ANAHEIM, Calif. — There weren’t a whole lot of frills in the show delivered by hard-rock icons AC/DC on Friday, April 18. A giant bell emblazoned with the band’s logo that descended during “Hells Bells.” A battery of cannons that blasted during the show closer “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You).”

But thrills? Oh yes, that we got from start to finish as AC/DC delivered 21 songs over two hours and 15 minutes on a chilly night in Pasadena, as the Power Up Tour provided the band’s first tour date in Southern California since 2015.

“We’re gonna play some rock and roll and have a party,” singer Brian Johnson said at the close of “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It).” “Won’t you join us?”

Fans didn’t need to be asked twice, especially as this event had at one time seemed unlikely to ever arrive.

Almost exactly 10 years ago this month, AC/DC kicked off its last world tour by headlining the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. But the tour stumbled near the finish in 2016 when Johnson had to leave, due to the risk of permanent serious hearing loss. Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose filled in alongside guitarist Angus Young and the band to finish the tour, but questions about the future lingered.

Then, when the 2022 album “Power Up” arrived, Johnson was back in the fold. AC/DC played the Power Trip festival in Indio a year later, and in 2024 launched the current tour in Europe.

So yes, this was a party from start to finish. Fans turned out in AC/DC T-shirts, hats, and Dodger jerseys with Angus Young’s name on the back and the band’s logo on the front. Thousands wore red-plastic devil horns, also featuring the AC/DC logo, which glowed and flashed all night as the crowd sang along, punching their fists in the air to the beat, celebrating the return of their hard-rock heroes.

“Back in Black,” the first of five songs from the 1980 album of the same name, followed the opener, its hard-hitting opening riffs greeted by a huge roar from the crowd, the volume so loud that my smartwatch felt it had a responsibility to warn me.

Johnson, who made his debut with AC/DC on this album after the death of the band’s earlier singer Bon Scott, was in fine form, his distinctive vocals strong at 77. But the star and true frontman of the band is Angus Young, whose guitar technique and stage persona have always been the key factor in the band’s success.

Young arrived on stage dressed as always in a schoolboy uniform – crimson jacket, short pants and a cap, a white shirt and school tie – and one of a few different black Gibson SG guitars strapped over his shoulder. Johnson, by comparison, looks like he just stepped out of the pub for a smoke, wearing a flat cap, T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

They both roamed the stage, Young often doing his version of Chuck Berry’s duck walk across the stage or out the ramp into the crowd on the field. The rest of the band – rhythm guitarist Stevie Young (who replaced his late uncle Malcolm Young, who co-founded the band with brother Angus), bassist Chris Chaney, and drummer Matt Laug – stayed in tight formation by the drum kit, Chaney and Young stepping forward a few feet when backing vocals were needed, and retreating when they were not.

Highlights of the first half of the set included the crunching riffs of “Demon Fire,” one of two songs from the 2022 album that gave the Power Up Tour its name, grinding grooves on “Shot Down In Flames,” and the epic roar of “Thunderstruck.”

The simplicity of many AC/DC songs is often their virtue. Tunes like “Have a Drink on Me,” “Stiff Upper Lip,” and “Shoot To Thrill” go straight and hard, really hard, at the listener with lyrics that don’t mess around – a lot of the fun of the show is singing along – over riffs and beats that pound their way into your skull. In a good way, the best way.

“Highway to Hell,” one of AC/DC’s biggest songs, received one of the biggest responses of the night from fans midway through the set, as did “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” another of the big ones, a few songs later.

While AC/DC is often called heavy metal, and there’s a good argument for that, it’s really a hard rock or blues rock band in its soul. “High Voltage,” with its bluesy riffing, falls in a direct line to the earliest days of rock and roll, though at a volume those early rockers couldn’t have imagined.

“Can you feel it?” Johnson shouted at the close of that song. “That is born in the United States. That’s rock and roll, and it’s all over the (bleepin’) place now.”

The back half of the show seemed to speed up a little, propelled by Young’s increasingly frantic soloing. It’s a remarkable thing to watch his fingers fly through each solo, his left hand sliding up and down the frets in intricate patterns, his right striking and bending and pulling the strings.

He’s consistently near the top of those lists of the all-time greatest rock guitarists – No. 38 in a 2023 Rolling Stone list of the Top 250, No. 13 in a Guitar World magazine readers poll that same year – and he certainly deserves the acclaim.

“You Shook Me All Night Long,” another of AC/DC’s greatest, and my personal fave, led into the racing rhythms of “Whole Lotta Rosie” as the end of the show neared. “Let There Be Rock” closed out the main set with its usual bravura performance by Young.

After the initial verse-chorus-verse, Johnson disappeared from the stage, leaving Young to solo for maybe 15 minutes. He played as he walked and skipped across the wide stage and out the ramp to the audience. While on the remote stage in the crowd, Young delivered another of his traditional bits of stagecraft, falling to the stage and using his feet to spin in a circle while on his back, all the while playing guitar, until huge clouds of confetti erupted overhead.

Eventually, Johnson returned – he’d been gone long enough to smoke a cigarette, drink a beer, and have another ciggie, if he even does that kind of thing – and the main set wrapped up.

“T.N.T.” kicked off the encore, another of the easy chant-along numbers, followed by “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You),” which roared to the finish with cannon fire, blazing riffs, heavy power chords, wailing vocals, fireworks in the sky over the stadium, ringing ears, and wide smiles.

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