Published: November 8, 2025
From long queues and cold coffee to a global roar of sold-out arenas the Power Up Tour isn’t just another comeback; it’s the living proof that rock’s heart still beats, loud and eternal.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Martin Meissner
When tickets went on sale for AC/DC’s long-awaited 2026 world tour, I was ready before sunrise, laptop on, coffee cold, nerves wired. At exactly 10:00 a.m., the digital gates opened and my number appeared: 26,859 in the queue. The destination? Rogers Centre, Toronto – Canada Sept. 16 .
For anyone else, that would spell frustration but for those of us who grew up in the ’80s with Back in Black roaring from worn cassette decks and spinning on vinyl, it was a pilgrimage; a test of faith because AC/DC isn’t just a band; it’s a pulse that’s been beating inside us for decades. Buying that ticket wasn’t a transaction. It was a reaffirmation. A way of saying: I’m still here and yes, the fire still burns.
For an entire generation, AC/DC represented something that modern music rarely offers anymore, something that means permanence. You could move houses, change jobs, lose people, rebuild lives… but the opening riff of “Thunderstruck” always felt like home.
Their songs weren’t escapism; they were electricity turned into willpower.
The 2026 world tour has sold out arenas from Sydney to London, from Buenos Aires to Toronto, where I’ll be standing at the Rogers Stadium, surrounded by thousands who, like me, refused to let rock fade into nostalgia. This tour isn’t nostalgia, It’s recognition a roar from those who’ve lived enough to understand what it means to stay loud in a quiet world.
Every AC/DC fan knows that the heartbeat of this band was never just the vocals or the solos, it was the rhythm. Malcolm Young didn’t play guitar, he built architecture out of chords, he made silence groove.Even now, years after his passing, you can feel him in every song. His spirit lives in the simplicity that never needed to prove itself. When the lights go down in Toronto next year, that silence before the first chord will belong to him. The thunder may roll from Angus, but the foundation; that immovable wall of rhythm will always be Malcolm’s.
Before we talk about new lineups and touring cycles, we need to remember one man who turned drums into artillery: Chris Slade. I had the privilege of interviewing him for Rockum and behind the stoic gaze of a veteran, there’s the same humility that powered The Razors Edge (1990), Live at Donington (1992), and Big Gun (1993). He carried the band through one of its most visible eras, turning precision into spectacle.
Few drummers could make stadiums sound tight. Slade did it while smiling, with thunder in his wrists. (WATCH our exclusive Rockum interview with Chris Slade — HERE )
While younger audiences are busy chasing trends, AC/DC stands as proof that identity beats innovation.They never needed reinvention, they were the blueprint.
Fifty years later, the formula still works because it was never a formula; it was truth in amplification.
Each show on this tour feels like a global testimony. Fans from five continents, graying or tattooed, show up not to remember youth but to measure endurance.
The band aged. So did we. But somehow, the music didn’t.
The planet feels colder in 2025. We scroll more than we live, we react more than we feel and yet, when AC/DC walks on stage in 2026, humanity will reconnect to something primal: vibration, heat, unity. No algorithms, no politics, no noise. Just guitars.
When I finally got that confirmation email, “You’re in, Toronto, August 2026”, it felt like a small victory against time itself. I wasn’t just buying a concert ticket. I was buying proof that the heartbeat of rock still echoes loud enough to be heard from the past.
And when the lights drop and Angus appears under that single spotlight, I’ll know:
after decades of storms, the thunder never really left.
In Canada, the Australian rock band will perform with The Pretty Reckless in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal.
Written by Gino Alache – Music Journalist
