Gig review: Jimmy Barnes

THE expat Scots singer who achieved huge fame in Australia and isn't Bon Scott (although his brother used to be in a band with him), Jimmy Barnes hasn't quite seen his own fame transferred to the same international context the late Scott's AC/DC enjoyed.

Still, there was clearly enough love for his seminal 1970s Aussie rock band Cold Chisel, and appreciation for the fact he was returning to the city of his birth, to ensure this gig was packed out.

The show was, at risk of generalising, typical of Australian rock: overtly macho, but with a certain soulful sensitivity; given to simple lyrical platitudes, but possessed of a likable desire to speak to the Everyman; and played at unselfconsciously roaring volume throughout.

The 55-year-old Barnes resembled a thickly-built Lou Carpenter from Neighbours, his complexion that of a Scot now living in the sun, his black shirt open at the collar to reveal a chunky pendant.

His voice, however – whether singing the ordinary pub-rock of I'm Still On Your Side or the hollering, soulful zenith that was Resurrection Shuffle – sounded great, an outrageous, manly shriek to rank alongside those of Meatloaf or Scott himself. The Cold Chisel classics played here were probably the highlights of the show, although the fan favourite Flame Trees was evidence that even his ballads are bellowed.

Still, this one-gear approach served him well on his old band's You Got Nothing I Want, Good Times (originally a duet with INXS) and his signature track Working Class Man, the latter's common touch staking his claim, as if he needed to, to being the Antipodean Springsteen.