You know, from the standpoint of a hardcore Midnight Oil fan, it’s hard to say what’s worse--that quite a few people are totally unfamiliar with the Australian band, or that many who are familiar seem shocked to learn the group is still alive and well.

Now the Oils are hardly blameless for the large number of folks occupying both camps, a point we’ll return to momentarily.

The people with no Midnight Oil awareness generally seem to be too young to have been plugged into the rock scene around the time of “Diesel and Dust,” the band’s massive breakout album--which, after all, was released 15 years ago. Still, the album did spawn the huge international hit “Beds Are Burning,” racked up enormous radio air play and just generally succeeded so well (ultimately selling about 2 million copies in America alone) that I believe there were at least three separate legs of the “Diesel And Dust” concert tour.

And we’re talking good-sized venues, doing monster business, on each leg: In my Southern California neck of the woods, they played the 15,000-plus seat Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre (since renamed Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre and, of course in this era of corporate rule and interchangeable parts, there are a bunch of venues across the country with that name) and the 5000-seat Universal Amphitheatre--on one of those legs, as I recall, they played the Universal three nights in a row.

OK, that was in 1987, a decade and a half ago, a very long time, especially in rock ‘n’ roll years. So a certain segment of rock fans--certainly those just about anywhere in their 20s (or younger) --can be excused for drawing a blank at the name Midnight Oil, for asking “Who’s Midnight Oil?” What’s been more unsettling--since I started gushing anew to friends about the Oils last Fall, in the wake of their first string of U.S. concert dates in five years--is the number of times people have responded with “I didn’t know they were still together“ or “Are they still around?”

Boy, are they. They’re not just still around, but before the halfway mark of 2002, they’ve demonstrated they’re clearly back at full strength, a feisty force to be reckoned with--operating, as they are, at the height of their considerable powers. The Oils forcefully tipped their hand in the sets they performed during that Fall concert swing--for starters, just by virtue of doing a Fall concert swing, after so many years away from American venues--but also by a fistful of excellent and rocking new tunes they wove into their typically incendiary shows: “The Golden Age,” “Too Much Sunshine,” among others.

Indeed, let’s take a quick look at the notable points on the Oils’ 2002 American time line. February 19 saw the U.S. release of “Capricornia,” their 11th studio album, and a month later, they kicked off another concert tour, practically in my backyard of the Anaheim House Of Blues. Interestingly, this is the same spot that they launched the Fall tour, and because the club is plopped down in a Disneyland outgrowth called Downtown Disney lead singer Peter Garrett had some choice comments during the first show there, about mechanical birds and such. At the same time, it’s a pretty neat venue for both band and audience, an immensely- intimate 500-seater--and remember: this is a group that’s singularly potent and explosive even in an arena setting.

And, like last time, the Oils came out blazing in Anaheim. The house lights dimmed, the curtain parted and the quintet strolled onto stage. As the rest of band members settled into position, guitarist-keyboardist Jim Moginie teased out the delicate piano notes of the minute-long “A Crocodile Cries,” which--as it does on “Capricornia”--served as a prelude for the rip-snorting rocker, “Mosquito March.” And then they were off and running--literally, at times, in Garrett’s case. I’m neither the first and undoubtedly won’t t be the last to point out that Peter Garrett is one of the four or five most magnetic, riveting frontman in rock ‘n’ roll.

But it may be less obvious--and probably worth noting, either way--that the other frontmen that would make your list almost certainly confine their official performances to arenas and amphitheatres, if not stadiums. It’s doubtful you could routinely catch them in action in clubs. Not coincidental to Garrett’s status, Midnight Oil is probably one of rock’s very best, most powerful, most inspired and inspiring live acts--certainly the premier rock concert attraction this side of E Street and Dublin. And I might well rank the Oils as at least the equal of both Bruce and Bono and their respective teams/crews, for a few reasons, not the least of which is that you can see Midnight Oil in a club right now, today, in 2002. Not exactly true of Springsteen or U2.

But some would argue it’s precisely Midnight Oil’s indifference to playing the game, to courting the masses and the media--and making all the attendant compromises--that may well account for how a band of such singular excellence and notable accomplishment finds itself playing clubs and small theaters across the U.S. more than 25 years after it started making music. Hell, you barely read about them where you should--music magazines, pop music pages of major newspapers-- much less on, say, the cover of Time, in the same way that you don’t typically see Oils videos on MTV or VH-1, much less stumble into them on network television; a notable exception to that is “Letterman”: Dave has loved the band for years and always puts them on his show, most recently on March 25.

Could they make a bit more noise, stir up more attention, generate more media coverage? I think the answer’s an unequivocal “yes.” This is a band that should, by all rights, be profiled in The New Yorker--like other fiercely independent high achievers like Radiohead and PJ Harvey have been--and other notable non- music publications. Peter Garrett should be interviewed on “Charlie Rose,” as have rockers ranging from the ubiquitous, loquacious, political and highly high-profile Bono to the quiet, enormously eccentric and relatively reclusive Bjork.

