AC/DC Concert Satisfies Primal Priorities

Show biz can be fun, but it’s hardly necessary in the case of AC/DC. Forget the fireballs and cannons of the AC/DC road show. This Australian quartet’s game isn’t epic sweep, but dumb, hook-filled anthems on sex, power and other rock ‘n’ roll fantasies.

These primal priorities were clear early at the band’s concert on Tuesday at the Pond of Anaheim, where singer Brian Johnson flashed his death’s-head grin at the crowd and grunted: “Like rock ‘n’ roll, huh?”

Not a surprising sentiment from a band that makes rock in its simplest form, at its best built around an irresistible guitar riff cranked up past 11. AC/DC is somehow closer to the buoyant spirit of Chuck Berry and the Ramones than the ambition of Led Zeppelin or the absolute heaviness of Black Sabbath.

The main engine behind all this on Tuesday was lead guitarist Angus Young. He’s no hard-rock virtuoso in the Jimmy Page mold, but he’s a hard-charging riff-master, skipping and hopping wildly across the stage in his familiar schoolboy’s uniform. Even if his solos don’t really go anywhere, his hooks are fast and clean, repeated like an aggressive mantra.

The two-hour concert began at full speed with the band’s 1980 signature tune “Back in Black,” sung at full, screeching intensity by Johnson. New songs such as “Cover You in Oil” offered typically raunchy lyrics, but too often the music was plodding, without the dynamic guitar riffing that energizes AC/DC’s best work.

It’s a formula the band has rarely strayed from, stripping old rock and blues progressions of all subtlety and emotion, leaving only edgy excitement and a touch of cartoon danger.

As a rock archetype, AC/DC is both loved and dismissed. Last year, the band released its 16th album, “BallBreaker,” which debuted in the Top 5 and quickly sold more than a million copies. At the Pond, the new album’s “Hard as a Rock” came closest to finding one of the band’s irresistible riffs.

Behind the scenes, Young and his younger brother, rhythm guitarist Malcolm, are the band’s main musical force. But it is Angus Young and Johnson, crisscrossing the stage at a dizzying sprint, who make the most dynamic impression in the live setting. During the bluesy sludge of “Boogie Man,” Young put down his guitar to peel off his jacket, shirt and tie and moon the crowd.

Not even the row of firing cannons the band brought out during “For Those About to Rock, We Salute You” overshadowed the frantic figures at the front of the stage. And when Young piggybacked with his guitar through the crowd for a lengthy solo jam, the rhythm section might as well have been Wayne, Garth and Beavis.

* AC/DC plays Wednesday at the Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, 8 p.m. $24.50. (310) 419-3100.