It was two hours of all gas, no brakes (or breaks), and an unbeatable voice that could stop a freight train in its tracks. A trip down memory lane not to bring up old ghosts, but to celebrate the journey and the defiance of a man who, at 69, continues to inspire by the sheer power of his battler spirit.<\/p>\n
Yes, we were there to celebrate 40 years of his ground-breaking album For The Working Class Man, but that wasn\u2019t even half of what the Aussie-Scottish rocker wanted to give us. Heck, even bombastic opening act Ian Moss (of Cold Chisel) brought Barnes out on stage before his set even started to sing their hit Bow River.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that is a sign of what\u2019s to come, this is gonna be unreal,\u201d I told my mate. I wasn\u2019t wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow the f*** are ya? Welcome to 1985, I can remember some of it,\u201d Barnes yelled with a devilish grin, after finishing the album-featured classics I\u2019d Die to Be with You Tonight and American Heartbeat. <\/p>\n
Chest showing, skin-tight pants \u2013 it\u2019s almost as if we\u2019re witnessing the same working-class man that generations fell in love with decades ago through the music videos, albeit without that beautiful mop of hair.<\/p>\n
Hit after hit, there was little time to even take a breath as Barnes powered through the album in full, culminating with the arena-deafening singalong of Working Class Man, complete with drinks raised and chests thumped around me.<\/p>\n
Barnes’ Auckland performance was one for the books. Photo \/ Tom Grut<\/p>\n
As with most of Barnes\u2019 shows, it was a family affair, and boy is that family talented. <\/p>\n
Son Jackie Barnes was seamless on the drums, and daughter EJ Barnes was absolute class with backing vocals. Other daughter Mahalia Barnes brought the house down dueting with her dad for Too Much Ain\u2019t Enough Love, and Jimmy\u2019s wife Jane even had a starring role on the bagpipes.<\/p>\n
For many of us, this family was like our family during the Covid lockdowns, when Barnes invited us into his home via social media. Jane learned to play guitar, and the family sang together while isolating. Seeing this come full circle, live and in the flesh, was a touching sight and a tribute to the sheer power of collaborative music.<\/p>\n
The opening set wasn\u2019t the last we\u2019d see of Barnes\u2019 Cold Chisel \u201cfamily\u201d either. Ian \u201cMossy\u201d Moss returned for Merry-Go-Round, the pair clearly grateful for their longstanding friendship and what it\u2019s endured.<\/p>\n
Fans who missed Cold Chisel\u2019s explosive summer concert tour a few years back were also in luck, because both Flame Trees and Khe Sanh turned the arena into an overpacked Aussie pub, probably not too dissimilar to one that gave the band their wings to fly all those years ago.<\/p>\n
Was a five-song encore pushing the boat out too much? When it included one of my most listened-to songs during the pandemic (Shutting Down Out Town) of course I\u2019m going to say no. The activism anthem is part of why I love Jimmy and the fighting spirit he continues to bring to the table.<\/p>\n
Defiant, the title track from his latest album, was also belted out, and I couldn\u2019t think of a more fitting title. It alone could have even been the headline of this review.<\/p>\n
Early on in the show, Barnes somewhat invertedly set myself and the other reviewers in the crowd a challenge as he launched into his song Thick Skinned.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can say what you like about me, I have thick skin.\u201d We know this to be true, as he\u2019s faced a barrage of pain, suffering, and personal demons throughout his career. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s my job to be honest, and I can honestly say that Barnes was better than ever \u2013 his firebrand authenticity and ferocious fight a beacon of hope for anyone thinking they can\u2019t get back up.<\/p>\n
Never meet your heroes, they say. Yeah, right.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was two hours of all gas, no brakes (or breaks), and an unbeatable voice that could stop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[74,51,1863,42611,58422,3390,9442,12781,100810,6097,156,6440,18693,200871,134,5420,293,185,1736,5158,2510,111,139,69,4517,32260,762,1629,25259,171781,1305,418,44439,131,61,102,19135,6730,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-387868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-auckland","10":"tag-back","11":"tag-bang","12":"tag-barnes","13":"tag-best","14":"tag-better","15":"tag-class","16":"tag-criticise","17":"tag-down","18":"tag-entertainment","19":"tag-ever","20":"tag-gig","21":"tag-hardestworking","22":"tag-health","23":"tag-hes","24":"tag-his","25":"tag-is","26":"tag-jimmy","27":"tag-man","28":"tag-multiple","29":"tag-new-zealand","30":"tag-newzealand","31":"tag-nz","32":"tag-past","33":"tag-proved","34":"tag-review","35":"tag-rock","36":"tag-rolls","37":"tag-scares","38":"tag-show","39":"tag-shows","40":"tag-slowing","41":"tag-than","42":"tag-to","43":"tag-with","44":"tag-working","45":"tag-would","46":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}