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You may recall that wayyyy back in September, Oasis had scheduled a gig scheduled in London, Ontario the night after their headlining slot at the Toronto edition of Virgin Fest. But unfortunately, due to the incident, Noel was out of commission and a bunch of tour dates were postponed till December. Thankfully for a few of my carmates, opener Ryan Adams was still on the tour bill. We hung onto our tickets till the rescheduled date, which took place last night. I had been waiting so long for this show, because I wanted the FULL Oasis experience - not the shortened glimpse of a set that you get at a festival. The full two hours.

In a funny way, things ended up working out for us - between September and December (October 7 to be exact), Oasis’ eighth studio album, Dig Out Your Soul was released, and I was able to commit the fantastic songs and their lyrics to memory in time for the show. Had the original show gone on as planned, this wouldn’t have been the case - at Virgin Fest the band only played three new songs, whereas this time around, we got to hear six new songs.

Everyone can agree that Oasis are a singles band - and as much as everyone thinks the Gallaghers are pricks, they are good to their fans. They play the songs that fans want to hear (my dream setlist would have also included Bag It Up, Go Let It Out, Some Might Say, Let There Be Love and Shakermaker, but hey…) instead of playing whatever THEY want to play, and they aren’t as moody as you’d think. They actually spoke to the sizable audience a couple of times; Noel more than Liam.

As always, I loved Noel’s songs the best - he’s a great musician - very professional and composed while he’s performing. He also (evidently) keeps the best songs for himself (The Importance Of Being Idle, Don’t Look Back In Anger, The Masterplan), and the new album (Waiting For The Rapture, Falling Down) is no exception. I loved his performances of the new songs - superb. Liam remained extra cool while he performed, employing his typical ‘hands behind the back’ stance, leaning into the mic, never touching it with his hands, but getting his maw all over it to really enunciate those ‘-tion’ words that Noel writes into the lyrics especially for him. I hope someone sanitizes that mic after every use…

During guitar solos, Liam would grab his trusty tambourine (as required) and give it a few shakes, or just pace around the stage, pointing at people in the audience or yelling things to the sound crew. At some points he’d stand with his back to the audience, hands behind his back, or face them and just stare straight ahead. Total diva (or god…however you wanna see it). During “Noel” songs, he’d outright leave the stage and presumably take a breather and rest up before the next song. It makes sense, since Liam doesn’t actually play any instruments…no need for him to be on stage doing nothing. What was with the tshirt he had wrapped around his waist like a skirt??

At one point Liam dedicated Slide Away to all the ‘beautiful ladies’ in London. “I seen yous all!” he declared. “Thanks to all the ladybirds. ‘Cept you [pointing to someone in the audience] - you’re a f**king ugly ladybird.” Yikes.

Liam ended the evening by thanking Londoners “for behaving themselves” and launched into their typical closer, a cover of The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus, which the crowd sang to rather enthusiastically. The setlist is almost identical to the band’s Montreal gig, which happened just before Virgin Fest - so I’m thinking they kept the setlist they’d originally intended to do the first time round, in September?

Oasis Setlist: December 15 @ John Labatt Centre, London
Rock ‘N Roll Star
Lyla
The Shock Of The Lightning
Cigarettes & Alcohol
The Meaning Of Soul
To Be Where There’s Life
Waiting For The Rapture
The Masterplan
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
Ain’t Got Nothin’
The Importance Of Being Idle
I’m Outta Time
Wonderwall
Supersonic

Encore:
Don’t Look Back In Anger
Falling Down
Champagne Supernova
I Am The Walrus (Beatles cover)

Posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 2:16 pm by Kat and is filed under Concerts & Events.

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