High Voltage pumps youth into AC/DC

Although its members are pushing sixty, AC/DC is still going strong. That said, there's nothing wrong with a bunch of younger musicians coming along and paying tribute to the Australian hard-rock masters. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a city on earth that didn't have at least one AC/DC...

By Jason Heller

July 29, 2009

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Although its members are pushing sixty, AC/DC is still going strong. That said, there's nothing wrong with a bunch of younger musicians coming along and paying tribute to the Australian hard-rock masters. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a city on earth that didn't have at least one AC/DC cover band. But Fort Collins' High Voltage is bringing a whole new generation into the AC/DC fold -- that generation being themselves. Ranging in age from twelve to seventeen, the outfit has been doing more than credible sets of Angus Brothers classics for over a year now.

In the group's own words, "We originally were taught some AC/DC songs by a former music teacher, who also helped us form our band. But now everything we play we teach ourselves, by sheet music and/or by ear. So if it's not perfect, us kids can only keep trying! We simply love playing AC/DC and doing our thing on stage!"

Fronted by twelve-year-old singer Jake "The Snake" Johnson (no relation, we presume, to AC/DC's real frontman, Brian Johnson or Jake "The Snake" Roberts), High Voltage doesn't seem to venture down to Denver very much -- but the band is playing outdoors on Sunday, August 16 in Old Town Fort Collins as part of New West Fest. Maybe if we all go to their YouTube profile and ask them real nice, they'll get a chaperone and make the trek down I-25 to rock the Metro Area proper.

Jason Heller is a staff writer at Westword. He's the author of the book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded (Melville House/Penguin Random House), and has contributed to the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and NPR.org. His work has won a Hugo Award and a Colorado Press Association Award.

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