By Leah Victoria

Date / Venue: Sunday December 6th, 2015 - Villa Maria Winery, Auckland

It was a warm, sunny evening at Villa Maria in Auckland as the vineyards filled with the buzz of excited 40 something rock fans.

Cold Chisel was renowned as one of the most dynamic live acts of their day and from early in their career, concerts routinely became sell-out events. Tonight was no different as thousands of people poured into the vineyard and crowds spread out from the front of the stage to the top of the sloping field. Villa Maria is the perfect venue for an outdoor summer rock concert.

The Bads played through the early arrivals which I unfortunately missed bar the very last song. By the timeSupergroove stepped on stage the site was pretty much full to capacity with the crowd spilling out down the sides and towards the bars. They blasted us with their hits Sitting Inside My Head, Scorpio Girls and Can't Get Enough. These guys oozed so much energy as they bounced around the stage with their exaggerated movements and impressive instrumentals.

After a very loud and extremely entertaining start to the evening, the audience were more than ready to see Cold Chisel take to the stage.Charley Drayton provided the awesome beats, whilst simultaneously making it look effortless like the true laid back New Yorker that he is. Ian Moss gave us the fast and furious guitar solos that the fans can't seem to get enough of. Don Walker tucked away further back on the high stage quietly but confidently bringing us the underlying tunes on the keyboard. Phil Small adorned with his beautiful long necked bass strummed away like it was just a natural extension of himself. Front man Jimmy Barnes belted out the same grizzly sounds that have spanned the on/off 35 year career of Australian rock band Cold Chisel.

Opening with Standing On The Outside, Letter To Alan and Choirgirl, the entire audience sang along. Husbands grabbed their wives and danced like they did to the same songs they dated to all those years back!

Wine was being sold by the bottle, and as we all know there are always a handful of people who go too hard too fast and had to be removed by the police! Overall it was an extremely civilised evening, apart from a fight that broke out at the front of the stage to which Jimmy quickly put a stop to himself by yelling out "Oi Motherfuckers!!!! Are you finished? Can I carry on now?" and on with the show he went!

The atmosphere was one of complete awe. I really don't think I have seen a crowd of such size all so totally absorbed by the music. A roaring cheer erupted as the intro to Khe Sanh began, obviously a big favourite to so many. Absolutely everyone on their feet, and dancing politely infront of their chairs around me so as not to be told off by security! (such a crap rule in my opinion, but I guess it's a necessary safety measure with such a large gathering)

Cold Chisel filled the stage with pure awesomeness for the entirety of their set, and gave not one, but two encores which could have gone on and on as the crowd just soaked it up!

The end of the night came too soon, so if you are a Cold Chisel fan, go see them soon,they've still got it!

Set List

Standing On The Outside
Letter To Alan
Choirgirl
Rising Sun
My Baby
All For You
Houndog
Saturday Night
Shipping Steel
All Hell Broke Lucy
The Perfect Crime
Lost
Cheap Wine
Don't Let Go
You Got Nothing I Want
Merry Go Round
Flame trees
Khe Sanh
Bow River
When War is Over
Forever Now
HQ454 Monroe
Georgia On My Mind
Breakfast At Sweethearts
Goodbye

Reviews

Cold Chisel & Supergroove