Back in Black: AC/DC tribute band to perform at MGMDate: 7/1/2022 SPRINGFIELD – Scotland-born emigrants to Australia Malcolm and Angus Young formed AC/DC in 1973. Their straight-ahead, minimalist style of rock would lead to them being dubbed “one of the defining acts of ’70s hard rock” and “the ultimate heavy metal act.” Selling more than 200 million records worldwide, the 2005 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have sold more than 75 million records in the U.S., the ninth most ever.
A longtime Van Halen fan, and a self-described member of “Kiss Army,” Miguel Gonsalves, 54, was drawn to AC/DC’s music. When a friend’s singing reminded him of AC/DC singer Bon Scott’s “whiny, kind of weird” vocals, the Ludlow-born guitarist assembled an AC/DC tribute band. The group took its name from AC/DC’s album “Back in Black” (1980), the sixth-highest selling album of all time. Recorded after Bon succumbed to acute alcohol poisoning, it featured his replacement, Brian Johnson. This would be AC/DC’s lineup until 2014.
Thirty-two years after they first came together, Gonsalves’ Back in Black continues to enthrall audiences with their electrifying re-creation of AC/DC’s music. They’ll be performing at MGM Springfield on July 15 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the casino’s Free Music Fridays concert series.
“There weren’t many tribute bands around when we started,” Gonsalves recalled, “other than Physical Graffiti (Led Zeppelin) and The Machine (Pink Floyd).”
Gonsalves’ vision of Back in Black changed quickly. The singer who inspired the group wound up not joining. In his place, Enfield, CT-based Tony Silter was recruited to sing lead. “A friend in the music industry recommended him,” remembered Gonsalves. “He had a Brian Johnson voice, very raspy and high.”
Gonsalves came to music “by accident,” he said. “I had an older cousin living with my family who had a guitar. I picked it up and started learning songs on my own. It was pretty easy,” he recalled.
Immersing in Springfield’s music scene during the 1970s, Gonsalves spent nearly every night at the much-lamented Infinity Lounge on Liberty Street. “It was a rock and roll room with bands on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” he remembered. “National acts would come through and play. It was ‘the place’ to go. I remember seeing Jackal, and Godsmack, before they were big and afterwards.”
No longer a local band, Back in Black’s members span the map. “Tony Silter lives in central Pennsylvania,” Gonsalves said, “and our drummer (Steve DeNola) lives in New Jersey. Guitar player Bobby Silter lives in Connecticut. It’s not too hard to coordinate; everybody knows where to be and where to go. We don’t rehearse. We just meet up and do our shows.”
While most of their shows are in the Northeast, Back in Black has toured extensively. “We played in Texas and Arizona and I’ve gone to Hawaii, Florida. Georgia and the Carolinas,” Gonsalves said.
Gonsalves has not always been in the band. “I left after the first couple of years because I couldn’t get along with [founding member] BJ Korona,” he said. “I came back to help and played with BJ again. Eventually, we let him go in 2001. That’s when the band went in a different direction.”
Portraying members of another band requires “the skill of an actor,” “Gonsalves said. “It takes a little more than just the portrayal. You do things the way someone else would do them.”
A tribute band may offer few opportunities for originality, but there are other rewards. “I’m not greedy,” Gonsalves said. “I enjoy the gratification of seeing people smiling and having a good time; that’s what it’s all about.”
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