The Time Has Come - Who Was Australia's Best Live Act Of 2017?

Announced in spectacular fashion on board a boat in Sydney Harbour, Midnight Oil made their return to our stages properly after nearly 15 years, save for a handful of gigs in 2009.

The Great Circle world tour took to every corner of the earth for six months and treated hometown fans with an intimate pub gig at Marrickville Bowlo to kick off the massive run. Every facet of this tour had immense forethought and planning - Peter Garrett and co brought along a revolving door of special guests on the tour, torchbearers in a variety of genres, including AB Original, The Jezabels, Birds Of Tokyo and Urthboy.

The iconic rockers also announced the release of a new CD box set in conjunction with the tour - The Full Tank would feature all their albums and EPs, remastered, as well as 14 hours of unreleased and rare material, housed in a mini water tank like the one so often seen on Midnight Oils' stages.

As you'd expect, the shows were "faultless" and saw Garrett "relishing the large stage and exploring every inch like the seasoned pro he is", but he also made headlines for his no-nonsense stance on troublemakers in the audience. Then in November, Garrett slammed former PM Paul Keating for questioning their Sydney venue choice: "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." But disaster struck, as guitarist Jim Moginie tore his hamstring on stage in November. Still, Midnight Oil saw out the shows, albeit with Moginie sitting down on stage.

Our Prince of Darkness Nick Cave came in at #2 for his and The Bad Seeds' Skeleton Tree shows in January, bringing to life the heartbreaking album following the death of his teenage son. The songs were performed "with beauty and grace" and were "staggeringly wonderful"  - par for the course for the band, who also topped this list in 2013. Also in the pointy end of the list is instrumental rockers sleepmakeswaves and charismatic newcomer taking the industry by storm Stella Donnelly, both equal third. We had a quadruple tie for #10 this year, with Gold Class, Grinspoon, RVG and The Necks all clamouring for a spot in the top ten.