Midnight Oil Review

Midnight OIl

Intense. Powerful.Timeless. Fun. Words to describe the reunion tour of the iconic band, Midnight Oil. I confess, that back then, I never followed the Australian band, as I had a difficult time grasping this new genre of music. Alternative Rock or New Wave music was born in the 70’s and 80’s, and frankly, back then, I was only interested in dancing and could not figure out how to dance to this music, so I was done – big mistake. Today, I was thrilled and honored to attend Midnight Oil on their Great Circle World tour along with Mathew Good. The event was held at the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier Salon, before a full house.

As a newbie to Midnight Oil’s music, I did immediately observed a parallel between this band and our Tragically Hip, particularly between their front man, Oil’s, Peter Garrett and Hip’s Gord Downie. Both are activists, both have similar antics on stage, both have a strong stage presence and both band’s live performances engulf you with their energy and talent, they are tight. While the Hip primarily focuses on Canada’s issues, Midnight Oil is global. The Lead Vocalist revealed early on in the show a T shirt he was sporting underneath his dress shirt that read, “You’re Fired” and he did not stop there, backing up his stance on current affairs with songs like, Beds are Burning and Forgotten Years.The audience loved them, danced and sang along with tunes, such as Blue Sky, Feeding Frenzy and Drop in the Ocean, to name just a few songs from their two hour performance. To break up the intensity of the concert, Garrett gathered up four females and four males from the audience, brought them up onto the stage, to dance, how fun!

I must mention that, Midnight Oil’s, Peter Garrett on lead vocals, Rob Hirst on drums, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey on guitar and Bones Hillman on bass showed no signs of a hiatus, they are timeless and masters of their art, what a powerful evening! And by the way, since the 70’s-80’s, my dancing has broadened and so has my attitude so presently, I am burning the midnight oil catching up on music that I have missed.