VANCOUVER -

Expectations were clearly high as AC/DC brought its Black Ice tour to Vancouver's General Motors Place on Friday night.

In the hours before the show, diehard fans, sporting plastic devils horns, could be seen lining up in a fruitless attempt to buy tickets, which were changing hands for up to $1,000 a piece.

After hitting the stage at around 8.30 p.m., one of rock's most enduring and reliable acts delivered a powerful show that featured a run through most of its biggest hits, plus a smattering of songs from the new album, Black Ice

It began with a cartoon video of lead guitarist Angus Young stoking the fires of a hell-bound Rock-Roll Train and ended 105 minutes later with an earsplitting version of For Those About to Rock, We Salute You.

Along the way, Young, and lead singer Brian Johnson used the T-shaped stage to get up close and personal with the audience and to prove that after 35 years, they haven't lost their musical chops.

Highlights included a rousing versions of Highway to Hell and Let There Be Rock.

The latter featured a guitar solo that was mesmerizing in its precision, and performed by a shirtless Angus on a rising platform at the end of the extended stage.

Prior to the current tour, AC/DC's last Canadian appearance was at the 2003 SARS Festival in Downsview, Ont., where the Australian band worked hard to upstage the Rolling Stones.

Watched by a live audience of 450,000, Angus and brother Malcolm later joined the Stones on stage for a jam session that featured, B.B. King's classic Rock Me.

(That particular evening will long be remembered by Justin Timberlake, who was showered with plastic bottles while singing Miss You in a duet with Mick Jagger).

So perhaps it's not surprising that the Black Ice tour includes gems from the Stones playbook, including the inflatable doll that appeared just before the opening strains of Whole Lotta Rosie.

Like the Stones, AC/DC have stuck to the tried and true formula that made them successful in he first place.

So if Friday's gig was tight and impressively loud, it contained few surprises.

Despite an expanding bald spot (that makes him look like a young version of the late actor Alastair Sims), Angus wore his trademark school uniform and cap.

Egged on by the audience, he later dispensed with most of it during his traditional strip tease.

At this stage, AC/DC are still a potent force to be reckoned with. (The six-gun cannon salute that ended Friday's show threatened to take General Motors Place off its foundations).

But it would be nice if Angus and Malcolm could take a couple of minutes out just to say hi, nice to see you, or something that would indicate that this was anything more than just another stop on a tour that still has roughly 60 dates to run. It winds up in London, England next April.