Oasis at the Allstate Arena 12/12/08
I finally got around to writing my concert review/report from the Oasis concert I went to back in December.
Oasis at the Allstate Arena
December 12, 2008
I was feeling sick on the day of the Oasis concert, and as such spent a lot of the earlier part of the day battling with myself to try to figure out if it would be smart to go, or if I should just stay in bed. I wound up deciding to go, but didn’t leave for the concert until after the opening band (Ryan Adams) was supposed to start.
When I arrived at the Allstate Arena I fully expected to find Oasis already into their set, but I somehow managed to arrive during the break between bands. I used this opportunity to go buy an Oasis t-shirt - red with their logo in white. Ironically, this t-shirt has a striking resemblance to the Oasis t-shirt I got when I was about 12 years old, except that one was a very dark blue, or maybe black. I also bought a tour program.
Something that I noticed during the concert was that the majority of the guys there had this air about them that made me feel like they either thought they were, or were trying really hard to seem British. It was pretty amusing. There was even a guy dressed in a Sergeant Pepper’s jacket.
On the way to my seat the ushers kept telling me that I had a really good seat, which made me feel good about having decided to go to the concert as I would have felt really guilty to have left that seat go to waste. It was on the floor and in the second section back, which was like, maybe row 16 or something? Or maybe it was more like row 20?
Anyhow, I had never seen Oasis before, and they put on a really cool show. Behind the stage they had a screen that showed various clips of what appeared to be from movies of the 60s.
Oasis opened with “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” which seemed to be a terrific way to open a concert. I’m not very familiar with Oasis’ more recent albums, so I was glad that they played a fair number of songs that I did know. The next song was “Lyla” and then “The Shock of the Lightning” off of their latest album. I thought that the new songs sounded good, and I wound up asking for their new album for Christmas (and getting it, though I have still to listen to it). After that was another song that I did know, “Cigarettes & Alcohol”, and then one I wasn’t familiar with, “The Meaning of Soul”.
For some reason I had forgotten how in the concert footage and music videos by Oasis Liam stands totally still when singing, or not singing, with his hands held behind his back, slightly leaning in. No dancing, no smiling, just seeming impossibly cool. But once Liam got to his spot in center stage that all came back to me, and he was strikingly cool. During a few songs Liam did break out the tambourine, even holding it between his teeth during some parts in which he was not singing or playing the tambourine. It was very amusing to watch him. He has an extremely unique stage presence.
They played a couple more songs that I wasn’t familiar with, “To Be Where There’s Life” and “Waiting for the Rapture (or The Turning?)”, before Liam left the stage so that Noel could take lead on a song. Noel looked at the audience and apparently spotted a rather young girl near the front with her parents as he said something like, “what, you couldn’t get a baby sitter tonight?” and I think he said something about how some of their songs might not be appropriate for her to hear, and he also said that he thought that there would be many Oasis t-shirts in her future. He dedicated the next song to the girl, which was “The Masterplan”. I think that was one of the highlights for me.
I think that Liam was back for the next song, “Songbird”, and then they played “Slide Away”, followed by “Morning Glory”. Hearing “Moring Glory” was kind of interesting for me because a little more than two months prior to the Oasis concert I had heard Weezer cover the song in the same venue. Then came “Ain’t Got Nothn’”, “The Importance of Being Idle”, “I’m Outta Time”, “Wonderwall” (which got a huge reaction from the crowd, of course, lots of lighters and/or cell phones in the air as I remember), and “Supersonic” (I love singing along to that song and it was really fun live).
Then Oasis left the stage and the cheering, etc. commenced until just Noel walked back on stage for “Don’t Look Back in Anger” which sounded really fantastic live with nearly everyone in the audience singing along. I think that Noel played it entirely on his own, but maybe I’m remembering it wrong. Everyone else came back on stage for a song I didn’t know called “Falling Down”. After that they played “Champagne Supernova” and finally their traditional Beatles cover - “I am the Walrus”, which is a song that while I love the Beatles, I’m not particularly fond of. It was cool, however, seeing/hearing Oasis’ cover of it because they really did sound a whole lot like the Beatles.
I’m really glad that I went despite being sick. It was fun.