Midnight Oil

Subject: Lashings of Cold Chisel (NMOC)
From: david earle
Date: 4/12/2015, 10:28 am
To: Yahoo! Australia

Midnight Oil

Hi 'workers,

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago for the benefit of friends who couldn't make it. I know there's a bit of crossover with people on the list also liking Chisel, so I thought I'd post it here. Don't bother reading on if you not a Chisel fan though, 'cause there's no Oily content to be found here.

Cheers,
David



Yep, it was only last night, so while it's fresh in my memory (and thanks to some hastily scribbled notes when I got home) here's how it went...
 
I managed to get a possie pretty close to the front, about 6 or 7 metres- not quite close enough to get Jimmy's sweat on me, but a great spot to the right of the stage.
 
The crowd were pretty diverse - next to me was a nuggetty bloke in his late 50s/early 60s, shaved head and silver goatee, with his somewhat younger female partner - pierced nose but otherwise pretty mainstream looking. On the other, two 21 year old Christian Brothers College old boys (I know this as they got into conversation with a couple of other people nearby). The rest of the crowd was a total mix of age/gender/subculture (well alright, no goths were visible, but there was the odd bearded hipster to keep me company) I did have a laugh as a couple of late coming young women tried to barge through goatee man and partner - a firm look and shake of the head of the latter was sufficient to turn them away to annoy someone else.
 
The opening act was Grinspoon. Not a band I'm really into, but they put on a reasonable show. The bass player was more into the guitar hero histrionics than the guitarist. Phil Jamieson is pretty kooky, but was having a good time, and the crowd was appreciative. They did play Chemical heart, a great song, and interestingly finished with INXS's Don't change. PJ mentioned they were honoured to be supporting Chisel, and he seemed genuine.
 
When Chisel came on, the crowd were pumped. Kicking off with Standing on the outside. they were relentless from beginning to end. (see the link to the setlist below) There were lots of smiles, and Phil Small spent most of the first part of the show with a smile on his face that you couldn't remove with Steelo, despite having some sort of physio glove on his right hand. It looked like Mossy had taken a leaf out of Phil's rigorous fitness regime judging by the bulging biceps. Barnesey was... Barnesey. Striding across the stage, smiling and joking with the band and the audience, with his face looking like a constipated bullfrog when he was in full scream. Charlie Drayton is a great replacement for Prestwich. On the latter, not as big a fuss was made of his absence as in 2011, but when they played When the war is over in the first encore, Barnes acknowledged the presence of a member of Steve's family, and Charlie was wearing a shirt that said Prestwich in ornate script, with a ribbon above the letter I, presumably for brain cancer awareness??
 
Additional musos consisted of Dave Blight on harmonica and a sax player, plus three female backing singers, at least two of whom were Barnesey's daughters.
 
The songs were a mix of stuff from the first to the latest album. It all fitted together nicely. Letter to Alan was great - though I still find the short guitar riff at the transition from the slow ballad bit to the rocky bit a little odd. There was a fellow in the audience with a chunk of the lyrics on the back and front of his shirt - must be a key song for him.
 
Bow River was another highlight - Mossy and Dave Blight trading riffs on guitar and harmonica, a big raveup guitar solo near the end. Phil Jamieson was called onto the stage by Barnesey to duet on Cheap wine -Barnes mystifyingly saying they don't always play with  support acts they like (they can't choose their own supports. Really?) but they really like Grinspoon. Jamieson walked on stage holding a vodka bottle aloft, a nod to the Barnes of old, which cracked Barnesey up, and when he plonked it on Don Walker's piano, even got a grin from Don - I don't think I've seen Don smile. Ever. It wasn't as creepy as Erica Betz, but still strange.
 
One long day (another fave of mine) saw someone hand a bra to Barnesey, which he hung off Mossy's mike stand, and pointed to the bra-donor in question and whispered something in Mossy's ear. The latter just smiled and played on. 
 
The new songs stacked up pretty well - even Lost, which is a little lame on first few listenings on the album. There was even a group of lads singing along lustily. Something I didn't do on any songs. No sireee. Nope. My throat is fine today.
 
Don't let go was a fantastic rave up of a song, and Goodbye Astrid brought things to what seemed an early conclusion (though a look at the set list proves that they were indeed on stage for a bit over two hours)
 
The perfect end to this month's musical trilogy (They might be giants and The Tea Party).