Classic Albums Live – AC/DC Back In Black

6 musicians from the Classic Albums Live roster were Back In Black for some AC/DC thunder

April 22 2013 – Let’s be blunt – we are HUGE fans of Classic Albums Live. The Toronto based company hires a large number of musicians to perform a classic rock album live and their motto is “note for note”. The whole premise is to reproduce the record as it sounded when it was released. We have seen them perform albums such as Supertramp’s Breakfast In America, Led Zeppelin II and IV, Queen’s A Night At The Opera, and Pink Floyd’s A Dark Side Of The Moon. Tonight we watched a performance of AC/DC’s mega epic album Back In Black at the gorgeous Richmond Hill Center For The Performing Arts. With 22 million records sold in the US, it is the 6th biggest selling record of all time in that country.

The trademark look of every CAL show is black. All the musicians wear black as if to fade away from the audience. The music is front and center and the focus is on the eerie reproduction of the album.  With the big church bell ringing the 6 guys on stage kicked off Hell’s Bells and the immediate thing that is obvious is that there are 3 guitarists, 1 bassist, 1 drummer and 1 singer. As the guitars build up the song we get to hear vocalist Nick Hildyard blast an incredible opening line which is a carbon copy of Brian Johnson. Hildyard was phenomenal and uncanny in his impression of Johnson’s raw power for the first set and shone even brighter with his Bon Scott songs in the second half. Incredible performance indeed.

The rest of the record is presented in order with Shoot to Thrill, What Do You Do for Money Honey, Given the Dog a Bone, Let Me Put My Love Into You round out part 1 of the album. At this point the audience is loving the raw, hard AC/DC sound and all the performers deliver.

The thunderous drums were provided by hometown boy Rick Vatour, who shook Richmond Hill to the ground. AC/DC is very aggressive and as such the drumming is of paramount importance. Vatour hammered it and had tons of fun while doing so. The bass support was provided by Mark Yannetta who rocked a solid set and was all business.

The guitar army was laid down by Dom Polito, Rob Phillips and Damien Arokium. They literally got into guitar solo matches during the songs, and playing up the crowd by taking turns showing off their finger finesse. The 1-2-3 punch of these fantastic musicians really made the music rock loud.

The show began a few minutes after 8pm and the first set concluded around 8:45 with the second half of  the Back In Black record (Back in Black, You Shook Me All Night Long, Have a Drink on Me, Shake a Leg and Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution). A 30 minute intermission ensured the drinks were replenished and then we kicked into the second half which played out as a mix and match of AC/DC old school tracks. The band got into a more laid back groove as is always the case with the CAL shows, and presented the sons in a more traditional concert style (jokes, banter, and laughs).

The second set consisted of 9 songs and 1 encore as follows:

Verdict: 4 out of 5 – Classic Albums Live is an aural delight. Tonight’s version of Back In Black did indeed leave us shaking all night long.

We leave you with a couple of videos from the show:

Author: T-Mak