Cleveland Rocks Live 1977

By 1977, AC/DC were barely taking a night off. After just a few days’ rest in Sydney over Christmas and New Year at the end of 1976, they were back at it on 2nd January in their hometown. Their previous run on the Giant Dose of Rock ’N’ Roll Australia Tour had only wrapped on 23rd December, and from there they kept up an almost nightly schedule across Australia until the middle of February.

Next came the UK, then home to their second biggest audience, where they resumed the Dirty Deeds tour. Starting in Edinburgh on 18th February, just three days after their final Australian date, the band played 28 nights on the trot, finishing at the Croydon Greyhound on the 20th, with another couple of shows right at the end of the month.

From there, AC/DC joined a Black Sabbath tour of Europe in a support slot that carried on until late spring. After a month or so split between London and Australia, including a few club dates, the band headed out on their first ever US tour.

The Let There Be Rock US Summer Tour began in Austin, Texas, on 27th July 1977 at the wonderfully named Armadillo World Headquarters, a venue that had been operating since 1970. Supporting the then-popular Canadian rock band Moxy in front of 1,500 people, it was exactly the kind of exposure AC/DC were after.

The tour ran through to 7th September, by which point the group had played across eight states, mostly in the South and Mid-West, with a couple of shows each in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. On 22nd August, they returned for their third appearance of the same tour at Cleveland, Ohio’s Agora Ballroom, this time supporting Mink Deville. Playing to an estimated 2,000 people, the show was a triumph, and the entire performance was broadcast on local FM radio.