I was sitting down to write an article about Metallica playing “Nothing Else Matters” live when YouTube decided to autoplay another song. The algorithm gods chose a live version of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck from 2009, and I was obviously like, “Oh hell yeah.” It is Friday after all, and this song is a true rocker, though it does remind me of a brutal drinking game some of my friends loved to play back in the day.
Someone would put the song on, and we would sit in a circle. Every time they sang “THUNDER!” it would be the next person’s turn to chug their drink until the next “THUNDER!” was sung. If you’re familiar with the song, you know there are a few rather long spaces between a few of the “THUNDER!”s, so someone was always bound to be chugging for far too long. I think I had PTSD from it because for the longest time, I’d get a tinge of anxiety any time the song came on.
I digress. “Thunderstruck” was the lead single on AC/DC’s twelfth studio album from 1990, titled “The Razor’s Edge.”—hard rock hand sign. It peaked at no. 5 on the US Billboard chart and was ranked eighth on The Guardian’s list of the 40 best AC/DC songs of all time. This was the era where the band had a more polished, almost arena dad rock sound, marked by having their second frontman, Brian Johnson, at the helm.
The band had gone through their rough early years and the climb toward the top of hard rock fame, with frontman Bon Scott’s signature rasping voice and Angus Young’s classic rock riffing and stage antics. In the middle of their momentous rise to fame, Bon Scott would die from acute alcohol poisoning after a night out partying with a friend, Allister Kinnear. Scott passed out in the car on the way home, and Kinnear left him there to sleep it off for the night, unaware he would never wake up.
This marked a huge turning point for the band, as they considered disbanding before recruiting Johnson to try to fill Bon Scott’s hefty shoes. With a new frontman in tow, they would start production of the album that many would consider to be their best album, “Back in Black.”
Bon walked so Johnson could run, and the album became a huge success in the States. “Black in Black” prompted their US label, Atlantic, to release their 1976 album “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” for the first time in the US. It’s bittersweet because Scott didn’t get to revel in that success, but the album he helped make special could be enjoyed by millions more fans for years to come.
From this point on, they would be solidified in Rock History as some of the greatest to ever do it. As we make our way through the 1980s and into the early 90s, the band had moved into middle age and continued to sell out arenas and put out massive hits. We continue on through into the 2000s, where the grey hair and wrinkles around the eyes are showing a bit more.
It’s 2009, and the famous opening riff to “Thunderstruck” begins in front of 80,000-plus attendees at the River Plate Arena in Argentina. They are all losing it, arms in the air and voices bellowing up to the sky, as the lights flash on them for each “THUNDER!” chant in the song.
The boys are commanding the stage as if they weren’t a day over 30, instead of the 50-somethings they all were. The audience feeds off the energy exuded on stage, pulsing and throbbing as they jump up and down in unison. I would personally be absolutely panicked in a situation like that, but any time it cuts to the faces in the crowd, the smiles all wrap around the backs of each of their heads.
Angus is possessed, strutting, running, hopping from one side of the stage to the other and back, while jumping in and out of that one-handed main riff. The rhythm section is holding it down, creating an unshakeable base for Angus and Johnson to rock out on. This song is maybe the epitome of arena rock. It checks off all the boxes for a great, memorable live show of this sort. Steady, riffin’ builds. Huge breakdown pauses that add just the right amount of tension, without breaking the hypnotic rhythms laid out.
It is a headbanger’s religious experience to see or be a part of a show like this. The raspy call-and-response that everyone sings along to plenty. It’s the blueprint for how a rock show should be performed, and once we get to Angus’ solo, people are going off. You can hear the audience over the music; the energy is palpable throughout the arena as we near the end of the rock anthem and get the intro riff, slowly decrescendoing into an outro that falls apart and raises the crowd’s cheers even higher. I’m sure everyone left that arena with permanent hearing loss, but also serotonin-drenched smiles to take home with them.
The show wasn’t just memorable—it was legendary. From “Highway to Hell” to “You Shook Me All Night Long,” the night’s setlist was pure electricity in song form. If you’re ever looking for proof of how rock can unite tens of thousands, watch the full set on YouTube. But for me, the live power of “Thunderstruck” says it all: even decades in, AC/DC continues to define what it means to truly rock a stadium. Leaving that arena, everyone took with them one thing—an unshakable thrill that would echo long after the final chord.