Oils Gig Reviews

Newcastle - Easter 97

g'day fellow comrades,
So, I guess you're hanging out to hear how the latest gig went. This is me, kies, but i'm writing from kristi's place where i'm staying at the moment waiting for equinox to get underway later today, having already witnessed the newcastle spectacle. So, this newcastle review is our combined impression of the gig.

I jumped in the car with two others & travelled the 1,000 kms to Newcastle from Melboourne, with the cassette player blaring out midnight oil the whole way. Went straight to the Worker's Club to pick up our tickets & bumped into Jim, Rob, Martin & Bones coming out from a sound check. Gave them a bag of Easter eggs & said you can take them now orwe'll be throwing them up on the stage (reference to the krusty incident). They happily took them then, worried they might break on a hard stage landing.

There was something rather unusual about Bones, though - we thought his wife had picked up another guy - this tall blond-haired guy. Only to discover that it was in fact Bones standing beside her. I thought it may have been some fear he had of gray hairs coming through. But on asking Bones what had happened to his hair, he informed us that he'd had some sort of domestic accident. Interesting look, Bones "Draino" Hillman!

Kristi turned up just before the gig & we all grabbed our front row position ready for the show. After the two support bands (& K's choice are really good, if you get a chance to see them, do!) Midnight Oil flew onto stage & burst into an energetic "Only the Strong", followed by Cold Cold Change, then slowed down into I Don't Wanna Be the One. After a few words referring to a horribly ignorant & racist politician who lives in this our wonderful land, Peter gave us the angry words of White Skin (Black Heart). Then dropping back to an old one - No Time for Games. This was followed by Best of Both Worlds - but Peter, what words were you singing???? Is there a new version out??? Then some exciting stuff - a new song "In My Mind"??? Good song - listen hard for the lyrics (read more about this later...) Then came a recent release Sins of Omission, followed by a great rendition of When the General's Talk - it was awesome! They slowed down a bit to play Eye Contact, then fired into Back on the Borderline - with the front rows just about singing the song for Peter! Sell My Soul was accompained by alot of damn crowd surfers who enjoyed kicking us all the head. Then the band went into a slow version of Surf's up - sounded cool. Then Bring on the Change - but his mike stuffed up (kevin(TMWDN), mate, what's happening?? - sorry powderworkers - a reference to their sound engineer). Then came Dreamworld & finally HERCULES!!!! loved it guys!!!!

Then the band went off for a short break & came back to Kristi's easter eggs flying onto the stage. They came on singing another new one - Warm Babies!!! As a reward for the easter egg, Bones threw a drumstick to kristi after the song. Liked the new song - don't know about the title though!!! Then came Blue Sky Mine & they finished off excellently (is there such a word???) with Read About It.

Awesome show, the sound was really good. Martin was getting right into it - great to see & Peter seemed to be having a good time. Rob was great (a few problems earlier on with his mike too, i think, but that seemed to get sorted out ok) - & as per usual, the drumming was awesome.

And Jim was rocking around in his characteristic style. We went out the back to thank the guys for such a great night. Bones cried out "krusty fries! you threw me an easter egg!" He reckoned that it beat having a horse carrot or a stale bread roll thrown at him. He was rather proud of the fact that he'd been to a Cyber Cafe. Curious about the new songs, we asked Bones about the new songs - he said he was singing "Sandwiches on my Mind" - figure that one out! And when asked about "warm babies" - they agreed the title should be changed (it just conjures up images of babies in a pot - and no kristi, don't start telling us all your baby jokes, PLEASE!!!!)
catchyas later after equinox

Kies - Powderworker