CD Review: COLD CHISEL – The Live Tapes Vol 2 – Bombay Rock ‘79

Shane | 4 December 2014 | Reply

CD Review: COLD CHISEL – The Live Tapes Vol 2 – Bombay Rock ‘79
Universal
November 2014
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

As noted by keyboard player and chief songwriter Don Walker on the CD booklet of this archival release, Bombay Rock ’79 caught Cold Chisel at a pivotal time in their career: their second album, Breakfast At Sweethearts had been released only two months beforehand, and the band “rapidly evolved” from here, releasing their pivotal East album just over a year later.

The band were young and hungry, Walker admits, ‘the venues were still small, but packed, each night and the early hours that followed still unscripted,’ and this is the beauty of this album: even though fans of the hits may only recognise Shipping Steel, Breakfast At Sweethearts and Goodbye (Astrid goodbye), the recording captures the essence of this – and countless other – young bands, in that they were full of energy, completely focussed on the task at hand, the purity of the music undiluted by business worries, addictions, celebrity attentions.

In short, the pressure to perform came from them, rather than from external sources.

It’s beautiful to hear the band in such formative style, super taught and sharp as a tack, bluesy and nuanced and stylish, and above all, hear how the empty spaces in the songs simply crackle with electricity.