Oasis @ Horden Pavilion, 29/11/05

November 29, 2005 from 9pm was a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me.

Being an old school Oasis fan from the Definately Maybe days, and never seeing them live before was 10 years worth of build up for me. And no matter how hard you try to make it a ‘non-event’, you’ve always got it in the back of your mind – ‘This is my High School music. High School was great – and so this is going to be too’.

Ten years in the telling of this story that is Oasis, their definitive tune definately hasn’t changed.

Liam’s ‘Steddy Eddie’ swagger – forward step to the mic, backward step and sneer – if we didn’t expect it, would be down right rude and Noel’s sad demeanour and interest in one thing – his guitar, oh and sneering distractedly at his brother, and we were down to the Oasis that we knew and loved (or at least loved to hate).

The set started out with the theme from Snatch which launched into Fuckin in the Bushes.

Liam stretched his thick British neck back and made love to his microphone and Noel hunched his shoulders over, slashing away had his guitar to give us a (What’s the Story) Morning Glory - that brought unexpected tears of nostalgia to my eyes – that we were all never to forget.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for those people who have witnessed it) the Gallagher brothers were well behaved as far as their on-going blood feud goes. Hoeve, Liam kicked back to his thuggish Mancurian ways by dedicating a few retarded-like gestures ‘for the deaf kids’ – extremely bad taste – and had a big, fat, huge sulk when a water bottle came flying through the air onto stage – and missed him by about three metres. He proceeded to obscenely gesture in the direction the water bottle came from – to the delight of the 16-year-old girl punters in the front row. Noel was in top form also ribbing the cricket fans among us about the loss of the Ashes and also wishing Australia luck – ‘you’re going to need it, get used to losing’ in the World Cup next year.

The night was peppered with old favourite like Cigarettes and Alcohol, Rock n Roll Star, Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova and yet their new songs lacked the spark and vitality that their old classics drip with. Who knows, in 10 years time perhaps they will inspire the same nostalgia as their old classics do now?

The highlight was definitely their encore with Noel singing Don’t Look Back in Anger. He was extremely connected with his audience. Goes to show that with the years of experience he has racked up, he can play his audience exactly right and leave them with a feeling of well – good old-fashioned rock induced happiness – even if the whole set wasn’t a raving success.

The set ended with the tightest redition of My Generation by The Who I’ve ever heard. Liam’s raspy, whiny voice and Noel’s distorted guitar left fans panting and hollering for more – then the house lights came up.