Midnight Oil burns brightly, four decades later

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Midnight Oil at the Wiltern (Photo by Todd Nakamine)
Midnight Oil at the Wiltern (Photo by Todd Nakamine)

Midnight Oil brought their sold-out North American Great Circle tour to the Wiltern on Thursday and took no prisoners. The Oils tore through a two-hour, 23-song show that not only highlighted their vast 11-album catalog but also featured their ever-present staunch social activism.

Opening with the crunching “Redneck Wonderland,” the band lit the fuse for a night that was both explosive and nostalgic. After the anti-Rupurt Murdoch dictum “Read About It,” much of the first half of the show was dedicated to deeper cuts, with “Put Down That Weapon” punctuated by one minute of silence for the victims of the Manchester bombing, during which, amazingly, the rowdy L.A. crowd actually fell silent.

||| Photos by Todd Nakamine

Sixty-four-years old, 6-foot-7 and beautifully bald, frontman Peter Garrett kept the political soapboxing short and charmingly bitter, complimenting California on the state’s vehement opposition to the dogma pursued by the current commander-in-chief. The best acts always sound like where they come from. The Oils are Australia humanized and epitomized, their sound resonating the vast red earth, open sky, tropical forests, crashing surf, deadly fauna, sordid history and maddening righteousness. The band, all in their 60s (or pushing that age) carry on with a workmanlike pride usually reserved for tradesmen. They are a tight engine of well greased gears that enable Garrett to whirl around in his trademark awkward war dance, part dervish, part politico and part shaman. 

After stirring renditions of “Truganini’ (about the sole surviving Tasmanian Aborigine) and “My Country Right or Wrong,” the band moved to the forefront with drummer Rob Hirst taking center stage and sharing lead vocal duties with Garrett on “In the Valley,” augmented by Martin Rotsey and Jim Moginie on jangling twin 12-string guitars, and Bones Hillman on bass. The band continued in the semi-acoustic realm, backed by touring member Jeremy Smith of the late, great Hunters & Collectors on horns, keys and percussion. The fiery “Kosciusko” from 1984’s “Red Sails in the Sunset,” returned Hirst to the drum throne and the band was back to roaring. But it was the five-song combination punch that the closed the opening set that caused the audience to reel into fits of ecstasy. Starting with the anthemic “King of the Mountain,” they moved into “The Dead Heart,” which featured a heavy dose of audience participation, then their massive worldwide hit “Beds Are Burning,” followed by the fierce double wallop of “Blue Sky Mining” and “Dreamworld.” Two encores ended with Hirst pounding out a percussive “Power and the Passion,” leaving the audience bellowing for even more.

Midnight Oil always have been unabashedly political, and their return to the stage could not come at a more desperate time. The past year has seen the Rage Against the Machine reboot Prophets of Rage also return to the fold, but truthfully RATM always have been more about, well, rage and sloganeering, than actual political enlightenment. By comparison, attending an Oils gig is equal parts Greenpeace rally, masters-level class on the influence of Western neo-capitalism upon the Third World, and a proper post-punk show. 
 
Most of their fierce punk political contemporaries have long since faded away, having either broken up or shuffled off this mortal coil. The Clash are ancient history, REM are a fond memory and U2 have turned to stadium pan-globalism. But the Oils, God bless ’em, are again keeping the flame 16 years after disbanding in 2001, when Garrett entered a career in politics (with varied results) serving in the Australian Parliament and as Minister for the Environment, Heritage, and the Arts. Midnight Oil play with a fury of a band 40 years their junior, displaying a passion that can make the greatest cynic believe that rock ‘n’ roll can indeed change the world. For two hours Thursday night in Los Angeles, it did.
 
Midnight Oil will return to Los Angeles on Aug. 19, holding court at the Greek Theatre.