AC/DC released the live album Live At River Plate digitally on November 19, 2012. Recorded in Buenos Aires during the December 2009 stop on their Black Ice world tour, its 19 songs captured the band’s return to Argentina after a 13-year absence.
The set opened with “Rock N Roll Train,” putting material from the 2008 studio album at the front of the show. Four Black Ice songs made the live album, spread through a running order that also included “Back In Black” and “Thunderstruck.” The newer songs had a substantial place in the concert, with “Big Jack” appearing early and “War Machine” arriving in its second half.
Nearly 200,000 fans attended the three sold-out shows at River Plate Stadium. Discussing crowd response in an interview republished by Tinnitist in 2020, Angus Young said, “Some shows, you can feel a buzz before you even come out.” Brian Johnson explained that watching an audience could become distracting enough to make him lose track of what he was doing. His priority was to keep playing rather than fill the space with speeches.
Johnson also described familiarity as part of the appeal: audiences were pleased to see a band and a show they recognized. Young put the musical expectation plainly: “People want to hear the songs from your old albums.” He resisted the idea of overwhelming a concert with new material. On Live At River Plate, the four selections from Black Ice sat among 15 songs from earlier releases.
The album gave the longer performances room to run. “The Jack” lasted more than 10 minutes, while “Let There Be Rock” stretched beyond 18. Those two tracks alone occupied more than 28 minutes of a roughly 110-minute release. The running order then moved from “Let There Be Rock” into “Highway To Hell” and “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” to close.
The performances reached DVD and Blu-ray as Live At River Plate on May 10, 2011. Director David Mallet’s production used 32 high-definition cameras. The film also included material beyond the stage, with behind-the-scenes footage and a bonus feature interviewing the band, crew and fans. Alongside the concert itself, viewers could see the work involved in assembling the production and the excitement surrounding the band’s arrival in Buenos Aires.
The audio edition followed as a two-CD set and a three-LP red vinyl package, with the CD edition including a 24-page booklet. It was AC/DC’s third live album and their first since Live in 1992. The same performances had therefore reached listeners in two stages: first as a concert film, then as a standalone live record.
The album’s digital arrival also coincided with a change in how listeners could buy AC/DC’s music. Columbia Records and Apple announced the band’s catalog on iTunes worldwide, with Live At River Plate included alongside the older studio and live releases. Fans could purchase complete albums or download individual songs from the catalog.
