I'll do a full writeup, but I saw Midnight Oil on what will be its final-ever show in North America on Saturday night. For a valedictory tour, it ended up having an overtone of wounded outrage, following directly on the Supreme Court ruling on Friday overturning Roe v. Wade. And Peter Garrett, as a lawyer and former Minister of government, was dripping with contempt for what he called the corrupt, fascistic court overriding the rule of the people, "in a country that places personal freedom at the apex of its political values."
I was a bit surprised to see the biggest hits mixed into the main set with a five-song sequence of "Blue Sky Mine," "Back on the Borderline" (apparently not played in America for decades), "Beds are Burning," "Power and the Passion," and then "Forgotten Years" that wrapped up the main set. “Hercules” and “King of the Mountain” received pride of place in the first and second encores.
Definitely would not have expected to hear a Tom Petty cover!
In the set list,
Diesel and Dust, Blue Sky Mining, and
Earth and Sun and Moon were all well represented, and
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 with "Power and the Passion" and "US Forces," but there was a lot from the pandemic-era releases of
Makkarata Project and
Resist, as the band made a specific and visible effort to include both indigenous aboriginal Australian and women's voices, in the form of their backup singers and guest artists, Leah Flanagan and Liz Stringer. Peter Garrett acknowledged that for almost 50 years, the band had featured the issues of indigenous Australians without directly including them in their music, and similarly they had left women's voices out of the band until recently. So Leah Flanagan was featured as the opening act, and her set was a bit sedate but the audience responded well to her closing song which connected some of the themes which Midnight Oil has long explored — the environment, the rights of native peoples, and the call for justice to address the wrongs of prior generations.
The somber piano version of “My Country," was a highlight in my book, and bore specific gravity in the context of the political decisions, along with "Arctic World's" line, "I don't want to breathe that Smithsonian air," and its references to "a President of a country with no sense."
In terms of pure musical power, I felt the venue and its cushy, theater-styled setting detracted from the energy of the band, although nothing can deny Peter Garrett's dancing and intensity (the dude is 69!) despite some diminution in his singing. Rob Hirst's drumming was extraordinary and the sound of the MGM Theatre was undoubtedly superb. But my wife and I were up in the balcony, and it was hard to feel as engaged as I would have been closer to the stage. My friends who were down closer to the stage seemed to sense the urgency of the show more than I could, so in that regard alone, the show paled a bit in comparison with the 2017 show I saw at the Fillmore in Silver Spring.
Full setlist: [
www.setlist.fm]
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2022 12:32PM by zwirnm.
