{"id":455729,"date":"2026-09-06T22:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455729\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T22:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:00:10","slug":"watch-ac-dc-tear-through-oakland-in-1979-just-days-before-highway-to-hell-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455729\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch AC\/DC Tear Through Oakland In 1979 Just Days Before ‘Highway To Hell’ Arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AC\/DC walked onto the Oakland Coliseum stage on July 21, 1979 with \u201cHighway to Hell\u201d already in the set and the album still days away from release. In front of 57,500 people at Bill Graham\u2019s Day on the Green, Bon Scott, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd delivered an eight-song blast of the band at one of the defining points of the Bon Scott era.<\/p>\n

The footage opens with \u201cLive Wire,\u201d followed by \u201cProblem Child\u201d and \u201cSin City,\u201d three songs that already show how completely AC\/DC had locked into its live identity. There\u2019s no wasted motion in the setlist. The riffs arrive quickly, Scott owns the front of the stage, and Angus Young seems physically incapable of standing still.<\/p>\n

Then comes \u201cHighway to Hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

That moment carries extra historical electricity because the Oakland performance happened before the album reached listeners. The show was July 21, while \u2018Highway to Hell\u2019 followed later in the month. Hearing AC\/DC introduce what would become one of the most recognizable songs in rock while it was still new material gives the footage an almost accidental time-capsule quality.<\/p>\n

The album would become AC\/DC\u2019s international breakthrough and the final studio album recorded with Bon Scott. Produced by Robert John \u201cMutt\u201d Lange, it also pushed the band toward an even sharper, more economical version of the hard rock sound they had been building throughout the decade.<\/p>\n

Oakland gets that transition in real time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBad Boy Boogie\u201d and \u201cThe Jack\u201d give Scott plenty of room to work the songs with his loose, dangerous charisma, while Malcolm Young and Cliff Williams keep everything nailed down underneath Angus\u2019 guitar attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cRocker\u201d is where the physical theatre takes over. During the performance, Angus makes his way through the enormous crowd perched on Scott\u2019s shoulders, one of those images that neatly captures how AC\/DC could turn basic rock and roll ingredients into something wildly theatrical without losing the music underneath.<\/p>\n

The band closes with \u201cDog Eat Dog,\u201d bringing the filmed portion of the set to eight songs.<\/p>\n

Day on the Green itself was stacked. AC\/DC shared the bill with Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush and St. Paradise, part of the huge outdoor concert series promoted by Bill Graham.<\/p>\n

Still, this footage has taken on a different significance with time. Scott would die the following February, making surviving film from this period especially precious. Here he is fully in command, fronting a band that was about to cross another enormous threshold.<\/p>\n

And they sound like they know exactly where they\u2019re headed.<\/p>\n

SETLIST:<\/p>\n

Live Wire
Problem Child
Sin City
Highway to Hell
Bad Boy Boogie
The Jack
Rocker
Dog Eat Dog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AC\/DC walked onto the Oakland Coliseum stage on July 21, 1979 with \u201cHighway to Hell\u201d already in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[121817,26984,179859,179860,179861,179862,179863,179864,179865,179866,143,12300,145,144,179867,179868,179869],"class_list":["post-455729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ac-dc","tag-aerosmith","tag-angus-young","tag-bill-graham","tag-bon-scott","tag-cliff-williams","tag-day-on-the-green","tag-frank-marino-and-mahogany-rush","tag-highway-to-hell","tag-malcolm-young","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-coliseum","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-phil-rudd","tag-st-paradise","tag-ted-nugent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}