The Cold Chisel concert this weekend in Sydney at this point in time is a one-off. There could be more as for when, who knows.
At a media conference in Sydney today and when asked about more shows singer Jimmy Barnes responded, “I’d like to think that there will be times when we get together and do things. All of our energy, all of our focus is on making this show on Saturday the most memorable show that people have had. We want to rock the house”.It has now been 35 years since Cold Chisel first formed in Adelaide. “The songs haven’t dated as much as our brain cells,” Jimmy said. “I’m not going to be leaping off the PA drunk smashing mic stands. If I was doing the same things now that I was doing when I was 18 you’d probably think I was an idiot”.
The concert on Saturday gives the vintage Cold Chisel a chance to go up against some younger competition with The Living End and Grinspoon and Chisel are up for the challenge. “For us to take this stage with The Living End and Grinspoon as well, they are great rock and roll bands,” he says. “They are going to kick our butts and make us work really hard”.
However, don’t expect to see and hear five old codgers on stage. “Cold Chisel doesn’t do anything laid-back. Even when we play ballads they are pretty intense,” Jimmy said.
In fact, Jimmy is liking where the business is at the moment. “Live performance has become more important now, which is great, because that takes it back to ’73 when we started. You had to build yourself a reputation live,” he said. “As much as it’s easy to get on TV and easy to get records out you still have to be able to perform live. That’s what we built ourselves on and its good to see young bands doing that today”.
Cold Chisel will perform on Saturday night at Olympic Park in Sydney. It will be their first official show since the Tsunami Boxing Day benefit from 2005 not counting a couple of warm-up gigs in the last week.
