Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Avalon/Boston Globe Review

Peter Scott Poitras pete.poitras@the-spa.com
Mon, 5 Nov 2001 16:41:24 -0500


Midnight Oil still fueled by passion and politics


By Michael Prager, Globe Staff, 11/5/2001


The jaded rock fans who decided to skip Midnight Oil's show at Avalon
Saturday
night because they expected sorry gasps from just another doddering '80s
band
got what they deserved.


So did the fans who decided to attend.


The Australian rockers surged through 90 minutes of charismatic,
high-potency
rock 'n' roll that proved they are as vital and relevant as they've ever
been.
The selections they plucked from their quarter-century of songs still burst
with life, and the new tunes they played were among the highlights of the
show.


This was never more true than on their midset tear through ''Golden Age,'' a
super-driving tune whose high point was a screaming solo by Jim Moginie, one
of the three guitarists who give backbone to the band's sound. The song,
slated
to be the first single off the new ''Capricornia'' when it is released in
February,
drew a sustained roar from the fully involved full house.


''It's fun to do that rock thing every now and then,'' said lead singer
Peter
Garrett. But there was nothing ''now and then'' about the show; ''that rock
thing'' rolled almost from start to finish. Only on a stripped-down version
of ''In the Valley,'' from 1993's ''Earth and Sun and Moon,'' handled by
Garrett
on vocals and Moginie on keyboards, did the pulse slacken even a bit.


Garrett, a fascinating bald behemoth who holds a law degree and is in his
second
term as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, was his
typically
manic self throughout the performance: vaguely robotic and entirely
energetic.
He sweats and spits as he spins his way through a show.


Equally active, if mostly stationary, was drummer Rob Hirst, who powers the
band's unrelenting rhythms. But even he was able to move a bit during a
five-song
stretch that began with ''Beds Are Burning,'' the anthemic opener to the
Oil's
1988 breakout album, ''Diesel and Dust.'' They brought out a spare standing
drum kit, and Hirst played as part of a united front, five across.


Just before ''Beds Are Burning'' was ''Say Your Prayers,'' a song in support
of the Timorese people, who have been fighting for independence for
Indonesia
since 1975 and are to begin their independence in May. It was standard Oil:
lyrics that are passionate and controversial, wrapped in a tight musical
package.


Garrett did not delve much into politics beyond the songs themselves, which
are drenched with issues of economics and justice, except when he introduced
''Blue Sky Mine.'' He let loose on Al Gore for having environmental ideals
but
being too gutless to push for them, and then bore in on Prince Charles,
pausing
midway only to say, ''I promised I wouldn't talk about politics tonight.''
But
without political content, there would be no Midnight Oil.


The good news for the jaded is that Oil not only is, but will be. Garrett
said
after the show that they intend to come back through Boston in the spring.