Midnight Oil to bring final tour to North America, Europe this summer

Midnight Oil | Photo by Awais Butt

Midnight Oil released its 13th studio album Resist yesterday, and teased fans with news they’ll announce summer tour dates in North America and Europe next week as the long-running Australian band embarks on what it’s billing as its final tour.

But fans shouldn’t expect extensive runs of concerts. On their website, the Oils say they’ll announce “a handful of June shows in North America and July shows in Europe” this coming Friday.

The Warne Livesey-produced Resist was released digitally yesterday, and it appears CD and vinyl releases will follow in March and April, respectively.

The Oils recorded Resist alongside 2020’s The Makarrata Project — a collaboration with First Nation musicians — pre-COVID, and prior to the death in 2020 of bassist Bones Hillman, who appears on the new record. (Bassist Adam Ventoura is touring with the Oils.) The album, the band says, “engages with the issues of today and tomorrow,” as evidence already by the climate-change-themed “Rising Seas.”

The band last month began what it’s advertising as its final tour, consisting of more than 20 headlining and festival dates in Australia and New Zealand through May. The Oils insist this does not mark the end of the band, just the end of touring.

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