Review: Midnight Oil, Brisbane Riverstage, April 13, 2022

In Midnight Oil’s last ever appearance on a Queensland stage, frontman Peter Garrett has blasted successive state governments for endangering the Great Barrier Reef. WATCH THE VIDEO

It was an ironic end to over four decades of touring the Sunshine State.

Not long before closing their last ever Queensland concert with a cover of local heroes The Saints’ Know Your Product last night, Midnight Oil slipped up on one of their own signature tunes.

Frontman Peter Garrett began Power and the Passion with the wrong verse, but luckily the loud audience participation at Brisbane’s Riverstage quickly set him straight.

And Rob Hirst showed age had not wearied him as he pounded out the drum solo in typically frenetic fashion, including a burst on his trademark water tank.

The Saints cover was in memory of the Brisbane band’s lead singer Chris Bailey, who died at home in the Netherlands at the weekend aged 65.

“We didn’t know him that well, but you just had to listen to the songs and realise what they did at a time when this (Queensland) was actually a pretty conservative joint, and they were there to express themselves and they were a great band,” Garrett said.

115 pics: Midnight Oil – Resist – The Final Tour

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“And he was a great writer and a great singer... so as we farewell you, we dedicate this song to him.”

Despite being at odds with many other Queensland exports – usually of the political or fossil-fuel kind – Garrett spoke of “many enduring and good memories” of playing in Brisbane for over four decades.

And the band cracked open the vault to play some rare gems such as Concrete, which Garrett dedicated to Queensland’s white shoe brigade; In the Valley, an acoustic number in which he recalls the loss of his mother and grandfather; and Stand in Line, in which the Oils chose their own obscure encore opener instead of the usual fan request.

The Oils have been mixing up the setlist for this final tour, ensuring anyone who also caught them at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday night would have something different to enjoy.

But as usual, new album Resist and their breakthrough set 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 figured heavily.

Garrett even managed to slip a sledge against The Courier-Mail into Read About It.

And introducing First Nation with a plea for reconciliation, Garrett said: “A new government would be a good start.”

Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett and Jim Moginie at Brisbane’s Riverstage last night. Picture: Lachie Millard

Meanwhile, the former federal Labor minister blasted governments of all colours for endangering the Great Barrier Reef.

“...What an absolute crying shame, what a historical travesty it is, that all the governments of every persuasion in this state – Liberal National... and Labor, my own party actually – seem to think that the idea that you can continue to trash the atmosphere and make it hotter and hotter, is in some way not going to affect one of the great natural wonders of the world, which incidentally happens to employ about 60,000 people,” he said.

“The short-sightedness of governments and coalminers who think they can continue to do what they’re doing, and that the Reef will be OK, is one of the greatest lies in Australian history.”

Setlist:We Resist, The Barkla-Darling River, Read About It, Concrete, Back on the Borderline, Dreamworld, In the Valley, US Forces, Short Memory, At the Time of Writing, Only the Strong, The Dead Heart, First Nation, Blue Sky Mine, Power and the Passion, Beds Are Burning, King of the Mountain, Forgotten Years. Encore:Stand in Line, Hercules, Know Your Product (The Saints cover).

Midnight Oil play Byron Bay Bluesfest tomorrow night

Peter Garrett, Adam Ventoura, Martin Rotsey and Jim Moginie. Picture: Lachie Millard