you do not want to believe. you are sleeping.
Oasis - Festival Pier; Philadelphia 6-25-05
philadelphia was probably close to 2,000 degrees when we got there. we spent an hour or two wandering around the city, trying to find the venue, being faked out by an ignorant employee, and finally managing to come across the actual location. did i mention it was pretty hot? the first gates opened around 5 and a couple hundred of us baked in the sun while the staff ran around trying to get things organized before letting us into the actual place. we could hear the soundcheck going on and we even saw Noel walk by a few times to which the crowd screamed like typical 'madferits'.
--
madferit: mad-for-it (n; v) - one who pledges allegience to all things oasis. (v) "having it."
(n) Johnny has seen Oasis 5 times in concert, making him madferit.
(v) The crowd was madferit as Liam balanced the tamborine on his head.
--
34 hours later they let us in and that was that. spent half a paycheck on shirts, stickers, and pins, because i'm a bit of an obsessive you could say. Nic Armstrong and the Thieves took the stage as the first opening band and got the crowd on their feet with an energetic mix of modern rock, blues, and folk. their drummer was insanely good and really got me into everything..had i been familiar with their songs previously, i would have enjoyed them a lot more. after they finished and some more time had passed, Jet came on with one of the lamest walk ons in rock-n-roll history - the dreaded siren. pathetic, Jet. your music is uninspired and blatantly rips off classic rock riffs which were already lacking in the first place. one guy towards the front waved both middle fingers through the majority of their set and had me cracking up.
by 9:30 the sun had gone down completely and the stage had been cleared. the recording of their standard "this is not a drill" came on followed by the infamous rim shot to "F****** in the Bushes" and a swirl of lights; the crowd went off. Oasis entereted the stage and owned it from that moment on. i have always claimed to be a Noel Gallagher lover, but it is without a doubt this is Liam's band, at least live anyway. his presence was massive, and i honestly could have watched him strut around the stage without singing a single word all night. it was incredible to be so close to these two who have written some of the most meaningful songs to my life and countless others, and i was as they say - star struck.
the setlist:
1 Turn Up The Sun
2 Lyla
3 Love Like A Bomb
4 Bring It On Down
5 Morning Glory
6 Cigarettes And Alcohol
7 The Importance Of Being Idle
8 Little By Little
9 A Bell Will Ring
10 Live Forever
11 The Meaning Of Soul
12 Mucky Fingers
13 Champagne Supernova
14 Rock n Roll Star
encore:
15 Songbird
16 Wonderwall
17 Don't Look Back In Anger
18 My Generation
i was worried about what the condition of Liam's voice would be like since they had just played the night before, but it was incredible as far as i could tell. before they came on, the people around us were rudely pushed out of their way by this badass in a sleeveless shirt who was threatening to beat up these people who started confronting him about it. i politely went up to him and told him that he was blocking jessica's view and if he would simply move back two spaces, we'd all be able to see. at this point i wasn't sure whether or not to run or duck, but he ended up seeing my genius logic and obliged. we ended up being about 5 rows from the front positioned in between Liam and Noel.
highlights of the night for me were "Turn Up the Sun", "Lyla", "A Bell Will Ring", "Mucky Fingers", "Champagne Supernova", and of course.."Don't Look Back in Anger". the setlist flew by, and all the new songs came across great live. the older stuff seemed to have new life injected into it as well due to Ringo's son, Zak Starkey, the new drummer. (i still like Alan White, but Zak is incredible.) the crowd was great for the most part aside from a few idiots, but it's a concert and that's to be expected. idiots or not, we all sang along to every song from definetely maybe to heathen chemistry and even the new album..which got the best reaction out of everything in my opinion. it truly is great and the fan responce is proof. Noel looked really tired but sounded amazing as usual. Liam and Gem were really getting into it and Zak kept everything moving along at a nice pace.
the set ended with Liam staring out into the crowd stone cold with his infamous pose. he threw his tamborine into the audience and needless to say a small riot ensued. lucky bastard.
the encore was brilliant and "Songbird" was especially nice to hear with Jessica. there were certain moments in songs that brought smiles to my face just for the sheer fact that she was there hearing it with me. it meant so much to me to have her there and to share this, but i'll write more about that in a not so public entry. i gave out a few calls during "Wonderwall", so i hope people heard it somewhat and could hear how massive the band and crowd sounded. overall i am thrilled with the experience and am grateful to have shared it with thousands of people who were equally appreciative.
