Crown – what a hole. Entering the ultra lavish complex mid week, the last thing anyone would expect to see is a Jimmy Barnes concert. The man is an Australian rock legend, not a casino diva; though he’d need to perform on the night to prove such a fact considering his choice of venue had already cast some rather evil doubts. On the final night of four packed houses, The Palms at Crown became a Barnes family affair as father, daughter (and even a son hidden up the back) took to the stage to let loose some new material and genuine Aussie classics.
Taking to the stage to warm the seated crowd was the eldest of the Barnes kids, Mahalia – who along with her eight piece band The Soul Mates delivered a sound more fitting of the casino. Blues and soul blasted out as Mahalia proved that she was her father’s daughter with some of the loudest vocals she could muster. Despite a dose of the flu having supposedly hindered her performance on the previous nights, and the rushing of their saxophonist to hospital ten minutes before the gig, Mahalia and co hit their stride hard with vocal thrashings back and forth between Mahalia and Darren Percival. The inclusion of thirteen year old Bonnie was the high point of the support set, with the young girl delivering Proud Mary like a seasoned professional.
With the soul out of the way it was time for the main attraction and empty seats scattered throughout the venue filled rapidly. Barnesy casually appeared on stage, decked out in a dapper suit that was appropriate to showcase his attempts at more sophisticated material. He went straight into delivering such tunes. The approval of the crowd was something to behold – with ranging generations scattered throughout the seats all admiring the screaming rock star on stage. Telling it like it is, Barnes quickly announced that he’d be getting all his new material out of the way and suggested everyone remain seated for the time being since it would be a long show. The new material – highlighted by numbers such as Red Light and I Can’t Tell You Why – showed Barnes delving much further into a country sound, with his quip about the back up singers moving from soul dancing to boot-scooting between sets accurately summing it up.
The time came around 45 minutes in when the stage was flooded with white light, Barnes removed his jacked and rolled his sleeves and a rush of devotees ditched the seats for the stage front. 1987’s Driving Wheels set up what seemed to be an entirely new set, with the intensity of both vocals and the band increasing dramatically. From that point on, Barnes simply delivered a set list of greatest hits, and to be frank all his material prior to this point seemed like useless filler. I’d Die To Be With You Tonight and Too Much Love Aint Enough followed and really brought the band to the forefront – with intricate guitar work from You Am I’s Davey Lane highlighting the track.
Barnesy’s first solo single No Second Prize appeared alongside a stripped back version of Still On Your Side before Percival again appeared centre stage to sing the opening verses of the Cold Chisel classic, When The War Is Over; a mighty feat that he managed to rise well to despite looking as nervous as hell. The taste of Chisel was a sampler for what was to come in the set, but first Barnes took the audience through a history of his family with a selection of tracks, including When Your Love Is Gone – the first number that his kids had recorded with him. Continuing with the hits, it was time for Barnes’ Chisel moments, with boisterous performances of The Rising Sun and Merry-Go-Round and still genuinely honest deliveries of Choir Girl and Flame Trees. All made an appearance to the absolute pleasure of the crowd, before he finished up with a the closer that everyone obviously saw coming – Working Class Man.
After well over two hours, the time had come for Jimmy Barnes to finish up his Out In The Blue tour and there seemed no more fitting a way to do so than to deliver the best track that Barnesy ever gave Australian rock: Khe Sanh. The mixed and matched crowd seemed more excited for those four minutes than they did for the entirety of the main set and sung along at the top of their voices with Barnes roaring along as their leader – proving once again the enormity of the song and the man. It seemed like an impossible task to forgive Barnesy for playing at Crown, though by the gig’s conclusion he had definitely drawn attention well away from the fact.
