No. 982 – One Country

Performer: Midnight Oil

Songwriters: Jim Moginie, Peter Garrett

Original Release: Blue Sky Mining

Year: 1990

Definitive Version: None

Almost immediately after I discovered Midnight Oil, I got the chance to see them live. They were going to be at Pine Knob, which was “Detroit’s” outdoor venue (now called Corporate Entity of the Day Amphitheater or somesuch thing). I use the bunny ears around Detroit, because Waterford is almost closer to Flint than it is Detroit. It’s definitely closer to Grand Blanc.

The Journal’s music writer at the time (pre Doug) put the offer out there of two free tickets. No one else bit. (If I was at least 3 years late to the party on Midnight Oil, I was still on the cutting edge for the Journal.) I grabbed them up and went sans date (not from a lack of trying.

Hunters & Collectors was the warmup act, and they were cool, pretty much in the same ballpark musically as Midnight Oil—but loud, particularly under the canopy of the amphitheater. This was not a good sign, because anyone who’s ever seen more than one show KNOWS that there’s no way that the warmup act can be louder than the headliner.

Sure enough, Midnight Oil was L O U D, almost ear-bleedingly so. It was up to that point the loudest show I ever attended. In fact, it might be the loudest show period, either that or I’ve lost enough hearing since then that nothing has seemed to have come close. My ears were ringing for two full days afterward.

They were rock solid though; Peter Garrett is a trip on stage—this gigantic bald geek who moved like a robot in desperate need of oil. The encore was One Country, and it was symphonic. It started with Garrett and guitarist Moginie perched on stool-like blocks before building to the climax. I liked the song OK before the show, but after I found myself humming the final verses as I walked across the yard to my car in the parking lot, while resolving to never see another show without cotton in my ears.