"Are there any Tool fans here? We're going to do a cover, you'll love it!" -Songbird-
--
A little space, a little time - see what it can do. A little faith and peace of mind - see what passes through. The sun will shine on you again, a bell will ring inside your head, and all will be brand new.
philadelphia was probably close to 2,000 degrees when we got there. we spent an hour or two wandering around the city, trying to find the venue, being faked out by an ignorant employee, and finally managing to come across the actual location. did i mention it was pretty hot? the first gates opened around 5 and a couple hundred of us baked in the sun while the staff ran around trying to get things organized before letting us into the actual place. we could hear the soundcheck going on and we even saw Noel walk by a few times to which the crowd screamed like typical 'madferits'.
--
madferit: mad-for-it (n; v) - one who pledges allegience to all things oasis. (v) "having it."
(n) Johnny has seen Oasis 5 times in concert, making him madferit.
(v) The crowd was madferit as Liam balanced the tamborine on his head.
--
34 hours later they let us in and that was that. spent half a paycheck on shirts, stickers, and pins, because i'm a bit of an obsessive you could say. Nic Armstrong and the Thieves took the stage as the first opening band and got the crowd on their feet with an energetic mix of modern rock, blues, and folk. their drummer was insanely good and really got me into everything..had i been familiar with their songs previously, i would have enjoyed them a lot more. after they finished and some more time had passed, Jet came on with one of the lamest walk ons in rock-n-roll history - the dreaded siren. pathetic, Jet. your music is uninspired and blatantly rips off classic rock riffs which were already lacking in the first place. one guy towards the front waved both middle fingers through the majority of their set and had me cracking up.
by 9:30 the sun had gone down completely and the stage had been cleared. the recording of their standard "this is not a drill" came on followed by the infamous rim shot to "F****** in the Bushes" and a swirl of lights; the crowd went off. Oasis entereted the stage and owned it from that moment on. i have always claimed to be a Noel Gallagher lover, but it is without a doubt this is Liam's band, at least live anyway. his presence was massive, and i honestly could have watched him strut around the stage without singing a single word all night. it was incredible to be so close to these two who have written some of the most meaningful songs to my life and countless others, and i was as they say - star struck.
the setlist:
1 Turn Up The Sun
2 Lyla
3 Love Like A Bomb
4 Bring It On Down
5 Morning Glory
6 Cigarettes And Alcohol
7 The Importance Of Being Idle
8 Little By Little
9 A Bell Will Ring
10 Live Forever
11 The Meaning Of Soul
12 Mucky Fingers
13 Champagne Supernova
14 Rock n Roll Star
encore:
15 Songbird
16 Wonderwall
17 Don't Look Back In Anger
18 My Generation
i was worried about what the condition of Liam's voice would be like since they had just played the night before, but it was incredible as far as i could tell. before they came on, the people around us were rudely pushed out of their way by this badass in a sleeveless shirt who was threatening to beat up these people who started confronting him about it. i politely went up to him and told him that he was blocking jessica's view and if he would simply move back two spaces, we'd all be able to see. at this point i wasn't sure whether or not to run or duck, but he ended up seeing my genius logic and obliged. we ended up being about 5 rows from the front positioned in between Liam and Noel.
highlights of the night for me were "Turn Up the Sun", "Lyla", "A Bell Will Ring", "Mucky Fingers", "Champagne Supernova", and of course.."Don't Look Back in Anger". the setlist flew by, and all the new songs came across great live. the older stuff seemed to have new life injected into it as well due to Ringo's son, Zak Starkey, the new drummer. (i still like Alan White, but Zak is incredible.) the crowd was great for the most part aside from a few idiots, but it's a concert and that's to be expected. idiots or not, we all sang along to every song from definetely maybe to heathen chemistry and even the new album..which got the best reaction out of everything in my opinion. it truly is great and the fan responce is proof. Noel looked really tired but sounded amazing as usual. Liam and Gem were really getting into it and Zak kept everything moving along at a nice pace.
the set ended with Liam staring out into the crowd stone cold with his infamous pose. he threw his tamborine into the audience and needless to say a small riot ensued. lucky bastard.
the encore was brilliant and "Songbird" was especially nice to hear with Jessica. there were certain moments in songs that brought smiles to my face just for the sheer fact that she was there hearing it with me. it meant so much to me to have her there and to share this, but i'll write more about that in a not so public entry. i gave out a few calls during "Wonderwall", so i hope people heard it somewhat and could hear how massive the band and crowd sounded. overall i am thrilled with the experience and am grateful to have shared it with thousands of people who were equally appreciative.
"Are there any Tool fans here? We're going to do a cover, you'll love it!" -Songbird-
--
A little space, a little time - see what it can do. A little faith and peace of mind - see what passes through. The sun will shine on you again, a bell will ring inside your head, and all will be brand new.