The City in Overdrive: AC/DC Powers Up Adelaide @ the Grand Final
Photos: Zane Qureshi
Brian Johnson and Angus Young live at The Adelaide Grand Final, last Sunday night.
Last Sunday, the one and only AC/DC took over South Australia at the Adelaide Grand Final with the kind of force that didn’t just fill the venue — it carried across the entire city. They opened with If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) before slamming straight into Back in Black, flipping the crowd instantly into full-volume mode. Their sound didn’t stay contained to the track either; it echoed through the CBD, drifted across the parklands, and rolled out into the suburbs. People kilometres away could hear the roar from their homes — the whole city got powered up, whether they were at the event or not.
The lead-up sets set the pace perfectly. Oscar the Wild kicked things off with a sharp, high-energy performance. Amyl and The Sniffers followed and absolutely detonated the stage — the icon herself, Amy Taylor, stormed it with that wild, no-pause energy she’s known for. Every moment was fast, gripping, and unfiltered.
By the time AC/DC walked out, the whole area was buzzing — a mix of race-day high and live-music anticipation hanging heavy in the air, and the crowd was a sea of black merch, vintage-style rock t-shirts, and their signature devil horns perched high on heads. It was a visual as striking as the music itself, a unified army of fans ready to scream every word and throw every fist in the air. And what’s wild is that even with the band well into their 60s and 70s, they perform with a ferocity most younger acts couldn’t dream of touching. Angus Young was everywhere at once — sprinting, shredding, throwing himself into the crowd’s energy — while the band locked in with a tightness that only decades of doing this can create.
The Power Up visuals gave the night this sharp, cinematic edge — reds, smoke, flame bursts, and steel rigging silhouetted against the city. Every frame carries that charge: guitars mid-air, hands reaching up through haze, sparks drifting across the stage.
It wasn’t just a performance slotted into a race event; it felt like AC/DC rewired the whole night. Loud, relentless, and completely in command — a Grand Final finish only they could deliver
