After just 4 days after Simple Minds’s concert in Spilimbergo I was again back in that nice town to see an AC/DC cover band called Riff Raff/The Rocker (the latter is the band’s name when they play their own material).
I had that same night the chance to see take pics of an Italian band, Litfiba, but when I saw the ad for Riff Raff at the S.M. concert, well, THE lover I am of the AC/DC boys, I certainly couldn’t pass this one up!
And what a great choice indeed as I had a GREAT rockin’ fun time! I got there with my AC/DC t-shirt and AC/DC satchel with my camera. It was at the local town fair actually. I got there at 9pm (the show would start at 10) and saw some guys who looked like rockers standing in the nearby bar who noticed my apparel (ya couldn’t miss them as many of the folks there included also elderly town women!). And naturally, I brought along the Italian edition of Susan Masino’s great book on the band, “Let There Be Rock”. I came down on the boys like a ton of lead when I introduced myself to them and I immediately whipped out her book, again like a R&R evangelical preacher, “preaching” the virtues of this great little book and also AC/DC’s great concert in Udine on May 19th (scroll down for more details on that one). None by the way had read it and they all appeared certainly keen on buying her book (n.b. at only 20 euros it’s a great buy!).
The band hail from Milan. Singer “Brian” hadn’t yet shown up. I was talking to “Malcolm” and “Phil”. While I was indulging in a fine beer, Malcolm introduced me to Brian who spoke good English has he had studied in St. Louis. I told him that there are many nice things in life, such as sex, a dinner with friends or a game of soccer with the boys, but being in a stadium like in Vienna last May and 60,000 of us ALL singing “Highway To Hell”, well, ain’t nothing that tops that! Once they started playing , I was under the stage taking pics when Brian looked at me and said, “And this is dedicated to you”!, and they sang “Highway To Hell”! Real sweethearts the Riff Raff boys!
A great AC/DC repertoire too: “It’s A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock and Roll”, “Whole Lotta Rosie”, “High Voltage”, “Thunderstruck”, “Rock and Roll Train” and EVEN Rocker, not to mention some of their own songs too! And yes, “Angus” did bear a small resemblance to the real McCoy: for The Jack he not only stripped down to his wais but also showed us his better side!
On a final note, the kids present (with AC/DC t-shirts too!) got up and rocked under the stage immediately when they heard the first AC/DC chords. When I saw Brian before the concert started and looking around at the less-than-pro-AC/DC fans in the small crowd (ie, “oldies” and what not who don’t necessarily have AC/DC in their car decks!), he laughed when I said that they’d probably blow out the dentures out of the older ladies! Malcolm took to me as he called me “simpatico” as I had told him before the show that I also saw the boys with Bon, and well, that does open certain doors of “reverence” with AC/DC fans the world over, even in tiny Spilimbergo!
They actually played for nearly 2 hours and Brian belted out songs just like the real one too. As Bon once sang, “It’s A Long Way To The Top…”, and no doubt the climb for these guys will be long and hard if they do make it, but they do deserve it because they packed quite the punch in Spilimbergo, a punch that no doubt Bon, Angus and the rest of the (real) band would be very proud of! More on the band at www.therocker.org.
PS Pics of me with the boys thanks to Massimiliano Bucciol(thanks Max)!
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