It’s a full house on a Wednesday night (27 March) as Mossy seats himself centre stage at Redland Performing Arts Centre (Brisbane). “I might just start with my usual sombre approach,” he says, and out pours the 1953 classic ‘Cry Me A River’.
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of Ian’s ‘Matchbook’ album. He also released a new album last year, which he tells us he finally got off his ass to write the lion’s share of. “It’s self-titled,” he explains, with a pause. “So that means it’s called ‘Ian Moss’.”
We’re introduced to the album via track seven, ‘Down Along The Track’, co-written with two other respected craftsmen: Peter Walker and Kevin Bennett.
He swaps Matons thankfully (there are three of them), to one that’s a little less brazen at the top end, for ‘Out of the Fire’. “How many times have I reached to call, and dialled somebody new.”
Ian tells us how his older brother dabbles in songwriting occasionally, and wrote ‘Message From Baghdad’ during the Bush assault in the Middle East. It’s still an incredibly apt song now – 13 years after it appeared on the ‘Six Strings’ record.
Back to the new album. Last minute Ian was able to include a track (‘My Suffering’) by a man he describes as “the late, great Steve Prestwich” – Cold Chisel’s drummer, author of ‘Forever Now’ and ‘When The War Is Over’, who passed away in 2011. “You are my suffering, you don’t know how hard it’s been.”
The acoustic guitars are set-up crunchy and piercingly loud, but his voice is completely infallible, so the rest is forgivable.
Ian Moss solo is, with all due respect, exactly what you’d imagine the condensation of Cold Chisel to be in this setting. His singing is the whole range of sounds you remember Chisel to have, without the blood on the microphone, and he can delicately sway and thrashingly choke a guitar.
Is it meant to be comfortable? Probably not. The subject matter tackled by these gentlemen have always been real-world seriousness: it’s right to convey that with an ounce of pain. How else do you get people to pay attention?
He closes the first set with a handful of songs written by his Chisel band mates. ‘My Baby’ by bassist Phil Small, and ‘Janelle’ by organist Don Walker.
“I’m sure you’re very familiar with this song, but you may not know the story.” Don wrote it for his eldest daughter, who he didn’t meet till she was 2.5 years old. “Looking through your photograph, and talking through the telephone ... Good night, sweet dreams, the world is well. Janelle, Janelle, Janelle.”
Mossy explains the members of Cold Chisel didn’t often write together. But occasionally when they could manage it, it was a winning formula. For example ‘Flame Trees’, by Steve Prestwich and Don Walker. “Kids out driving Saturday afternoon just pass me by...” His reinterpretation is a somewhat heavy, mechanical, restrained jazz kind of creature.
After intermission Mossy dishes out a couple from his new album: ‘Cold In The Night’ and ‘If Another Day (Love Rewards Its Own)’. The volume is much more polite, conducive to thorough enjoyment.
There’s ‘Choirgirl’, ‘Never Before’ and ‘Telephone Booth’ before he teases us with “what night is it? What night do we wish it was?” Any night is a great night when Mossy is playing ‘Saturday Night’, with or without our help.
“Anyone know the movie 'Spinal Tap'?” he asks, and most do. “Hello, Cleveland!” That’s where we are, in suburban Brisbane. “Always wanted to say that.”
He closes big and in smooth sing-along style with his ‘Matchbook’ hit ‘Tucker’s Daughter’: “Build me up just to tear me down.”
The extended encore begins with a spectacular, gentle track containing words by Don Walker that I cannot for the life of me find typed out on the internet – but the line stands out enough that it was quoted in one Sydney Morning Herald introductory paragraph about him: “A wild affair turned her hair a shade of nicotine.”
“I’m still learning to listen and I’ve got a ways to go,” he professes in ‘Hold On (To What We Got)’. Also from his self-titled 2018 release, he dedicates ‘Broadway’ to any people who have to work away from home. “I sure need a little something that feels like home.”
“Let’s have a little fun,” he says, before serving up ‘Cheap Wine’ in this consumption-free auditorium.
“Listen now to the rain,” he sings, and it is softly tumbling from the sky tonight. “Feel that water lickin’ at my feet again.” It’s only one bloke who could sing this part to us, and have us believe him – and it’s this Aussie legend from Alice Springs. “First thing you know, I’ll be back in Bow River again.”
Indeed, Mossy is heading back to the NT soon as his national, regional tour continues across Queensland and NSW.
