Midnight Oil

Subject: M&M at the Prom
From: david earle
Date: 25/04/2014, 10:32 am
To: "powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au" <powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au>

Midnight Oil

...so I rocked up at the Promethean Theatre in Adelaide last night to find only three people waiting outside- not a great sign. Messrs Moginie and Murray were visible through the glass doors setting up.
 
The venue is small, but has a great atmosphere. Tables were set up on the floor, with comfy bench seats around the perimeter. I plonked myself down on one of these in front of the mixing desk...not that I was lacking choice - the crowd had swelled to seven. Mmm.
 
Jim and Neil went about there business walking to and from the stage - at one stage I overhead a snatch of conversation - give it ten more minutes.
 
Gradually the crowd built to double figures, the lads took to the stage, and...
 
were totally awesome! They were clearly up for it despite the low turn out (I calculate there were around 40 people, with quite a few late comers - a big shout out the to bloke who sat next to me several songs in - he'd come down from Qld that day to pick up a car, and came along on spec - and reckoned his first trip to Adelaide was worth it just for this show) A couple of jokey comments were passed about the size of the crowd by Jim and Neil.
 
The set was made up mainly of Neil's tunes - the MO songs played were  (with JM's intros summarised) 
 
Short memory - it was written when the "old band" was in London, desperate and living on curry. The song is still relevant 30 years later
 
Shakers and movers -  a lesser known song from the eighties, but Jim still likes it. JM played piano and NM accompanied on guitar
 
Say your prayers - a song written for an East Timor charity record. Could be about East Timor, or refugees 
 
Forgotten years - ANZAC day is tomorrow. Words by Rob Hirst, and Jim reckons they are good words. NM asked "So what did you do?"
 
"The music!" JM joked, just like the Adelaide ad. Earlier in the show, JM had asked the crowd who'd seen the ad promoting Adelaide, featuring the astronaut. Some derisive comments from the crowd, to which he responded with a grin "Well, I wrote the music!"
 
Jim also played a solo song in tribute to his late mother, and the two of them played a co-write called One of those tunes - about people who come up during the set up asking for one of those tunes, from back in the day, and how musicians deal with it.
 
Overall, the show was like a NM show with Jim acting as sideman. Neil has a great back catalogue of songs, and played plenty off his new album. He has a wealth of experiences to provide anecdotes and intros to songs. Highlights were a tribute to his late father and his love of dancing - with Neil busting a few moves in the outro; a song in a reconstructed indigenous language from Neil's western Victorian home; Blackfella/Whitefella, with Jim on a laptop - a Korg keyboard synth laptop that is, Clever man - a great song off his first album about an indigenous man who was among the last to make contact with white Australia in the 1980s - and who decided he didn't much like it and went bush again.
 
Jim and Neil were obviously very at home with each other and onstage, with lots of friendly banter between themselves and the audience. Instrumentation was basic - guitars - semiacoustic, acoustic; piano, synth, Irish bouzouki, and JM doing his best Hendrix with a  blazing, string biting, ukulele solo, to Neil's amusement, but it sounded great.
 
If anyone is in SA this weekend looking for a great night, they are playing regional centres, details here:
 
http://reverberama.com.au/?page=Live
 
I guarantee you'll have an excellent night  (or in one case, afternoon!), and it's great chance to show the boys some love.
 
Cheers,
David