Midnight Oil's frontman Peter Garrett took a swipe at former prime minister Paul Keating at the band's concert in The Domain last night, after controversy erupted over the park's closure.
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It came after Keating lashed out at the closure of The Domain for two Midnight Oil concerts until November 21, saying he was "surprised" Garrett "would feel in any way comfortable squatting and profiting from Sydney's central piece of public land".
"All I want to say is, if Paul Keating's got his window open, if he turns his Mahler down, his classical music down, have a listen to some Australian music," Garrett said before a raucous 20,000-strong crowd.
It was also the Oils' first performance since guitarist/keyboardist Jim Moginie fell off stage in Melbourne on Wednesday night, tearing his hamstring tendon from the bone. Moginie sat for the performance.
Garrett, a former cabinet minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments and ex-president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, has long been outspoken on environmental issues.
He wore "Stop Adani" and "Coral not coal" T-shirts during the band's comeback tour.
Anti-Adani campaigners were collecting signatures for a petition near the entrance, but there were more picnic blankets than placards.
Rap group A.B. Original started the evening with a politically charged set of songs referencing police brutality, Indigenous incarceration and inequality culminating with the incendiary January 26.
Midnight Oil's next Sydney performance is on Friday November 17, and ends the comeback tour, which has featured 74 shows seen by about 500,000 people in 16 countries.
