COURTESY OF BIG BROTHER RECORDINGS
Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Aug. 31.
Before Oasis performed “Don’t Look Back in Anger” at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Aug. 31, Noel Gallagher asked how many people in the crowd were seeing the band for this first time. And a big portion of the crowd, it seemed, responded in the affirmative.
“This is why we’re doing it,” Gallagher said. “You may have wondered what it might be like to sing this next song, with 60 (or) 70,000 of your fellow Oasis fans. Well, you’re about to find out what that feeling is like.”
COURTESY OF BIG BROTHER RECORDINGS
Liam Gallagher at MetLife Stadium.
If you are wondering how a band that hasn’t had a Top 40 hit in The United States for the last 30 years was able to sell out New Jersey’s largest concert venue for two consecutive nights … Gallagher’s comment says it all. The British band (which also performed at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 1) is responsible for some classic songs — most notably, “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova.” And many rock fans have never had an opportunity to hear them, and sing along, in a big concert setting — and, in the case of “Champagne Supernova,” which is being played last on this tour, watch a big fireworks show, perfectly suited for the song’s lyrics, at the conclusion.
And so this has become, somehow, THE rock event of the summer.
Wait a moment, you say. Weren’t Oasis always regarded as a band that knew their way around a hook, but didn’t put on much of a stage show?
This is where the band has really upped its game. Yes, band members still stay rooted in their positions, hardly moving around at all. (It is a rare stadium show these days that doesn’t have ramps that reach out into the audience, or a smaller second stage, or something like that, but this one didn’t.) But the tour — rather minimally titled Oasis Live ’25, by the way — features elaborate videos and projections on most songs, so the musicians’ staticness becomes a strength. Since they are never moving, the visuals can be built around them, with every element fine-tuned for maximum effect.
COURTESY OF BIG BROTHER RECORDINGS
Noel Gallagher at MetLife Stadium.
This all suits the band’s music very effectively. Noel Gallagher, who writes most of the band’s songs, and his brother Liam, who sings lead most of the time, have had a notoriously problematic relationship through the years. But as pop-rock craftsmen, they are as dependable as they come. And in concert, with a big, versatile band (including horns, on some numbers) behind them, they deliver Noel’s larger-than-life hooks and soaring melodies in a way that can’t be denied.
More than 24 hours after the show, I still can’t get “Roll With It” out of my head. And I don’t even particularly like “Roll With It.”
The crowd was pumped up from beginning to end. And while the band could have used a few more first-rate songs to really make the show thoroughly absorbing throughout its nearly two-hour length (I felt the energy sag just a bit during a mid-show stretch that included “Little by Little,” “D’You Know What I Mean?” and “Stand by Me”), the stadium positively shook from all the people jumping up and down when songs such as “Cigarettes & Alcohol” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” were performed. And saving “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova” for the last three encores made for a feel-good ending that few bands could top.
This was the fourth North American show of the Oasis Live ’25 tour, following two in Toronto and one in Chicago. Liam spoke, early in the evening, about how much the band loves The United States. “We’ve even got one of your guys on the drums,” he said of American drummer Joey Waronker, whose past credits include Beck and R.E.M., and who is touring with Oasis for the first time.
COURTESY OF BIG BROTHER RECORDINGS
Oasis fans at MetLife Stadium.
Gallagher continued later, “We love coming here, it’s fucking beautiful. But what we didn’t like is being told by … record companies, ‘You gotta play the game, kids, or you’ll be chopped liver. You gotta kiss some ass, or you’ll be chopped liver.’ But I can stand here tonight in front of you beautiful people, in this magnificent stadium, and tell ya, you don’t have to play the fucking game.”
Gallagher also dedicated “Live Forever” to “the kiddies from Minneapolis” — referring to the victims of a recent mass shooting — and “Slide Away” to the “lovebirds” in the house. He’s 52 now (Noel is 58), and whatever insolence these guys have shown in the past doesn’t really seem like a factor anymore. And if there is any lingering tension between Liam and Noel — their inability to see eye to eye has been largely responsible for the long hiatus between tours, and the fact that Oasis has not released a studio album since 2008 — there was no sign of it.
The other bands on the bill fit were well chosen to complement Oasis’ music without offering exactly the same thing.
Middle band Cage the Elephant’s frenetic stage presence couldn’t be more different from Oasis’ steady focus and aversion to spontaneity. And show-opener Cast — formed in Liverpool in the ’90s, and soon to release a new album — had an unpretentious likeability that was nothing like the more distant edginess that Oasis (despite the increasing graciousness that has come with age) still can’t totally shake.
It was a smartly assembled trio of bands — which is not surprising, given that everything about this tour seems to have been put together with a great deal of thought.
COURTESY OF BIG BROTHER RECORDINGS
Fireworks accompanied the grand finale of Oasis’ concert at MetLife Stadium.
Here is Oasis’ setlist and, below it, some videos:
“Hello”
“Acquiesce”
“Morning Glory”
“Some Might Say”
“Bring It on Down”
“Cigarettes & Alcohol”
“Fade Away”
“Supersonic”
“Roll With It”
“Talk Tonight”
“Half the World Away”
“Little by Little”
“D’You Know What I Mean?”
“Stand by Me”
“Cast No Shadow”
“Slide Away”
“Whatever”
“Live Forever”
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”
Encore:
“The Masterplan”
“Don’t Look Back in Anger”
“Wonderwall”
“Champagne Supernova”
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