“We’re not used to playing in fancy wineries. We used to play in mining towns.” This was the line from Jimmy Barnes that summed up the awkward feeling I had in my guts about seeing Cold Chisel in the picturesque Yarra Valley. Something about it didn’t feel right and while that feeling seemed lost on a fair chunk of the Toorak-tractor-driving upper class wine-sipping crowd, it was refreshing to know that the band were at least aware of it.
This awareness made me think about what makes Chisel great. It’s not the venue that makes or breaks a Cold Chisel show, it’s the band. That’s why after a full day of torrential downpour, a few thousand soaked and muddy Chisel fans had forgotten about their miserable weather situation and were transported into a world of Australiana often forgotten or ignored by the predominately wealthy crowd who had slipped out of their suburban utopia for an adventurous journey to the outskirts of Melbourne.
Other bands of the era have become stale and bland in their old age not because their voices are giving out of their guitar playing has become too slick, but because they have lost the fire in their belly that made them great in the first place. Cold Chisel on the other hand, are as good as ever. Sure, Barnesy might at times feel like his voice is about to give out on him, but that doesn’t stop him belting it out with the same passion he had in 1980.
From the moment the band opened with ‘Standing On The Outside’, the crowd were hooked. It was a sweet return to the stage for the band whose influence on Australian music is difficult to overstate. Anyone who doubts it hasn’t seen their two-hour show filled with poetic lyrics inspiring sing-alongs for all but the most obscure songs (of which there are very few in the set).
While often the giant screen that backed the band was filled with close ups of the various band members, occasionally it was adorned with imagery relevant to the song they were playing at the time.
During the Barnesy-penned ‘Rising Sun’, which Jimmy explained was written about the time he flew to Japan to chase his “then-girlfriend-now-wife”, the screen showed street scenes from Japan. ‘Painted Doll’ showed footage from Kings Cross in Sydney. “We’re sorry if we filmed your mother,” Barnesy told the crowd.
The band’s gusto was in full-force when their “fuck you” to Elektra Records in Los Angeles, ‘You Got Nothing I Want’ was spat out with a ferocity most bands half their age could only dream of. If that wasn’t enough, a picture of Marty Schwartz – the Elektra staffer who the song was specifically directed at – was displayed on the screen with a red circle around his face and an arrow saying “trouble”.
A small bonus to the show was You Am I’s Tim Rogers joining the band on guitar and backing vocals during ‘Hound Dog’ – the song which You Am I covered on the 2007 Chisel tribute album ‘Standing On The Outside’, not because it’s my favourite Chisel song, but because Tim Rogers’ obvious awe of the band he had joined for the umpteenth time this tour.
A touching tribute was paid to the late Steve Prestwich when his song ‘When The War Is Over’ was played, featuring footage of a young and happy man beating away at the drums while the band gathered together in intimate mode, where Prestwich’s replacement Charley Drayton tapped away at an acoustic guitar for percussion.
This intimate mode continued with ‘Yakuza Girls’, which unfortunately sucked the life out of the ballsy rock ‘n’ roll number the original is.
These visuals were never a major part of the show. Chisel are, and always have been, about the song. Unfortunately, the point of many Chisel songs are lost on many of their fans. This frustration became evident when the lyrics appeared on the screen during their biggest (and most misunderstood) hit, ‘Khe Sanh’, as if the band were shouting “For thirty years you haven’t got this, for fucks sake pay attention.” It might have convinced a few people, but I’m sure there was a large portion of people surrounding me who unironically insisted on singing about the “last train out of Sydney” being almost gone.
The two hour main set was capped off with ‘Flame Trees’, ‘Khe Sanh’ and ‘Bow River’ played back-to-back, launching the audience into a frenzy. The rather intoxicated chap to my left challenged me to a bet to see who could guess what they had come back with, but both of our minds had run dry and another Chisel hit struggled to come to mind. Palms were placed to foreheads when ‘Saturday Night’ came through the PA, and finally the band let through their ripper (and standard closer) ‘Goodbye (Astrid Goodbye)’.
Chisel aren’t just a band, they’re an institution. As with their 2004 tour, many of my friends denounced me as a “bogan” when I mentioned which band I was choosing to spend my night with, but while that’s a pretty good guess as to what a majority of the crowd was like, I’ll scream it until my deathbed that Cold Chisel have some of the finest rock ‘n’ roll songs ever put to tape and thirty years on, they’re still playing them with the passion they had when they were written.
The remaining dates for the ‘Light The Nitro’ tour are:
NOVEMBER
22 – Derwent Entertainment Centre, Hobart, TAS
24 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
26 – Sandalford Estate, Margaret River, WA
27 – Belvoir Amphitheatre, Perth, WA
29 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA
30 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA
DECEMBER
2 – TSB Arena, Wellington, NZ
3 – Vector Arena, Auckland, NZ
5 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA
6 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA
8 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
9 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
11 – Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Newcastle, NSW
13 – Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, QLD
Don’t miss it!
Keep looking at Noise11.com for Ros O’Gorman’s photographs of Thursday night’s show at Rod Laver Arena.
Follow the author Tim Cashmere on Twitter.
