Midnight Oil Adelaide review: Crowds celebrate their farewell tour

Midnight Oil has always done things their own way. What was probably their final show in Adelaide was no exception – here’s our review.

“This is something I will remember”, Peter Garrett howled during Midnight Oil’s final number, Hercules, at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre last night.

And after near on two and a half hours celebrating a career that defined a generation, the packed house would likely agree.

The Oils have always done things their own way.

Last night was no different.

Midnight Oil

Rather than blasting hit after hit from the opening chords they chose a deliberately challenging first hour, with the bulk of songs coming from their two most recent releases The Makarrata Project and Resist, the latter of which only came out in February.

Fortunately, Resist is also their strongest and most cohesive since the criminally underrated Redneck Wonderland, although this didn’t stop Garrett saying to the crowd a little sheepishly: “You’re probably hearing some of these for the first time.”

It hardly mattered. The songs more than held their own, particularly the bustling At the Time of Writing and the haunting To the Ends of the Earth.

Midnight Oil farewell tour Adelaide. Picture Matt Turner.

It made what could have been a fairly predictable gig anything but, ensuring the eventual pay-off of well worn fan favourites was all the more warmly received.

Aside from Stand in Line off Head Injuries, the Oils overlooked their first three albums and the Bird Noises EP, preferring instead a middle section consisting of five back to back songs from 10-1, including stunning versions of Short Memory and Only the Strong, as well as the less common Somebody’s Trying to Tell Me Something and Maralinga.

Then came the onslaught of anthems – Beds Are Burning, Blue Sky Mine, Power and the Passion, Forgotten Years.

Midnight Oil

The band rallied against fossil fuel projects. Picture Matt Turner.

Throughout the night Garrett rallied against Santos, a radioactive waste dump at Kimba and greenwashing in general, but also has his lighter moments, sharing a tale about the Oils being so broke in their early days they ran out of petrol coming through the Adelaide Hills and literally had to roll into the car park of the Arkaba Hotel.

Meanwhile the band members seemed to be having the time of their lives. Banter between songs, smiles and hugs. The acoustics so crisp. The duelling guitars of Martin Rotsey and Jim Moginie as frenetic as ever. The energy of Rob Hirst simply timeless.

This was despite the obvious sadness hanging over the band; this is the Oils final tour following the passing of brother and bass player Bones Hillman. We may see them again, but not on a tour of this scale.

But this was no quietly going into the night.

They were on fire and, while the years have added some wrinkles and a few grey hairs, it has only galvanised their playing.

They have been brilliant, consistent, resilient, sometimes outrageous, always courageous, and they will be missed.

Hopefully we still get to hear from them from time to time.