But these things probably ain’t gonna happen. Hell, why should they, when even garden variety coverage has somehow eluded the Oils? As of this writing, Rolling Stone hasn’t so much run a tiny review of “Capricornia,” and certainly hasn’t done a live review or a mini-profile or anything to speak of--yet. Similarly symptomatic, perhaps, of whatever unseen forces the band may be up against, my beloved Los Angeles Times hasn’t really spilled a drop of ink this year on Midnight Oil--no record review and no concert review, even though the band has started both its 2001 and 2002 U.S. tours smack dab in LA Times country, at the House Of Blues in Anaheim, California.

Midnight Oil's Capricornia

I’m still hoping that those publications--and other media outlets--will come around, perhaps as subsequent legs of the Oils’ concert tour kick in, or if the first single, “The Golden Age” or any other “Capricornia” track actually generates some significant radio airplay. But I’m not holding my breath. Sure, like any great band with its heart (and mind) in the right place, Midnight Oil undoubtedly would prefer to have a larger audience and more record buyers than it does at the moment.

But other than touring like troopers, they probably aren’t going to do a damn thing to court more fans or bigger sales. They’ve done that (all the way back to 1984’s “Red Sails In The Sunset,” they hired PR powerhouse Rogers & Cowan to help spread the word). They’ve had that (the massive international success surrounding “Diesel and Dust”). And they seem absolutely unwilling to take any steps in those directions that would be uncharacteristic or compromise their ideals or decades-long modus operandi, the MO mo, as it were. It’s not so much that they don’t give a rat’s ass, but what they’re willing--& unwilling--to do about giving one.

Apart from Garrett, the band is a fairly unassuming, almost nondescript bunch on stage, and they’re all unusually private: I’ve been an avid fan since they first came to American behind 1982’s “10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1” and I know next to nothing about the band members’ personal lives--even as rudimentary as marital status, who’s got how many kids, basic stuff. Even amongst other fervent fans on the Midnight Oil listserve, Powderworks, there’s been considerable debate about, say, the details of Garrett’s family and religious beliefs--including debate over whether this info should be debated.

If he chose to be, ex-attorney Garrett could be a lightening rod for all types of attention, publicity and media glare that might help hurtle the band into a more prominent and successful spot--hell, he certainly filled that role, back in the 80s when he ran for Senator and nearly won. He’s still very concerned and active--for example, he’s serving his second term as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, an environmental organization--but these activities now seem to be kept separate from his work with the band.

These days, Garrett and his Oils cohorts seem perfectly content to release the occasional record, and in some cases, tour behind it. “Redneck Wonderland,” which came out in 1998, was a stellar, muscular, very contemporary-sounding record, but the Oils didn’t do any American shows surrounding it, not even, if memory serves, the basic promotional appearances such as performing on “Letterman”-- which seems to be available to the band anytime they step on U.S. soil with a new release.

Hardly surprising, then, that “Redneck Wonderland” was underrated and overlooked in these parts. Out of sight, out of mind, indeed. So maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising afterall that, these days, even pretty plugged-in rock fans are surprised to find that Midnight Oil is still alive and kicking, even as the band is touring its collective ass off, with sets drawing liberally from the excellent new “Capricornia” record. And maybe it doesn’t even matter all that much. I mean, if none of this bothers Midnight Oil--and it really doesn’t seem to; in fact, they seem pretty damn happy--then it probably shouldn’t bother anyone else.

At the moment, there are plenty of opportunities to catch the band live, and both between and after those opportunities pass, there’s a lot to savor on “Capricornia,” a first-rate album, perhaps their strongest in more than a decade--though I happened to adore “Redneck Wonderland.” The collection is brimming with potent rockers like “The Golden Age,” propelled by spirited jangly guitar that may remind some of early R.E.M. by way of the Bryds, and more fiery numbers lke “Mosquito March,” “Been Away Too Long” and the eminently catchy “Too Much Sunshine.”

Perhaps the record’s best track (OK, my favorite) is “Luritja Way,’” which rides propulsive acoustic guitar strumming into an enchanting land of myriad guitar textures, a spunky arrangement and irresistible vocal harmonies. One of the added bonuses of the band is that four of the five band members can-- and often do--sing. Harmonies they got.

“Say Your Prayers” is a chugging number over which the guitar team of Moginie and Martin Rotsey issue various sonic shards while Garrett sketches a scene tied to the situation in East Timor. This may be the most overtly political track, and not coincidentally a carryover from “The Real Thing,” a 2000 benefit album featuring “unplugged” versions of some Oils nuggets and four new songs.

Elsewhere, while some numbers reflect environmental concerns--notably, “Tone Poem,” though “Been Away Too Long” could be seen as a paean to the great outdoors--Midnight Oil has eschewed the political screeds, melodic activism and rocking protests that have dotted many of their previous albums.

Simply put, “Capricornia” is a very good rock ‘n’ roll record, and Midnight Oil is a very good rock ‘n’ roll band. If you’ve never seen the Oils live, may I urge you to dip into your discretionary music fund to spring for concert tickets. I’m pretty sure you’ll be thrilled. In every sense of the term.

For details on their concert dates, visit Pollstar.com.
For more on the band, visit Midnightoil.com.