DATE: 01/26/2009
URL: http://www.newsok.com/the-answer-hopes-to-leave-no-doubt/article/3339879?custom_click=lead_story_title

When the time came to pick the supporting act for their first tour in eight years, rockers AC/DC found The Answer in Northern Ireland.

While the band’s name seems fitting, Cormac Neeson, lead singer of the Irish hard-rock quartet, acknowledges that The Answer might have Americans asking "The who?”

"We step up onstage every night just taking it as a given that nobody’s heard of us, basically,” Neeson said with a laugh. "It’s the only way we can approach this tour, but I mean, we get up there, and people are very receptive. ... We generally leave to standing ovations.”

Since fall, The Answer has been rocking on "The Black Ice World Tour,” the band’s first slate of shows in America. The tour will slide into Tulsa’s BOK Center Monday. The Answer also will play a solo show Tuesday at Two Frogs Grill in Ardmore.

AC/DC hand-picked The Answer from among 200 bands vying for the tour’s opening slot. The Irish band plays blues-based, metal-edged rock that’s clearly influenced by the Australian rock stars.

The Answer was in London working on their second album when their A&R man took them to a local pub to break the news that the band wouldn’t be able to tour Europe with Black Stone Cherry. Instead, he revealed that they would be coming to America with AC/DC.

"It was maybe 4 o’clock in the day in quite a quiet London pub, but we were jumping about like lunatics and screaming and shouting and throwing beer over each other,” he said.

The band is making the most of a "priceless education” on how to put on an arena show and tour.

"AC/DC, they just get up there and play for two hours and just hold the audience’s attention from start to finish. You know, there’s never a dull moment, and I think we’re soaking it all in for whenever it comes to the stage where, fingers crossed, we’ll be doing arena tours of our own,” Neeson said.

The Answer released their U.K. debut, "Rise,” in 2006 and went on to open for famed rock talents such as the Rolling Stones, The Who and Deep Purple. The band’s song "Never Too Late” was picked for the game "Guitar Hero: World Tour,” and a 2008 EP of the same name marked their first U.S. release.

The band is using club dates such as the one at Two Frogs to road test new music from its sophomore album, "Everyday Demons,” set for March 31 release. The rockers also have performed on "Late Night With David Letterman” and been featured in Rolling Stone since AC/DC picked them.

"We’re very grateful and to a certain degree humbled by all the good stuff that’s going on in our lives at the moment. And it’s just down to us to make the most of it now.”