When Cold Chisel had become too big for club gigs they sometimes performed under the name the Barking Spiders and this is the name they chose for the live album recorded during their farewell tour. In brilliantly perverse style, the album veers away from the band's hits. The set concentrates on the recent tracks from Twentieth Century and the more hard-edged end of the Chisel repertoire. Opening with the devastating power of "Merry-Go-Round" and followed with the defiant "You Got Nothing I Want" and the crazed "No Sense" you have a sense of why Chisel had an unimpeachable reputation as a live band.Then they show their other colours with the country standard "It's Only Make Believe" and the show stopping showcase of Ian Moss’ guitar and vocal virtuosity on the Hoagy Carmichael standard "Georgia". Where the sprawling Swingshift displayed the diversity of a Cold Chisel gig and featured all the hits, Barking Spiders was a package that referenced the bootleg albums of the time. Like a bootleg it was “bare bones” Chisel.
