live music review
By Ryan Beachkofski

Pull over if you’re driving. Find a pen and scribble this down or thumb type this into your PED or pocket this page from the ER and, for heaven’s sake, don’t do laundry until after this date: Friday, January 19th, 2007.
On this day, if you are of age and haven’t lost your memory from cursory activities, you will be reborn.
Bonfire (1974-Feb. 19, 1980 AC/DC doppelganger), the most impressive tribute band these eyes and ears have ever bore witness to, will be playing at McMurphy’s Tavern in Pasadena on the day of your rebirthing. My baptism to the Bonfire was last Thursday at the Lighthouse where I sat in absolute awe of this anachronism.
Bonfire is a tribute band by which all other similar acts may need to question whether they are actual trib bands, or are they merely covering the songs. Bonfire is objectivity.
Before Brian Johnson tried to shoe-horn himself into the impossible-to-fill shoes that Bon Scott left behind, AC/DC was one of the biggest rock bands in the world, circa 1979. The
7-time Platinum release Highway to Hell listed 199th on Rolling Stone Magazine’s top albums of all time and AC/DC was no longer able to play venues limited by ceilings.
Lead Singer, Bon Scott was a household name and his drinking habits were regarded as legendary. So much so that the verdict to the inquest of his cause of death reads “Death By Misadventure.”  
Bonfire, though more sedentary in their habits, are as talented as the original in their efforts to retain the music that set the world a hellfire. Bandmates Steve Pandol, Sean Mulvihill, Sean Colligan, Forrest Everett and James Pulli combine to make a perfect visual and auditory recreation of AC/DC. And if you close your eyes for just a moment and open them again quickly you can’t help but ask yourself, “Am I hearing things or is this one of those quantum leaps?” It’s no case of misadventure.
This 5-year old project, though frugal in their performance productivity, has developed a sound following to the extent that their fans travel the lengths of the Atlantic Ocean to see them. A fan consortium sponsors an annual event called the Big Ball, “The World’s Biggest AC/DC Convention,” in Wrexham, Wales. The multi-day concert, which hosts thousands of attendees, is made up of AC/DC fanatics from all points on the globe, but a big piece of that fan base has a Southern Californian tan and speaks a different dialect of the Queen’s English. That’s the Bonfire Brigade, the ’74-’79 years – those who respect the Back In Black album as an homage to Bon Scott, but denounce the Andy Capp replacement singer.
The event is also a battle of the bands of sorts. There are qualifications to the invite only show and a vote at the end for best of… Bonfire leaves Wrexham every year with a little more tin in their carry-ons than they came with.
“Steve found Sean and we kind of put it together from there. We didn’t want something half-assed that we wouldn’t want to see ourselves…,” as the band and interviewer get interrupted by a Bonfire fan who’s there to see them at the Lighthouse.
“(H)Ello, I just wanted to say how great you boys are,” says the very easy-on-the-eyes young lass. “Me cousins are big fans.”
As it were, our mystery ‘interruptress’ turns out to be Michelle Young Campbell, the best looking of the Youngs, whose cousins Angus and Malcolm founded AC/DC and are lead members and brand names of the band to this day. The teacher becomes a fan of the student.
Minutes later, the friends turn on; tune up the 1963 Gretsch Jet Firebird and iconic Gibson SG with Marshall Stacks. Angus is decked out in his school boy garb, Bon is missing a tooth and sleeves from his denim ensemble and the transformation begins. Girl’s Got Rhythm, Big Balls, Sin City, Dirty Deeds, TNT – this band is dynamite!