Oils Gig Reviews

The Warehouse, Toronto, October 1996

It's hard to believe that record executives once doubted Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett's marketability. Garrett must've had the last laugh nine years ago when his Australian band burned up pop charts around the world with their eighth album, Diesel And Dust.

Midnight Oil's show at the Warehouse Saturday was a casual reminder of just how potent a performer a 6-foot-4, bald-headed, rock-singing lawyer can be. Good thing, considering the gig came as part of a quickie club tour in support of the Oils' new disc Breathe, their first after a three-year hiatus.

And it wasn't Garrett's law degree and propensity for Australian politicking - he ran for a seat in Parliament in 1984 - that drove the Oil's show. It was his ability to breathe fire into a set that otherwise got stuck between gears as the band shifted between hits like Dream World and Blue Sky Mine and untested new stuff. Garrett's otherworldly look and bizarre movements didn't hurt, either.

The singer rolled from one end of the stage to the other like he had wheels for feet. His arms flailed like they were built on swivels. He brought a sense of vitality to the songs, even though the words were lost to the Warehouse's oft-mentioned lousy acoustics.

The near-capacity crowd of over 3,000 was rowdy, thanks in part to a flag-toting contingent of homesick Aussies. The room grew tougher when the Oils trotted out the country-tinged One Too Many Times and an interesting cover of their countryman Nick Cave's The Good Son. The latter tune seemed like a gloomy choice for the characteristically sunny-sounding Oils, but actually sat nicely alongside their earnest songs about the environment and aboriginal land rights, such as The Dead Heart - here given a much spacier treatment - and My Country Right Or Wrong.

It was dynamic new rockers like Sins Of Omission, Surf's Up Tonight and lead-off single Underwater that hit home with fans. Midnight Oil seemed to be getting their feet wet. The band has plans to return early next year for a show at a larger venue. By then they should have been immersed in the Oil drill long enough to muster a more consistent show.

SUN RATING: 3 OUT OF 5