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Live: Oasis
Finsbury Park, London

Live Review
6-7-2002
SashaS

 

Oasis’ existentialism for a tentative generation

Let’s review the facts: three days at Finsbury Park means 120 tickets sold (out within few hours of going on the market), several severe showers (rehearsal for a Noah-type deluge?) haven’t dampened audience’s spirit who should also be proud of performing (vocally) well, songs that create bigger moshpit than the Brixton Academy stalls, an army of Liam’s look-alikes and lost-out-alikes… The banner above the stage reads – ‘Exist’.

It’s the trad-fair of two screens on each side, back projection of images and lights that are ineffectively battling the natural light bar the last 20 minutes; sound that is wafted across the field water-logged and muddied to one’s ankles (if wearing high-heels). It’s far from an ideal ambient for music appreciation… And yet, Oasis have no problem to capture us with a set that is their standard best.

We get seven new songs from the current ‘Heathen Chemistry’, both hit singles (‘The Hindu Times’, ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’) but particularly fine turns out to be ‘Little By Little’ sung by Noel. And yet, it is the old favourites that shower magic over the crowd: ‘Live Forever’ almost reaches the heaven gate’s buzzer but it is ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ that lands us inside the paradise. It might sound incredulous but each and every soul of this 40-thou-plus sang it word-for-word! (And mostly in tune.)

All detractors of rock should have been here to see the positive power of music: its uniting, cathartic, healing, liberating, ass-kickingly brilliant essence! Which only works into the hands of the band’s dissers: the (cautious) thumbs-up to ‘Heathen Chemistry’ and chart-topping debut (on Sunday) has been marred by the Q mag poll about the Oasis’ back catalogue popularity pointing up that songs from the latter two albums, ‘Be Here Now’ and ‘Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants’, are considered far inferior to the cuts from the first duo of discs. Liam, fairly quiet this evening, didn’t miss to comment on it with an aggro- and f-worded statement.

No neeeed, man; let the music speak for itself and ‘Morning Glory’ sounds impressive live. And there’s a duality: if the earlier songs were better, as fans believe, than the current line-up of the band is far superior to the old one and can make any song sound like an epic adventure! Oasis don’t change, they just are. As for Liam’s outburst, c’mon – Oasis went through its ‘Spinal Tap’-ish period over those two albums! ‘My Generation’, the Who cover they adopted as finale (still prefer them finishing with ‘Champagne Supernova’!), is dedicated to the band’s late bassist, John Entwistle.

The ghost of The Beatles forever permeates Oasis sound but they are more like ‘All The Young Dudes’, i.e. Mott The Hoople, for masses craving tempus ludendi. They are the people’s band that is, as Noel boasted on the breaky-TV, “…Still the biggest draw in the land.” Triumph of working class heroes; and again tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, as that Shakespeare dude wrote. Liam confirmed it when claiming that there would be British rock as long as he’s alive.

He needs to learn to project over vast spaces but, Oasis fans being blindingly loyal and generous, they embrace Liam readily to preclude any effort of the kind. Otherwise, it is the soundtrack to a tentative generation, solidly scented as a weedy humidity…

Complete set list:

‘F**king In The Bushes’ (intro)
‘Hello’
‘The Hindu Times’
‘Hung In A Bad Place’
‘Go Let It Out’
‘Columbia’
‘Morning Glory’
‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’
‘Little By Little’
‘D’you Know What I Mean’
‘Cigarettes And Alcohol’
‘Live Forever’
‘Better Man’
‘She’s Electric’
‘Born On A Different Cloud’
‘Acquiesce’
‘Force Of Nature’
‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’
‘Some Might Say’
‘My Generation’

 


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