The AC/DC songs the band have never played live
Wembley, 2024. The seats and floor space in the sold-out stadium steadily fill, and anticipation throughout the room builds. It’s not long before lights dim and AC/DC come out to perform on what will be one of their final tours. Despite the band having been around for decades and the original line-up no longer performing, there is an undeniable excitement in the air.
What is it about AC/DC’s music that makes them such an enticing band to this day? It has to be the unwavering nature of their style. Many people criticise AC/DC for not having enough variety, but they know they have always wanted to make hard rock music and have since been completely unwavering in that approach. As such, when you consider their discography as a whole now, you realise that AC/DC aren’t just a hard rock band, but they are the hard rock band.
When Angus Young was asked to pick an album that defined AC/DC the best, he said it was Let There Be Rock. This wasn’t just because it was a good album, but because it was when the band realised, they should leave following trends to other people and stick to making the type of music that they love the most.
“My brother, George, [asked] me and Malcolm… ‘What sort of album do you wanna do this time?’ And Malcolm just looked at me, and he said, ‘We just want an album that’s gonna be pure hard rock guitar,” recalled Angus, “I thought it was great because everyone else in the world was into whole other genres – there was punk music, there was new wave; it was all this other stuff that was coming out […] And I just thought, ‘This is pure magic’. And that album defined AC/DC in my eyes. That’s when I went, ‘This is a great band’.”
The extent to which AC/DC is loved is best represented by that packed Wembley Stadium in 2024. Despite the amount of time that has passed and the different genres that have risen to popularity throughout that period, AC/DC and their dedication to hard rock music prevail, and the people continue to love it.
Hard rock is the perfect genre of music to listen to live. It packs a real punch and comes with such energy that it’s impossible for people to listen and not want to bang their heads. The band’s discography feels like every single song would fit nicely into a live set, yet there are many tracks that they’ve never played live.
Many of the tracks they have never played live come from their later albums. This is fair enough, as while these records have been true to AC/DC’s sound, they come at a time when fans are keen to hear the hits while they still can. As such, while the band enjoy making and releasing this music, they don’t always take it to the stage with them.
There are also some older tracks the band has never played live, but the reasoning remains a mystery. For instance, in the early days, they had success with their rendition of ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’, but other than to the small group of people who appeared in the music video, AC/DC has never played the song live.
Below is a complete list of all the songs that have never made it onto the band’s setlist.
Every song AC/DC have never played live:
- ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’
- ‘School Days’
- ‘Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)’
- ‘There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’
- ‘Squealer’
- ‘R.I.P. (Rock in Peace)’
- ‘Overdose’
- ‘Crabsody in Blue’
- ‘Gimme a Bullet’
- ‘Love Hungry Man’
- ‘Night Prowler’
- ‘Let Me Put My Love Into You’
- ‘Snowballed’
- ‘Evil Walks’
- ‘Breaking the Rules’
- ‘Night of the Long Knives’
- ‘Spellbound’
- ‘Nervous Shakedown’
- ‘Deep in the Hole’
- ‘Brain Shake’
- ‘Danger’
- ‘Stand Up’
- ‘Hell or High Water’
- ‘Back in Business’
- ‘Send for the Man’
- ‘Meanstreak’
- ‘Kissin’ Dynamite’
- ‘Some Sin for Nuthin’
- ‘Ruff Stuff’
- ‘Two’s Up’
- ‘This Means War’
- ‘Mistress for Christmas’
- ‘Rock Your Heart Out’
- ‘Got You By the Balls’
- ‘Shot of Love’
- ‘Let’s Make It’
- ‘Goodbye & Good Riddance to Bad Luck’
- ‘If You Dare’
- ‘The Furor’
- ‘The Honey Roll’
- ‘Burnin’ You Alive’
- ‘Love Bomb’
- ‘Caught With Your Pants Down’
- ‘Whiskey on the Rocks’
- ‘House of Jazz’
- ‘Hold Me Back’
- ‘Can’t Stand Still’
- ‘Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll’
- ‘Damned’
- ‘Come and Get It’
- ‘All Screwed Up’
- ‘Give It Up’
- ‘Skies on Fire’
- ‘Smash ‘n’ Grab’
- ‘Spoilin’ for a Fight’
- ‘Wheels’
- ‘Decibel’
- ‘Stormy May Day’
- ‘She Likes Rock ‘n’ Roll’
- ‘Money Made’
- ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream’
- ‘Rocking All the Way’
- ‘Rock the Blues Away’
- ‘Miss Adventure’
- ‘Dogs of War’
- ‘Hard Times’
- ‘Rock the House’
- ‘Sweet Candy’
- ‘Emission Control’
- ‘Realize’
- ‘Rejection’
- ‘Through the Mists of Time’
- ‘Kick You When You’re Down’
- ‘Witch’s Spell’
- ‘Wild Reputation’
- ‘No Man’s Land’
- ‘Systems Down’
- ‘Money Shot’
- ‘Code Red’
