Midnight Oil
Capricornia
On Sale Now
For $13.48

My girlfriend refuses to go see Midnight Oil with me because she finds singer Peter Garrett a little scary. Indeed a 6-foot-4 gaunt bald man with odd mannerisms who dances onstage like a movie monster with his long limbs flailing can be a tad frightening. The guy looks kinda angry too, stalking the stage with relentless energy and passion. But he also has shown to have his heart in the right place on any number of social and political issues over the years. Plus he leads one of the best bands to come out of the land down under and one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen. So I wasn’t going to let her absence deter me from seeing my first Oils show in about nine years.

And if their set at Washington’s 9:30 Club is any indication, time has been kind to these Australians. It could have been the late 80s again with props from the Diesel and Dust tour still decorating the stage. And the band can still rock with the best of them. Precision drummer Rob Hirst may be the band’s secret weapon, raising his sticks high above his head to pound the skins as hard as he can, all the while singing his high harmonies. And the Oils latest album Capricornia sports some of their finest songs of the last decade, many of which were showcased on this night.

Taking the stage to loud recorded moo-ing sounds (the cover of Capricornia is a picture of a cow), the Oils launched into a hard-rocking version of the title track from 1998’s Redneck Wonderland. A pair of tracks from the new record followed, “Too Much Sunshine” and a tune about homelessness called “Under the Overpass” which featured nice harmonies and a hallelujah chorus. But it was a stellar version of “Forgotten Years” from 1990’s Blue Sky Mining that really kicked the show into full gear.

Surprisingly then though, the band broke things down a bit bringing drummer Hirst up front with a small drumkit for a few songs. Fortunately the band lost none of its power on a terrific reading of Capricornia’s “Luritja Way” with Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey’s twin acoustic guitars and bassist Bones Hillman’s tuneful vocal bridge. There was also the rare b-side “Ships of Freedom.” “Can you imagine the first taste of freedom for the refugee,” Garrett sung.

Although Garrett commands most of the attention onstage, Moginie is the musical heart of the band whether he’s providing the fuzz guitar underpinnings of “Say Your Prayers,” the Byrds-y Rickenbacker sound of “Golden Age,” or the Les Paul crunch of “Sell My Soul” from 1987’s Diesel and Dust. It was a core of songs from that album, the band’s most successful, that provided many of the show’s highlights. A pretty acoustic “Warakurna,” the subtle keyboard-backed “The Dead Heart,” and of course the pounding hit single about aboriginal land rights, “Beds Are Burning.” The band also offered the anthemic “Dreamworld” and “Sometimes” to close the main set and four-song encore respectively.

Other highlights included “Blue Sky Mine” with Garrett on harmonica, a rampaging late set run through “King of the Mountain” and the evening’s sole song from 1983’s still powerful 10,9,8… album, “Only the Strong.” “When I’m locked in my room, I just want to scream,” Garrett sings.

In addition to “Sometimes,” the four-song encore included two of Capricornia’s weaker songs, “Tone Poem” (with a wailing guitar intro) and the dull, slightly creepy-sounding “Poets and Slaves” in addition to the 1993 hit and crowd favorite “Truganini.”

Garrett wore an orange shirt with the symbol for radioactivity. Although, he occasionally seemed to be bored or just going through the motions of his usual stage antics, one has to admire his stamina stalking the stage for 90 plus minutes. He told the crowd he had promised not to talk about politics while in Washington and for the most part, he kept that promise letting the music speak for itself. Occasionally though, he did launch into a rant or mumble something about “Mr. Rumsfeld dreaming up war for young people.” Introducing “King of the Mountain,” he also left some in the crowd scratching their heads when he mumbled something about Yucca Mountain, the site in Nevada where some want to store nuclear waste. He also seemed to come down on one side of the digital music debate, fretting about artists giving away their music.

But in the show’s funniest exchange, a concertgoer wanted to know why the Oils had last chosen to play the 9:30 Club on the first Tuesday in November, when most Australians are consumed with the continent’s most famous horse race, the Melbourne Cup. Garrett responded: “And I want to know why Britney is broken up with what’s his name too. There are some questions that cannot easily be answered. I shouldn’t pick on the young lady; she’s too rich to pick on.”

Hey Peter, buddy, I think you can pick on anybody you want to. Just stay away from my girlfriend.

Copyright © 2009 ModernRock.com All Rights Reserved