Review: Jimmy Barnes rocks Brisbane in first of two sold out shows

His music guided generations of Australians and on a cold Friday night in Brisbane Jimmy Barnes was living – and loud – proof things get better with age.

Jimmy Barnes two sold out shows in Brisbane

His music guided generations of Australians and on a cold Friday night in Brisbane Jimmy Barnes was living – and loud – proof things get better with age.

Barnes crashed into the city for the latest chapter of his storeyed career as the nation’s hardest, most authentic and unapologetic frontman.

It’s Barnsey’s second performance in Brisbane since November when Cold Chisel rocked and rolled with their 50th anniversary Circus Animals performance in a tent at Victoria Park.

This Defiant tour at The Fortitude Music Hall is far more intimate, however, and showcases Barnes’s vocal strength at its best.

With a stellar family band and that unmistakeable voice leading the charge, the Defiant Tour is a celebration of Barnes’s standing as the heart of Australian rock.

The 69-year-old opens with the toe-tapping 2021 tune Flesh and Blood before rolling through the Defiant album.

It’s a family affair when Jimmy takes the stage during this tour. .

He acknowledges the brazenness of performing every song of the new album, which led to wife Jane asking if he was “f-cking nuts”.

While appreciative of the quality new music this Australian legend has provided, there’s overwhelming appreciation when Barnes starts bouncing to the rhythm of anthems that made him a household name all those years ago; Working Class Man, No Second Prize and Khe Sahn.

The Defiant Tour pays tribute to Barnes’s history with slower soulful, but electrifying, renditions of these classics.

A highlight is Flame Trees, performed without the usual pace to suit drunk, swaying mates.

Instead, it’s slowed for the audience to squeeze maximum nostalgia from every line.

Perhaps only now – 52 years since first performing in Adelaide – can we appreciate how intertwined Barnes and Chisel are in Australia’s national psyche.

He’s written and performed the backing track to millions of moments for generations of Australians.

In this tour Barnes proves the raw energy and emotion that have embedded him as a cornerstone of Australian rock music haven’t disappeared.

His longevity is made more staggering by the rampant drug and alcohol use in his heyday and intense health battles more recently.

The audience appreciates he’s still here and – at the end of a sweaty night of the best Australian pub rock – exits wondering how much better he can get.

Jimmy Barnes performs his sold out Defiant tour at The Fortitude Music Hall again on Saturday night.

Originally published as Review: Jimmy Barnes rocks Brisbane in first of two sold out shows