately wanted to go to, in hindsight my excitement level may have been on par with that of a heroin addict preparing the rubber band. 

I was not disappointed. Aside from the flawless playing of the band, seeing a crowd largely filled by fans my parents’ age, most of which were drunk and filled with confidence akin to that of a high school senior, was hilarious yet borderline scary. There’s no ego boost quite like having a woman three times your age hit on you. 

That night I experienced Angus Young in full fledged god-mode, wailing on the guitar during Let There Be Rock like a demon from the depths of hell yet somehow producing the sound of an angel five whiskey and cokes deep. I also nearly witnessed two drunk fights in the bathroom and a cloud of weed smoke as thick as a forest fire. All in all a successful night. 

That was the band’s Black Ice tour. A lot has changed since then. The band, and the world at large has evolved perhaps more dramatically than any other 12 year period in the last 100 years. The band’s co-founder and rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young passed away, the band flirted with Guns N’ Roses' Axl Rose as its singer for the greater part of a tour, and I grew up. 

My first impression of AC/DC’s first single in five years, Shot in the Dark, was non-emotional. Sure, it's better than the vast majority of the other garbage released across the music landscape, but it just didn’t hit me in the same way that the band’s music had years prior. 

The guitar riff remains strong, and just when you thought that Angus Young must have created every hard rock lick imaginable, he still manages to find a way to create something unique. 

AC/DC has used the same blueprint for all of its songs since the band’s beginning. A steady, pounding drum beat, hard-blues guitar riffs, and belting, oftentimes misogynistic, lyrics. It works incredibly well and has for decades, so why change now? 

After listening to Shot in the Dark the first time I took a couple minutes to reflect. Why wasn’t the music resonating with me like the band’s earlier music always has? What was it about the song that I found relatively unsatisfying? 

That’s when it hit me. 

The band hasn’t changed, I’ve changed. 

I still love the band, but maybe I just don’t have an appetite for new AC/DC; maybe I’m satisfied with the music that shaped my youth to the point of not needing any new material from the legendary group; Maybe the world doesn’t need any new AC/DC music. 

I then thought better of the situation. One of the reasons I had come to respect the group, and Angus Young in particular, is its resiliency and unspoken motto to keep rocking until they physically can’t, or in Malcolm’s case, pass away. 

The band won’t leave or give up until it is forced to, and it’s been that way since the group’s first singer Bon Scott passed away after the release of the classic Highway to Hell album. 

Simply put, the band doesn’t give a f*** what you, or I, or anyone else thinks of them: They’re on a mission from hell to keep rocking. 

Thankfully I decided to listen to the song a few more times over. Midway through the second listen I found myself mumbling along with the chorus that I had previously found a tad basic, and bobbing my head to the sound of the thumping drum beat and distorted guitar. 

No one has ever listened to AC/DC for the group’s progressive thinking, or listened in expectation of hearing profoundly thought-provoking lyrics. People listen for a good time, and there is a reason why Back in Black and Thunderstruck are still commonly played at sporting events and parties throughout the world: they get people pumped and living in the moment. These songs make people feel like gods among men.

In the words of Chazz Michael Michaels, “It gets the people going.” And by god AC/DC, even Shot in the Dark, gets me going. 

This is why, despite the band’s almost archaic formula, the world needs AC/DC now more than ever. We could all stand to feel a little bit larger than life these days. 

With “Woke” culture increasingly dominating the social conscious, and a plethora of ads and social media vying for our attention every day, it is tough to live in the moment, and even tougher to not feel anxious during a global pandemic. 

Change is good. Progressive social perspectives are necessary for a more equal and empathetic society; however every once in a while the old adage rings true, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

The band is in its twilight years no doubt, so who knows how much more the band has left in them. Brian Johnson is borderline deaf and Angus Young is 65 years old. The generation of classic rock greats is ageing rapidly and will only be around so long. It's only fitting that in the same week Eddie Van Halen passed away, AC/DC swooped in like a rock n' roll version of Superman to remind the world that all is not lost.

So, for the time being, let’s all have a drink and hope AC/DC never tries to fix itself.