Jimmy Barnes still has it.
Big time.
Barnsey just rocked Noosa only five months after undergoing open-heart surgery in December.
I was genuinely concerned I would not make the 8.20pm kick-off time because you will find me at home with my poodles in my lap and a nice glass of Baileys at 8pm most nights.
But the 68-year-old was a stage show of pure energy and charisma as he rocked his hits of which so many are iconic anthems we grew up with – including “Working Class Man” and “No Second Prize”.
He really is a living treasure, as my friend declared on the night.
The biggest shock of the night out was how much festivals have changed when it comes to food you can buy.
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The venue was selling traditional fare such as pizzas and good ol’ nachos.
But the menu was also very new age and included poke bowls.
If you do not know what a poke bowl is, well it is ‘woke’ bowl of things including sushi rice, salmon, tuna, pickled ginger and fancy mayonnaise.
Young people who do not wear socks with their pants enjoy poke bowls.
They are very popular to splash across Instagram because they shout: “I am super healthy and young and beautiful”.
But they confuse many of us middle-aged parents.
My friend was totally outraged at the poke bowl selection on the menu.
Selling poke bowls at a Jimmy Barnes gig seems a little like the Pope wearing skinny black jeans or Pamela Anderson wearing a neck-to-toe dress.
Remember the days in our youth when we would go to gigs and eat a dagwood dog and wash it down with cheap cask wine or Stone’s Ginger Wine?
The sun would come up as we were getting home and after two hours’ sleep, we would get up and go to work.
You could smoke inside at work.
No problems. No sore heads.
Not anymore.
But there is still life in this old dog yet.
After the Jimmy Barnes gig, my friends and I drove home via McDonald’s at Noosa, just like the good old days, and ordered a dozen nuggets to eat at midnight.
This bought me much happiness.
Maybe if we had ordered that poke bowl we would not have been craving a chicken nugget hit at the end of the night.
You have to live sometimes, right?
Thanks, Barnsey, for the memories.
Sami Muirhead is a radio announcer, blogger and commentator. For more from Sami, tune into Mix FM
