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Oasis at MetLife Stadium New Jersey
Oasis played the first night in New Jersey on August 31st.
As Tommy Lee Jones might have said in Men In Black, sitting not too far away from MetLife Stadium here in New Jersey: 12 months ago, everybody knew Oasis hadn’t broken America.
Oasis and America. The UK and America…Sure, British TV shows might now be measured in seasons, Halloween lasts for a month and school leavers go off to prom nights, but it remains a slightly awkward special relationship that exists between the two, like a family reunion after years apart full of petty arguments between separate people living separate lives.
It never helped Oasis then that the band and its success is woven into the fabric of British culture more so than any other, a fervent devotion in their homeland that can be traced back to something much deeper than merely a ridiculous run of classic singles, albums and B-sides during the purplest of patches in the mid-1990s.
Oasis had the context of bringing some confidence back to a soon-to-be post-Thatcher’s Britain, of briefly reclaiming the Union Flag from the darkest days of far right 80’s extremism, of riding football’s boom in the wake of Gazza’s tears and the birth of the Premier League.
Americans? Americans have triumphalism. Americans plant the stars and stripes on their front lawns. Americans call it soccer.
Americans also have a certain folded-arms expectation when the next big thing from over there is crossing the Atlantic for the first time. The Beatles waited for a number one. U2 flatly refused to leave until they’d made it. Coldplay continue to play the game better than Garry Kasparov.
Oasis? Oasis made their introductions on crystal meth. Their singer jumped off a plane on the runway when they were about to show everyone why they were the biggest band in the world. Their interviews came with subtitles.
Awkward.
And yet, the seeds for the hundreds of thousands of tickets which were sold in Toronto, Chicago, New Jersey and Los Angeles upon the band’s Live 25 reunion announcement almost exactly a year ago are not necessarily hard to find.
Almost despite themselves, Oasis did have Top 10 success in America. They did build a devoted fanbase, fans with their own long held, cherished memories. They did enjoy longevity.
Look at their last tour and you’ll find the sold-out signs up at Madison Square Garden; one of their biggest radio hits with The Shock Of The Lightning; their highest album chart position since the madness of Be Here Now.
Shorn of the media circus which followed the Gallaghers around in the UK, American fans were drawn to Oasis with their own clarity; tonight, Liam Gallagher is quick to acknowledge the unique path taken by Oasis which has finally arrived at sold-out stadiums in the US.
“You need to play the game kid they said,” he remembers, the irony not lost as 70,000 devotees get stuck into a setlist whose sole purpose appears to be pure, unpretentious celebration.
There’s many ways to judge greatness, and the reaction of a crowd, but if two hours of constant, arms raised communal singalongs is the real barometer for the best band in the world, then there’s no-one anywhere to touch Oasis right now.
Of those, Supersonic proves to be a particular favorite, powered by its universal message to be yourself, ‘cos you can’t be no-one else, while the driving, old school rock and roll romance of Slide Away is arguably their track best suited for an American audience.
What’s happened to the Oasis back catalogue and its streaming revolution during their 16 years away is probably best summed up when the band deviate away from Definitely Maybe and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?.
Stand By Me, once derided, not least by its writer, is now close to being the biggest anthem of the night, but that crown might well be taken by Little By Little, a live behemoth these days from the Oasis of the 2000s when apparently everyone had stopped listening.
It makes a strong case for more of that decade to be represented, where a career highlight such as Gas Panic! could easily take the place of the otherwise throwaway pop of Roll With It.
But there’s simply no room for a comedown tonight. This isn’t the morning after which so much of Oasis 2.0 had been. This is the party being restarted, the irresistible formula of old back in abundance with Noel Gallagher taking on complete creative control.
If Oasis as cultural phenomenon, on display in the UK this summer at a level bigger even than their 90’s heyday, is of less significance on this side of the pond, then dialled up in New Jersey is the other most notable aspect of the reunion so far: that the band may well have returned sounding better than they ever have.
Noel is now once again on full guitar hero mode, the man who understands the Oasis sound better than anyone leading an amalgamation of the two iterations of the band where the understated intricacy of Gem Archer and Andy Bell is combined with the early days bellowing speed-bag rhythm of Bonehead, all backed by Joey Waronker delivering exactly what Noel covets most from a drummer: complete, no frills reliability.
And of those 70,000 voices which continue on through more main set highlights such as Some Might Say, Live Forever and Rock N Roll Star, there’s one which matters more than any other.
Liam Gallagher is having an incredible comeback of his own, flawless all night and the true star of the show proving again to be perhaps the only singer in existence who could keep up with the unrelenting noise and confusion emanating from both his band and audience.
The gig radiates with a resolute focus from Liam and Oasis, and while the chaos of the past might be behind them, that jeopardy seems overrated when the added professionalism is finally making Oasis the band they always deserved to be. It might just be what America has been crying out for too.
Can all this really abruptly end in just a few weeks’ time? It’s hard to imagine how. Granted, Oasis were often accused of never knowing when to quit when they were on top. Granted, they said the revolution would not be televised. Yet, it feels like it has to be.
Even the gig itself doesn’t provide a definite full stop. As the unrivalled encore of The Masterplan, Don’t Look Back In Anger and Wonderwall comes to an end, a rousing Champagne Supernova instead drifts away like an end of season cliff-hanger, providing a ‘to be continued’ into an immediate future which feels as tantalisingly unwritten for Oasis as it has done at any point since 1994.
Indeed, it feels impossible to second guess what lies ahead as this latest chapter of the Live 25 tour continues to blow away so many misconceptions about this band, and begins to open up so many more compelling possibilities.
12 months ago, everybody knew the Gallaghers weren’t getting along. 12 months ago, everybody knew it wouldn’t be the same. And 12 months ago, everybody knew Oasis hadn’t broken America.
Imagine what we’ll know tomorrow.