This month, Midnight Oil will kick off a huge run of Makarrata Live shows across the country inspired by their Makarrata Project mini-album, which arrived last year.
They’ll be joined on each of the dates by a lineup of First Nations collaborators including Dan Sultan, Alice Skye, Troy Cassar-Daley, Tasman Keith and Leah Flanagan.
To prepare, the iconic rockers have just announced an intimate warm-up show at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre for next week, set to take place on Thursday, 25th February.
The band and their collaborators will perform songs from the Makarrata Project along with songs of reconciliation from across Midnight Oil’s back catalogue. The warm-up show will also include an acoustic performance from Flanagan.
As with the Makarrata Project itself, the band’s Makarrata Live performances are intended to elevate the Uluru Statement from the Heart, raising awareness around the ongoing theft of land and displacement of First Nations people in this country.
“Lots of the songs which have struck the deepest chords with our audiences over the years, like ‘Beds Are Burning’, ‘Jimmy Sharman’s Boxers’, ‘The Dead Heart’ and ‘Truganini’, revolve around Indigenous issues,” commented frontman Peter Garrett when announcing the shows late last year.
“We’re definitely inspired to be playing a set that combines older songs like those with newer songs that share similar lyrical themes.”
Tickets for the Makarrata Live show at Enmore Theatre go on sale this Thursday, 18th February. There are Midnight Oil and Frontier Touring pre-sales kicking off Wednesday, 17th February from 11am AEDT.
