The Night at the Barracks is always one of those special times of the year for Sydney music lovers, with the idyllic setting up on top of the Manly Barracks really being one of the most special places to watch music. While the lineup has hit a few hurdles this year with the withdrawal of Aloe Blacc from the season, there is still a very good group of artists on the stage this year and a large crowd came into the Barracks for Long Way to the Top, which is Screaming Jets frontman Dave Gleeson’s tribute to Australian rock music through all its many iterations.

Before Gleeson and his band took to the stage, the audience were treated to an opening act from Don’t Change – Ultimate INXS, who absolutely nailed their one-hour set playing all the INXS classics to the delighted Manly crowd. With Blair Dwyer doing an amazing job of channelling Michael Hutchence, from everything to his voice to his mannerisms, it was a performance that brought the music of one of Australia’s greatest bands back to life. 

Indeed, often with tribute bands, there’s a risk that they just feel like a cheap imitation of the original act, but this really felt like a fantastic rendition of some of Australia’s finest music, with Dwyer and his band bringing force and magnitude to the wonderful songwriting of the group. Among the obvious crowd-pleasers, like a wonderful rendition of “Never Tear Us Apart” and the powerful “New Sensation”, one of the real highlights was their version of “The Way of the World”, a deeper cut from the Hutchence ‘Max Q’ era which showed off Dwyer’s voice and some fantastic creativity. It was a great way to kick off the night and the audience who turned up early were immensely appreciative of the wonderful set.

When Gleeson and his band took to the stage, the crowd was hyped and ready to go and, unsurprisingly, the band started off with AC/DC’s “Long Way to the Top” before moving through a chronology of Australian rock music, from “Friday on My Mind” and “Evie” to the classic “Eagle Rock”, which had everyone up singing and dancing. Gleeson’s voice fit perfectly into this earlier material and the selection was clever, playing to everyone’s taste and mixing in plenty of singalongs for the audience. The incredible setlist only continued as the night progressed through songs like “Horror Movie”, “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again”, “Boys Light Up” and “Khe Sanh”, and it really showed just how much great rock music Australia has produced over the decades, with the band really executing them all very well.

A particular highlight was supporting vocalist Zkye Compson-Harris’s numbers, with her performing “I Touch Myself” before moving into “Run to Paradise”. She has a very smoky tone which fit the repertoire extremely well and it was a nice contrast to the high screaming vocals of Gleeson. In many ways, she actually stole the show with “I Touch Myself” being one of the highlights of the entire night which was responded to extremely well by the audience.

There must have been an arrangement between the opening band and Gleeson’s band, but it did feel like the opening band got the short end of the bargain with Long Way to the Top performing “Don’t Change” instead of the band that was actually named after the song, although Gleeson and his band still executed it very well. After some Powderfinger and Paul Kelly, Gleeson began to struggle a little vocally to maintain the high-octane energy of the earlier parts of the performance, but the audience interaction and engagement was still high for the most part. After a cover of Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue’s “Where the Wild Roses Grow” with Compson-Harris, the group moved into an excellent encore of INXS’s “Good Times” to close out the night. Everyone was having a blast and was up singing and dancing, celebrating the breadth of the Australian rock music canon which was put on display on this night. 

Overall, this was a great set which really showed off just how amazing Australian rock music is, with some of the country’s biggest songs sitting alongside deeper cuts that reminded the audience just how rich this history is. The Barracks was also the perfect setting for a celebration of Australian music and the weather absolutely turned up for the evening, with beautiful blue skies and a wonderful showcase of the beauty of the Australian landscape, especially up on the Northern Beaches. If you haven’t been to Night at the Barracks, I would highly encourage it, it’s a really special event which shows off the best of Australian music and Australian scenery and, with the season selling fast, it is well worth getting a ticket before it is too late.

Rating: ★★★★1/2

Long Way to the Top – Night at the Barracks – 13 September 2026

All photo credits: How Good! Chronicles (@howgood_chronicles)