Oasis Hit Top Form In Brum

Oasis, National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, Tuesday October 14

Having your breath sucked away as you are gently consumed by the hot, sweaty mass of the mosh pit is often not the best position from which to review a gig.

But then this is Oasis - where having your clothes soaked by pint glass aeroplanes carrying leftover lager is all part of the fun.

Few bands create the kind of debate among music lovers as the Manchester four piece. While legions of fans hail each album a masterpiece there as just as many who sneeringly dismiss the Gallagher brothers as an ageing irrelevance, rapidly becoming Status Quo for the 90s generation.

I didn’t hear many voicing the latter opinion after the band treated a sold-out NIA crowd to a consistently frenetic and often brilliant 1 hour 45 minute set.

Liam Gallagher swaggers on stage oozing arrogance as the band launch into Rock n’ Roll Star - the opening track from 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe - still sounding as fresh and as relevant as it did then.

More classics follow as Cigarettes and Alcohol, Wonderwall, Slide Away and The Masterplan draw ever greater cheers from the masses.

True, material from latest album Dig Out Your Soul receives a far more muted response - guitarist Gem Archer’s sluggish To Be Where There’s Life a prime example - but this is a problem for all major bands when debuting new material on tour, be it Oasis, R.E.M, Radiohead or U2.

For whether you like them or not, this is the status Oasis have attained. The fact they still sell out tour’s within minutes and can thrill a crowd more than 15 years into their career is precisely why they cannot be simply dismissed.

Noel takes over vocals at the beginning of the encore for Don’t Look Back in Anger, with thousands crooning the chorus back to him, before the band finish off with the epic Champagne Supernova and Beatles classic I Am The Walrus.

Show over, a smiling and contented 13,000-strong crowd head for the exits - satisfied they have witnessed a band on top form.

Ultimately, little else matters.

Source: www.halesowennews.co.uk