After making their return to the stage at last year’s Power Trip festival, AC/DC kicked off their POWER UP European tour in Germany on Friday night (May 17) – and delivered a very similar setlist to their 2023 mega-show.

The band – currently comprised on the live front by vocalist Brian Johnson, guitarists Angus and Stevie Young, bassist Chris Chaney and drummer Matt Laug – hit Gelsenkirchen’s Veltins Arena with a set that very much mirrored their winner of a gig in Indio last October.

They opened with If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) straight into Back In Black, before giving European audiences their first taste of POWER UP material in the form of Demon Fire. Of course, endless rock classics followed for the remaining 21 songs – from Thunderstruck to You Shook Me All Night Long to an encore of T.N.T. and For Those About to Rock (We Salute You).

“Thank you for being part of the first show of the POWER UP TOUR in Gelsenkirchen last night,” the band posted afterwards. “We salute you.”

Gelsenkirchen will get a second dose of AC/DC goodness tomorrow (May 21), before the band head to Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, back again to Germany, and then on to Austria, Switzerland, England, Germany again, Slovakia, Germany once more, Belgium, France and Ireland. The tour runs all the way through to August 17