AWESOME!

I don't like to throw around the big words but sometimes only the biggest will do.

Last night was one of those occassions!

Cold Chisel, live, in front of something like 50,000 adoring bogans* fans. It really was huge and fantastic. A warm gorgeous Sydney summer evening, ANZ Stadium filled with drunk (but to their credit well behaved) motor heads and a whole bunch of Cold Chisel fans who were just there for the concert, the air thick with anticipation.

When the Chisels were around I wasn't that into them. They were the peripheral soundtrack to Australian life in the 70s and 80s; if the Mentals were part of our DNA then the Chisels were the atoms we were made of. As I've got older I've come to appreciate more and more how important their songs were and what they had to say about Australian life in that era.

Last night underlined one thing for me: Ian Moss is a phenomenal talent and the backbone of the band. Sure Jimmy Barnes is the roaring voice everyone knows and loves; the public represenation of an iconic Australian band. But it's Mossy who is the spirit, the soul; not only is he the writer of most of their songs but also a brilliant guitar player, his talent on full display last night.

Every song was huge, the crowd singing along to every word, but for me When The War Is Over and Forever Now stood out. Their emotional impact heightened by the night, by the crowd.

As we walked home with our sleepy kids and our friends and their sleepy kids, I was floating on air, exhilirated by the power of the music and the occassion. Feeling lucky to have experienced it with the people I love.

* I think we may have exceeded the legal safe limit of bogans in a one square kilometer radius last night. I'm not sure but we may have also broken the record for the number of mullets in the same venue at the same time, and that was just the women.