Late last year, I watched a sweating, heaving crowd of 15,000 Melburnians on their feet under a circus big top scream every word of the Cold Chisel classic Flame Trees, with lead guitarist Ian Moss leading the charge in a high-octane display of raw Aussie rock.
On Saturday night, about 1000 people sat transfixed as Ian Moss + Trio delivered a mellow country-blues version of Flame Trees with acoustic guitar and a shimmering organ that called to mind a sun-drenched stretch of blacktop shrouded by heat haze on the road to happy hour at one of two hotels.
Instead of screams, the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Hall at the Melbourne Recital Centre almost whispered every word in a reverential hush.
Moss’ tour, One Guitar One Night Only, is a misnomer. Melburnians will go to the opening of an envelope, so it’s no surprise that the first show sold out fast, forcing a second.
It was an incredibly eclectic show, with Moss kicking off solo under a golden spotlight to sing Angel Eyes, a jazz standard written and performed by Matt Dennis, in honour of his sister, who passed away recently.
Then, the band took the stage. Moss largely played acoustic guitar tour (his trademark electric axes appeared only now and then), backed with a jazzy trio – Zoe Hauptmann on double bass, Harry Sutherland on grand piano and keyboards, and Kerry Jacobson keeping time on drums.
Moss led them effortlessly through American songbook classics like the Arthur Miller-penned Cry Me a River, made famous by chanteuse Julie London, Cold Chisel hits including a stripped back Choir Girl, and songs from his own back catalogue including Tucker’s Daughter and Telephone Booth.
For two hours and 40 minutes, Moss and the trio kept the crowd enthralled with bluesy and jazz-infused re-workings of long familiar tunes.
Fan favourites included Islands, an instrumental used as the B-side to Tucker’s Daughter, Cold Chisel’s Never Before (his first song for the band), The Party’s Over (Don Walker’s first song, a Chisel rarity) and his evergreen 1982 hit Bow River, which brought the house down.
This was no pub rock rager but the audience, with barely a black Cold Chisel t-shirt to be seen among sedate shirts, jackets and frocks, looked pretty pleased all the same.
