AC/DC at the Saddledome
Three Calgary nights across forty years. Two at the Saddledome, one before the building existed.
AC/DC and Calgary go back further than the Saddledome itself. The band first played the city in September 1979 at the older Stampede Corral on the Highway to Hell Tour, four years before the Saddledome's doors opened. The two confirmed shows at the Saddledome both came after the band's late-2000s renaissance: 2009's Black Ice World Tour and 2015's Rock or Bust World Tour. Each one filled the building. Each one is the kind of night Calgarians still bring up when you mention the Dome.
The verified shows
Highway to Hell Tour
This one wasn't at the Saddledome. The Saddledome didn't exist yet. AC/DC played the Stampede Corral, the city's previous main arena, on the Highway to Hell Tour. Five months later Bon Scott was dead. The Calgary date was one of his final North American shows, included here because the AC/DC story at this venue (Stampede Park) starts with him.
Black Ice World Tour
By 2009 AC/DC hadn't toured North America in eight years. The Black Ice album dropped in October 2008 and the tour blew through Calgary on a sweltering August Wednesday. Tickets sold out the morning they went on sale. Brian Johnson's voice and Angus Young's schoolboy uniform held the stage for a tight two-hour set that opened with "Rock 'n' Roll Train" and ended with the trademark "For Those About to Rock" cannon volley. The 2009 tour is widely regarded as one of the loudest single events ever staged at the Saddledome.
Rock or Bust World Tour
The Rock or Bust album came out in late 2014 with a new drummer (Chris Slade replaced Phil Rudd, who'd been arrested in New Zealand). The 2015 Calgary date opened with "Rock or Bust" and closed with the same "For Those About to Rock" cannon barrage. It would be the band's last full tour with Brian Johnson before he stepped back due to hearing loss in early 2016. AC/DC has not returned to Calgary on the Power Up tours that followed.
Why the Saddledome works for AC/DC
AC/DC's stage spans about thirty metres. The Saddledome's hyperbolic-paraboloid roof gives it a clean ~19,289-seat bowl with sightlines that work for both ends of an arena tour stage. The acoustics aren't reverent like the Saddledome's hockey-rink heritage suggests; the dampened ice surface, removable seating risers, and curtained upper bowl all combine to absorb sound, making it surprisingly tight for hard rock, quieter than Madison Square Garden, more focused than the Bell Centre. Multiple post-show reviews from 2009 and 2015 mention how clear Angus Young's solos came through despite the wall of stacks.
What AC/DC fans say about the Saddledome
The 2009 show is the one that made The Calgary Roundup's "loudest nights at the Dome" list. The crowd brought its own decibels, fans on the floor remember the building shaking through "Thunderstruck" and "TNT," and a sea of devil horns through the upper bowl during "Hells Bells."
If you have your own AC/DC at the Saddledome memory, what row you sat in, what you drank, who you went with, whether you still have the t-shirt, file it on the Wall. Approved memories appear within 24 hours.
Were you there?
Calgary's memories of an AC/DC show at the Saddledome
AC/DC · 2015FLOOR
“The floor was shaking so hard during Thunderstruck that my buddy's beer just vibrated right off the armrest. The Dome was never built for that kind of bass. You could feel it in your chest. Angus Young is 5-foot-nothing but he filled that entire building. Loudest night of my life and my ears rang for three days after.”
Reading other people's memories often jogs your own. If a detail comes back, add it to the Wall.
Don't want to miss the next one?
New an AC/DC show at the Saddledome memories land in The Calgary Roundup, Friday mornings.