JIMMY BARNES ‘DEFIANT TOUR’ – PALAIS THEATRE – MELBOURNE

JIMMY BARNES – PALAIS THEATRE – MELBOURNE – 13.06.2025
Review: Craig Eriksson. Photos: Jason Rosewarne.

It was an incredible evening of music at the majestic Palais Theatre in St Kilda, last night experiencing Jimmy Barnes perform both old and new songs on The DEFIANT Tour 2025.

I have been following Jimmy Barnes since I was knee high to a grasshopper and have seen him perform live well over 40 times over the past 40 years either with Cold Chisel or solo. Baaaaaaarnsey as everyone calls him is an absolute legend and household name in Australia.

We all know Barnsey has been through quite a rough journey health-wise over the past few decades. I’m sure he has been told by doctors it’s time to ‘hang up the boots’ and many of us have probably thought well that’s it, we’ll never see him perform live again. Yet Barnsey has always been a fighter (the son of a Scottish boxing champion) and opposes letting health issues get in his way. He displays incredible strength and determination and keeps on rockin’ and belting out songs so hard that it defies medical science. Jimmy has only recently completed a triumphant tour celebrating Cold Chisel’s 50^th Anniversary as a band and now he’s back out on the road promoting his new solo album DEFIANT.

Australian singer/songwriter Taylor Sheridan from Kyneton, Victoria opened the show tonight. It’s just Sheridan on his 6-string acoustic guitar playing and singing soulful folk and alt-country music. Sheridan is a troubadour and tells short stories that lead into each song. His songs are about home, recently becoming a dad and about growing up in Australia. Sheridan sings with raw emotion and takes you on a musical journey. One story he told was about taking his Mum to see the musical Mama Mia and then he did a cover of ABBA’s S.O.S. and had the crowd singing along. The crowd loved his short set and he was a welcoming warm up for Barnsey.

The lights dimmed and the Muddy Waters’ song ‘I WANT TO BE LOVED’ played over the PA. Barnsey and his band emerged on stage to loud applause and opened with the deeply rooted FLESH AND BLOOD about the unbreakable bonds that bind families together and how important family is to Jimmy. Barnsey has always maintained that it’s his family that has got him through all the tough times, health battles and keeps him defiant.

I’D DIE TO BE WITH YOU TONIGHT had the crowd up out of their seats and singing along almost as loud and powerful as the great man himself. Barnsey then did a cover of Cold Chisels’ CHOIR GIRL which kept fans in vocal mode. It is such an iconic song that fondly touches the hearts of fans both young and old.

Barnsey has a 9-piece band consisting of his son Jackie Barnes on drums and backing vocals, three backing singers which includes his wife Jane Barnes and daughter EJ Barnes, Clayton Doley on piano and organ along with three guitarists. The whole band were on fire last night and created a full wall of sound. The stage setting gave the appearance of an industrial warehouse with scaffolding and large blower fans as the back drop, featuring creative and evocative lighting.

Barnsey announces to the crowd that he has just released his 21^st studio album DEFIANT and it is #1 on the album charts in Australia. He talked about how most of his past solo albums were all made in Melbourne with Michael Gudinski and Mushroom Records. Jimmy candidly talked with heartfelt emotion about how much he misses his mate (Gudinski) and wished he was here to be part of the new album’s success and the Australian tour with Frontier Touring.

Barnsey then asked the crowd how many have listened to the new album and the majority of the crowd raised their arms. With a huge grin, he announced that they were going to do something a bit different tonight and sing a whole set of new songs from Defiant. Barnsey gave fans an absolute feast singing nine of the ten songs from DEFIANT. They started with NEW DAY, an uplifting song about being defiant and that no matter how bad things may seem, each new day can bring change and growth. THE LONG ROAD was next about the highs and lows in Barnesy’s life. He has lived a wild, crazy and hard life over the years, made plenty of mistakes along the way, but has survived and is doing his best to turn things around and become a better person. DAMNED IF I DO, DAMNED IF I DON’T is a catchy song and considering it’s a new song, the still crowd sang along to main chorus. The first song release from DEFIANT is THAT’S WHAT YOU DO FOR LOVE and I believe this is going to be one of those iconic Barnsey songs in the future. It’s a killer song featuring strong piano and soaring vocals. It reminds me of various songs from the Freight Train Heart album. Barnsey has a knack of belting out some soulful love ballads and NEVER STOP LOVING YOU and SEA OF LOVE were beautiful and you just know they were written for his wife Jane. DEFIANT is an album that has a clear theme and that is that life is tough and to DIG DEEP to survive. “I had to dig deep for the spirit, Dig deep or lose, Cause when you get kicked down, get back on your feet, The only way out is through.”

Barnsey then talked about the property he lives on in NSW called ‘River Bend’ and the Wingecarribee river that runs through it. One day he was sitting by the river bank and he had a thought, a metaphor that the river depicts his relationship with Jane. Most of the time the river is calm and gentle but other times it’s a torrent, wild and raging (laughs). This leads into BEYOND THE RIVER BEND, which is my favourite song from the new album and had a bagpipe player join them on stage as well as Jane playing bagpipes. DEFIANT is about inner strength and determination and concluded the set of new songs.

If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought they had been singing these tunes for years. The songs are robust, full-blooded, guitar-fuelled and fit perfectly into the set. It was exhilarating to hear these new songs live and the crowd were in awe and soaking it up.

Much to the delight of fans, Barnesy then sang the Cold Chisel anthem FLAME TREES with the intro just being Clayton Doley on piano with Barnsey singing. It was a beautiful rendition of the classic track with the rest of the band joining in later. SHUTTING DOWN OUR TOWN written by Troy Cassar-Daley is a powerful song about the closure of the Holden factory in Elizabeth where Barnsey had grown up and worked as a young man. The bagpipe player joined them again for this one.

The roadie walks out on to the stage and sets up another microphone stand and out walks Mahalia Barnes. Mahalia had come straight from the Jesus Christ Superstar musical to join them for the rest of the set and they played all the crowd favourites – LAY DOWN YOUR GUNS, NO SECOND PREIZE, RIDE THE NIGHT AWAY and WORKING CLASS MAN.

The encore was a duet of Mahalia and Jimmy belting out GOOD TIMES which lifted the roof off the Palais and when you think it doesn’t get much better than this, they finished with Cold Chisel’s KHE SANH.

For all us die-hard fans that have seen Barnsey a squillion times before, this was a special show and hearing all the new songs from DEFIANT was an incredible experience. DEFIANT is currently on high rotation at my place and I encourage you all to have a listen to this stellar album.

JIMMY BARNES – The DEFIANT TOUR 2025 Dates:Sat 21 June Brisbane The Fortitude Music Hall
Fri 27 June Sydney State Theatre
Sat 28 June Canberra Canberra Theatre

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