First review: Midnight Oil brings power and passion to official warm-up show at Selina’s in Sydney
FIRST REVIEW: Fans lost their collective minds as Midnight Oil tore through their sprawling set list in their official warm-up show.
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FIRST REVIEW
THERE was never any doubt that Midnight Oil would bring plenty of raw power to their official warm-up show in Sydney last night.
But after 15 years apart, while lead singer Peter Garrett pursued a career in politics and his band mates embarked on other musical projects, would the passion be there as well?
From the moment the beloved Aussie rock act — arguably the finest this country has ever produced — launched into opening number Outside World, with Garrett singing the other-worldly number from seminal album 10-1 from offstage, the answer was an emphatic yes.
“Thanks for hanging around,” said the lanky front man, when he finally made it to the stage. “And thanks for hanging in.”
Almost 16 years to the day since the Oils last hit the stage at the legendary Selina’s in Coogee, the band showed they are back in top form ahead of their world reunion tour, The Great Circle.
The marathon jaunt kicks off in South America in two weeks, before travelling to North America, Europe and New Zealand, then back to Australia in October for 21 mostly sold-out dates.
More than 25,000 fans applied for tickets to last night’s show and the 1500 lucky ballot winners celebrated their good fortune by obligingly losing their collective minds at the sight of the revered rockers reborn, singing every word back.
Save for a surprise set at the Marrickville Bowling Club on Sunday, it was the band’s first show in eight years, since performing at the Sound Relief fundraiser at the MCG, and it was though they had never been away.
With the towering Garrett — and his trademark dance moves — out front and the thunderous drums of Rob Hirst at the rear, the Oils tore through two and half hours of their enviable catalogue, clearly relishing this trip down memory lane.
“We’ve got four days off, don’t we?” Garrett said. “So what’s the hurry?”
Fittingly for their first big tour in years — and who knows, possibly their last — it was a broad, sprawling set list, taking in their entire 11 album career. Diehard fans were rewarded with plenty of the hard rocking early material that saw them emerge from the suburban beer barns of 1970s Sydney to become one of the biggest acts in the world.
Their muscular 1978 second album Head Injuries got a particular workout and tracks such as Cold Cold Change, Section 5 (Bus To Bondi), Back On the Borderline and No Reaction have lost none of the raw power in the nearly 30 years since they were first recorded.
So many of the decades old songs are still eerily relevant for the ever-political Oils, from the techno-tinged Redneck Wonderland, which sound-tracked the first rise of Hansonism, and Hirst came to the fore to sing the furious When the Generals Talk, its message of corporate greed still timely and on point.
But it was the biggest hits that also drew the biggest cheers. Power and the Passion (with trademark Hirst drum solo, naturally) and Read About It sparked a frenzy of flailing limbs, as did a furious call and response for the Red Sails in the Sunset era hit Best of Both Worlds.
The chant beginning The Dead Heart raised the roof and the singalong continued on Beds Are Burning, both from Diesel and Dust, the album that put them well and truly on the world stage.
After so much time away, the Oils were still astonishingly tight, no doubt testament to decades of playing together and their individual musical virtuosity.
Hirst and the twin guitar attack of Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey have also been playing together in instrumental band The Break in the intervening years, and bassist Bones Hillman slipped back seamlessly into the well oiled machine.
But as ever, it’s the mesmerising Garrett who is the focal point, reminiscing about the band’s past and waxing lyrical between songs about politics and life in general, thoughtful but never overbearing or preachy.
And for all his considerable achievements since leaving the band, the man who taught a generation of Australian men that it’s acceptable to dance by throwing limbs in random directions looks more at home banging a tambourine and whirling around the stage then he ever did in a suit in the House of Representatives.
SET LIST — SELINA’S, APRIL 13
1. Outside World
2. Only the Strong
3. Redneck Wonderland
4. Put Down That Weapon
5. Maralinga
6. Cold Cold Change
7. Section 5 (Bus To Bondi)
8. Back On the Borderline
9. Koala Sprint
10. No Reaction
11. Stand In Line
12. Profiteers
13. Is It Now?
14. Tin Legs and Tin Mines
15. When the Generals Talk
16. Common Ground
17. Luritja Way
18. The Dead Heart
19. Power and the Passion
20. B est Of Both Worlds
21. Shakers and Movers
22. Lucky Country
23. Beds Are Burning
24. Blue Sky Mine
25. Read About It
ENCORE 1
26. Wedding Cake Island
27. Forgotten Years
28. Dreamworld
ENCORE 2
29. US Forces
Originally published as First review: Midnight Oil brings power and passion to official warm-up show at Selina’s in Sydney
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