AC/DC's Australian 'Power Up' Tour Kick-Off Made Waves That Were Detected By Earthquake Monitoring Equipment

AC/DC's first Australian concert in a decade, which took place Wednesday night (November 12) in Melbourne, reportedly registered on a local seismograph, which detects earthquake activity.

Adam Pascale, the chief scientist at the Seismology Research Centre, told Australia's Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the concert registered in the 2-5 hertz range on a seismograph at his office in Richmond, which is a little over two miles from the venue, Melbourne Cricket Ground.

He explained: "The sound waves that people were experiencing nearby and feeling something through their bodies, that's the equivalent to what our seismographs feel. We're picking up the ground motion, we're not picking up the sound from the air. So you've got speakers on the ground pumping out vibrations and that gets transmitted through the ground, but also the crowd jumping up and down is feeding energy into the ground."

Pascale added: "If everyone's sort of bouncing in unison, it tends to amplify the signal so we can pick it up a little bit better. Whereas if it's sort of just general crowd motion, like even at the grand final at the MCG [Melbourne Cricket Ground], we can still pick that up."

A resident some 6 miles away told the ABC they could hear the concert.

Interestingly, Pascale said the largest signals received by the Seismology Research Centre were generated by Taylor Swift's three-night stand at the MCG in 2024.

According to Billboard, AC/DC's ongoing "Power Up" tour requires 300 tons of steel to build the production, with 28 tons of PA and speakers pumping out the sound. A crew of 155 are working each show, which consumes 500kw of power every night.

Prior to the current dates, AC/DC last toured Australia and New Zealand in 2015 as part of the band's "Rock Or Bust" world tour.

AC/DC's five-date Australian tour will include additional dates in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, before wrapping up in Brisbane on December 14. Support on the tour will come from AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS. In Melbourne, THE CASANOVAS will open the show; LARGE MIRAGE in Sydney, OSCAR THE WILD in Adelaide, THE SOUTHERN RIVER BAND in Perth, and HEADSEND in Brisbane.

The "Power Up" tour shares its name with AC/DC's 2020 album, which debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA chart in Australia and 20 other countries around the globe. "Power Up" notably notched the band's third No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 and exploded as one of the best-selling albums of 2020 worldwide. It closed out the year on Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums Of 2020" and Consequence Of Sound's "Top 50 Albums Of 2020." Plus, it garnered Grammy Award nominations in the categories of "Best Rock Album', "Best Rock Performance" and "Best Music Video" for "Shot In The Dark".

In 2024, the "Power Up" tour kicked off in Europe with a staggering 1.7 million tickets sold in the first days of sales, eventually surpassing 2 million tickets sold across 24 shows. Earlier this year, AC/DC concluded 10 sold-out shows in North America and played 15 additional shows across Europe before returning to Australia.

AC/DC played its very first show on December 31, 1973 at Chequers Nightclub in Sydney, Australia. They are one of the most influential rock bands in history, with over 200 million albums sold worldwide. The band's "Back In Black" LP is the best-selling album by any band ever and the third best-selling album by any artist, with global sales of 50 million and counting.

AC/DC was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2003. The band continues selling out stadiums on multiple continents, selling millions of albums annually and generating streams in the billions.

The "Power Up" 2024 European tour marked AC/DC's first with the band's new touring lineup, consisting of longtime singer Brian Johnson, founding member and lead guitarist Angus Young, as well as rhythm guitarist Stevie Young (who officially joined the band in 2014, replacing his uncle Malcolm Young, who retired due to dementia),drummer Matt Laug (who joined in 2023, replacing longtime drummer Phil Rudd) and former JANE'S ADDICTION bassist Chris Chaney, who came on board in 2024 replacing longtime bassist Cliff Williams. Williams retired from AC/DC after the conclusion of the 2016 "Rock Or Bust" tour, although he did return to the fold briefly for the 2020 "Power Up" album and an appearance at Power Trip.

AC/DC's "Power Up" album came out in November 2020. The follow-up to 2014's "Rock Or Bust" was recorded over a six-week period in August and September 2018 at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver with producer Brendan O'Brien, who also worked 2008's "Black Ice" and "Rock Or Bust".

AC/DC's current tour comes nine years after Johnson bowed out of a 2016 run of shows due to a hearing condition.