Review: Midnight Oil still has power and passion

After almost 50 years strong, Midnight Oil’s potent performance showed it still has new music to play — and something to say.

Peter Garrett, with Martin Rotsey (left), at Midnight Oil’s Makarrata Live show on Saturday. Picture: Mike Dugdale

Midnight Oil paid tribute to music legend Michael Gudinski during a powerful and politically-charged show near Geelong on Saturday.

Frontman Peter Garrett said Gudinski was “a great champion” and “character” who was “part argumentative, passionate, persuasive, obstinate, but above all, deeply committed in every possible way to Australian music getting off the ground”.

Gudinski, who founded a record, touring and publishing empire, died suddenly on March 2.

His company promoted the Oils latest tour, Makarrata Live, at Mt Duneed Estate, in Waurn Ponds, on Saturday.

“We didn’t always see eye-to-eye with Michael, but strange things often happen in life; we went the full circle, and he ended up promoting our tours and doing a brilliant job of it,” Garrett said.

Peter Garrett performing with Troy Cassar-Daley. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“He was a pioneer. He could hear all the good that was in the musicians in Australia, here in Victoria, Melbourne, and right around the country. For that, he will be recognised as a champion of the Australian music industry.”

In a potent performance, often buzzing with garage rock intensity, Midnight Oil — almost 50 years strong as a band — still has new music to play, and equally important, something to say.

The band’s Makarrata Project album, released last year, is a collaboration with First Nations artists, including Dan Sultan, Troy Cassar-Daley, Tasman Keith, Alice Skye and Jessica Mauboy. All, except Mauboy, performed with the Oils on Saturday.

The album, and live show, uses the Uluru Statement From The Heart — which calls for a “makarrata” or truth telling, to account for the theft of lands and displacement of First Nations people — as a backdrop.

“We’ve seen off Trump, we’ve seen off COVID, and we’re singing the Uluru Statement From The Heart,” Garrett said at the start of the show. “What could be better?”

Later, he added: “Tonight we’re going to square the circle a little bit, rip the scab off the festering sore of the theft of the country, and the disadvantage First Nations people have suffered ever since, and get that thing right for now, and forever more.

“If you ever needed proof positive of the antiquity and the ridiculous irrelevancy of the Crown, it came out of the mouth of babes, when Oprah did her little heart to heart with Meghan and you-know-who,” Garrett said.

Garrett, 67, is still a fit, wiry and commanding frontman, and let loose his jagged choreography from the opening song, No Time For Games, weaving around Jim Moginie (keyboards, guitars), Martin Rotsey (guitars) and Rob Hirst (drums).

Garrett acknowledged bassist Bones Hillman, who lost a battle with cancer last year, after playing in the Oils since 1987.

“We miss him terribly, but one of the things (Hillman) did say very clearly was, he expected us to get out there and keep on playing,” Garrett said.

Dan Sultan also joined Peter Garrett on stage. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“I figure if we’re all standing here on the stage today that means there’s more music to come.”

The Oils recruited bassist Adam Ventoura to play the Makarrata Live dates.

The set list at Geelong featured Makarrata Project songs bookended by Oils hits and favourites.

New tracks Gadigal Land and Come On Down deserve a place alongside the classics.

Highlights included a reworked Kosciusko, the contemplative Short Memory, Blue Sky Mine, Best Of Both Worlds (dedicated to Gudinski), Sultan’s soul power vocal on The Dead Heart verses, and Keith’s deadly rap bridge on Beds Are Burning.

Garrett said the Oils preferred to perform outside “because the germs have got nowhere to go … and we’re connecting ourselves to country”.

He recalled, with a chill, their 2017 show at Hanging Rock.

“It was seriously deadset cold,” Garrett said. “But I guess if you’ve been a Bombers supporter from a distance like I have, you know what it’s like to be in the fridge.”

Midnight Oil is expected to play major cities later this year.