| No-frills rock 'n' roll Oasis was all about the music at the MTS Centre
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| Oasis
Sept. 4, MTS Centre
w/ Ryan Adams, Matt Costa
As Rock 'N' Roll Star, the opening song of Oasis' Labour Day show at MTS?Centre, rumbled to its guitar-drenched conclusion, singer Liam Gallagher rolled the title off his tongue one last time and then ad-libbed over the extro:
"Ah really fookin' am!"
Yes, he really fucking is. Since Liam and older brother Noel first burst onto the scene with the defiant (and not-so-subtly derivative) singalong brilliance of 1994's Definitely Maybe album, they have become the very definition of rock 'n' roll bad boys/stars.
They've gone through more than a dozen band members in Oasis' 17 years of existence. They've 'broken up' several times, usually after battering each onstage, in a studio or at a nightclub. They've slagged off everyone who isn't them in one interview or another, and they've married models, actresses and pop stars along the way.
Even now, after becoming fathers and as they enter their late 30s and early 40s, the Gallaghers are still looked to for notorious behaviour and outrageous quotes. Noel and Jay Z are currently in a slanging match (see Anthony Augustine's alloneword.ca column for more) and just this week, Q magazine, the U.K's top-selling music periodical, has devoted a staggering 50 pages to the band in its September issue.
Sometimes it seems that Oasis' notoriety has pushed its music to the background but, as the live sextet reminded a Winnipeg crowd of 7,000 on Monday night, this is a group that also created some of the hallmark tunes of the mid-to-late '90s, becoming as synonymous with the decade's middle as Nirvana was with its beginning.
You can argue that statement if you like but, if you were at the gig Monday, you'd know this was one of those shows that had people saying 'Hey, I know this song . and this one . and this one.'
Blissfully, too, this was an arena show that wasn't tastelessly overdone. There were no frills here. As The Who did last year, Oasis played on a clean stage, backed by four smallish, vertical video screens and a bright but not overbearing lighting rig. The vibe was cool and, because Noel, Liam, guitarist Gem Archer, bassist Andy Bell, keyboardist Jay Darlington and drummer Chris Sharrock, don't move around a lot, the essence of this gig was all in its music. (Even if Liam's static, learning stance makes him the complete opposite of, say, Gord Downie, it also makes him completely compelling to watch.)
Lyla, from 2004's Don't Believe the Truth album was second song up, and it proved a rousing treat for the band's newer fans. There were four new tracks, too, from the upcoming Dig Out Your Soul album (released here Oct. 7). While new single The Shock of the Lightning and album cuts To Be Where There's Life, Ain't Got Nothin' and Falling Down all point to a riff-oriented, grooving direction, it really was the older stuff that got the Winnipeg crowd roaring.
The Masterplan (title track from the band's B-sides disc) was the tune that kicked the show into high gear. Followed by the lovely and lively Songbird and Slide Away it led right into Morning Glory, which began an arena-wide singalong that didn't let up until the earworm-ish Wonderwall and Supersonic closed off the main set.
Noel calmed things down again with Don't Look Back in Anger (aka 'the Sally Song') off the top of the encore but two songs late,r Champagne Supernova had voices a-singing and lighters a-flicking once more before the band shuffled everyone home with a rousing cover of I Am the Walrus.
— John Kendle |
Uptown
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