Waiting in the stands for Oasis to take the stage at the Rose Bowl on Saturday for the first of two sold-out shows, it was understandable for fans to wonder: How did this happen?
How did the Brothers Gallagher, Noel and Liam, set aside years of brawls and badmouthing to reunite their beloved Britpop band for a world tour this year?
How’d they have the confidence to book only huge stadiums in the United States, a territory in which they’d never been as big as they were in the United Kingdom and Europe?
But most of all, how on earth can they sound this fantastic after all the tempests that have come before?
We can guess at the answers the morning after. While money fuels many a reunion, the Gallaghers’ mother Peggy has been after her boys to bury the hatchet – not in each other – in recent years.
Noel and Liam have never lacked confidence in themselves, and their absence only fueled the desires of fans old and new for the chance to see them again.
And Oasis, at its best, has always been a terrific live band when its demons didn’t derail them.
On Saturday, Oasis roared through 23 songs over two hours, revisiting and reestablishing the band’s legacy from its arrival in the early ’90s with albums such as “Definitely Maybe” and “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory” to its self-destruction that culminated in a 2009 backstage fistfight between Liam and Noel that seemingly ended it all until the unexpected reunion announcement a year ago.
After opening sets by Cast, a British band from the same indie scene that spawned Oasis, and Cage the Elephant, an American band with a raucous energy similar to Oasis, the headliners walked on stage to a rapturous reception, almost 17 years since their last Southern California performance at the then-Staples Center.
“Hello,” appropriately, kicked off the set, with singer Liam Gallagher’s deadpan vocals atop the thundering roar of the band. The song, which Noel Gallagher has said is really about nothing, is very much about something now. “Hello, hello,” Liam sang in its chorus. “Said it’s good to be back, said it’s good to be back.”
The anthemic “Acquiesce” followed, the crowd on the field surging up and down, fists pumping overhead, as the band played. The song “Morning Glory” boosted the energy in the stadium higher yet. “What’s the story, morning glory?” Liam sang, the tens of thousands of fans singing loudly along.
During Oasis’s years of success, the band was not just famous for its music and the near-fratricidal antics of the Gallagher brothers. There was a style to the band as well, which the audience on Saturday paid allegiance to through the Adidas-branded Oasis gear and bucket hats that were part of the fashion of the band and their fans then and now. [That many bucket hats have never been gathered at a Southern California concert before, we’d wager.]
Liam Gallagher didn’t break out his bucket hat until the encore, but during the main set, he appeared as he often had, in sunglasses and an anorak parka despite the heat that lingered after dark.
Other highlights early in the set included “Some Might Say,” a slower number that featured strong guitar soloing by Noel Gallagher and groovy ’60s-inspired pop-psychedelic visuals on the massive video screens of the stage. After “Bring It On Down” raced on loud distorted swirls of guitar, Liam paused to chat with the crowd again.
“I was swimming this morning in Santa Monica. In the sea,” he began. “A big shark jumped out. He said, ‘Mr. Gallagher,’ I said, ‘It’s Liam.’ He said, ‘I just want to wish you a good show tonight.’”
The shark, who we learned a few songs later was named Mark, told him he’d need good luck because “you know how these L.A. crowds are” – according to Mark the Shark, or “Mahk the Shahk,” in his Mancunian accent, L.A. crowds are often stoned, more of a Grateful Dead kind of audience.
“‘So good luck getting them going,”’ Liam said, relaying his new friend’s message. “What you say? You got it in ya?”
Even if the next song wasn’t the fan favorite “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” the screaming that accompanied the jumping up and down that rocked the stadium answered that question.
“Supersonic” and “Roll With It” led to Liam’s first break of the night, leaving the stage for Noel Gallagher to sing a trio of songs. “Talk Tonight” was a lovely acoustic ballad. Lyrically, it’s one of his most vulnerable songs – “I know I’m leavin’ / But I’ll be back another day” – which makes sense given it was written after he temporarily left the band after a trainwreck of a show at the Whisky A Go Go in 1994 – before coming back not long after.
“Half the World Away” was dedicated to the Irish in the crowd – Noel’s dedications tend toward people whereas Liam’s included a cartoon woodpecker, sword swallowers and warriors, among others. “Little By Little,” his third lead vocal in this mini-set, amped up the energy with a switch back to electric guitars.
This version of Oasis has more history than most acts that regroup after years apart. In addition to the Gallaghers, guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs is a founding member who was there until 1999. Guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell joined that same year and stayed until the band broke up in Paris in 2009.
They’re supplemented by touring musicians Christian Madden on keyboards and drummer Joey Waronker, both of whom have played in Liam Gallagher’s solo band, with Waronker, a Los Angeles native, also well-known here for his work with Beck, among other artists.
Liam Gallagher returned with “D’You Know What I Mean?,” a feedback-drenched guitar attack turning up the volume before “Stand By Me,” a lovely ballad that featured photos of what seemed to be the extended Gallagher family, flashed across the video screens.
The back half of the main set featured the harder rock groove of “Slide Away, the chorus of which – “I don’t know, I don’t care / All I want is to take me there” – like many Oasis songs, features a chant-like repetition perfect for sing-alongs, especially in a packed stadium.
“Whatever,” which segued into a chorus of the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden,” led into “Live Forever,” which saw Liam emphasize the sneering quality of his voice and Noel chime in with falsetto vocals on the choruses. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” wrapped up the main set with thousands of voices singing the chorus of “Tonight I’m a rock ‘n’ roll star” over and over ’til its finish.
The encore opened with “The Masterplan,” another of the Noel-sung numbers in the set, followed by another, much bigger one, “Don’t Look Back Anger.” That one’s a universal kind of love song: the relationship over, the bittersweet farewells still echo. “So, Sally can wait / She knows it’s too late as we’re walking on by,” the chorus goes, sung here entirely by the crowd the first time with Noel Gallagher smiling on. “Her soul slides away / ‘But don’t look back in anger,’ I heard you say.”
“Now here’s one you won’t know,” Liam Gallagher joked as he returned to the stage to sing “Wonderwall,” perhaps the band’s biggest and best-known single. Even with its familiarity, watching and listening and singing it along with him provided a goosebumps moment in the show.
“This is our last song,” he announced before the band wrapped up the night with “Champagne Supernova.” “I have to go to bed because I’m a little princess these days.
“I want to thank you all for sticking with us over the years,” he continued. “I’ll be the first to admit that we’re a nightmare to (bleepin’) stick with and support. We’ll see you down the road.”
As “Champagne Supernova” unspooled with a gorgeous grandeur, you wondered if that’s true. Will we see them down the road again? Or is this it, again?
Fireworks exploded high above the stage as the song wound down, glittering tracers shooting toward the near-full moon that moved from east to west above the stage while Oasis had played.
Who knows if they come back again? This night won’t be forgotten by those who were there.