Oasis opened day number one of their three-night stand at London’s Finsbury Park on Friday, July 5th, in the pouring rain. As I was coming home from seeing “About a Boy” at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square on Friday evening, half the people on the tube in the packed trains going in all directions were caked with mud up to their knees. And they didn’t seem to mind. Instead, they seemed proud of where they got the mud: “Oasis!” they shouted when I asked. The mudbath of 2002.
When I arrived at Finsbury Park mid-afternoon Sunday, July 7th, it was fortunately a bit drier. I picked up my will-call tickets at the box office with no issue. Security, however, was tighter at this show than for boarding an international flight at the airport. After being patted down and my bottle of water confiscated (no outside drinks of any kind, even in plastic), my bag was searched, and specialized security even opened my tin of Altoids and rifled through it suspiciously, presumably looking for pills or drugs.
Once I was inside the park arena, the show soon began.
The Coral
There’s a fair amount of hype and critical acclaim for this band here in the UK, but in this reviewer’s opinion Coral Reefer Band) doesn’t live up to it. I was unmoved throughout the entire show, and apparently a fair number of others were equally unimpressed. Many of the 40,000 people who would attend this show had yet to arrive at 2:30 when The Coral played. A concert-goer expressed his feelings about the band to me by pointing at the “EXIST” sign over the main stage (placed there by Oasis) and saying, “I wish they didn’t.”
Proud Mary
Proud Mary is a band from Manchester signed to Noel Gallagher’s new label Sour Mash Records, which would help explain why they were on this bill. Some people said the band reminded them of Stereophonics, but unfortunately, they sound more like their name. Although they were possibly referring to Mary Queen of Scots when they named themselves, they sounded more like a bad Credence Clearwater Revival Cover band playing “Proud Mary” over and over again with hints of Stereophonics and Travis popping up along the way.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
This San Francisco act started okay, but went from sounding okay to sounding really not so good. Although the crowd was excited to see this band from the US of A, they really didn’t deliver as they should have. (I should have listened to Jay Hurley from the Minneapolis band Hovercraft, as he said they were not so good live.) What was amazing was that the crowd continued to love them even after they had moved through their hits like “Love Burns” and “Red Eyes and Tears.” The front area of the stage was a veritable downpour of Grotsch bottles and Reef (orange soda and vodka.) I’d never seen anything like it. If the band had moved more, it would have helped me catch their vibe. But they seemed to just be going through the motions. In fairness, BRMC is on the right track, but they need to loosen up. More songs like “Whatever Happened to My Rock and Roll (Punk Song)” would be most welcome.
Oasis
Oasis took the stage at about 8 p.m. Although hoping for more insulting Liam Gallagher babble, we didn’t get much of that this particular night. Oasis marched through the exact same set list that they had played Friday and Saturday, according to NME.
Highlights included “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Cigarettes and Alcohol,” with my favorite line, “Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there’s nothing worth working for,” and “Born on a Different Cloud.”
Like them or not, they’re still Oasis. Bad show or good show, it’s still an Oasis show. It’s hard to beat being caught up in the energy of 40,000 punters singing drunkenly along to their favorite Oasis songs in the middle of a park in north London on a Sunday night – unless you count the Knebworth show in 1996 that drew 250,000 fans over two days in the UK’s largest ever non-festival, non-free rock show. However, 75% of those polled by NME said the Finsbury Park show was a better experience.
I’m not here to recommend you see Oasis. If you are a fan, you probably saw them years ago when they were at their prime, or at least you should have. But if you do choose to see them, see them soon before they slide any further away on their road to oblivion. Their new album, Heathen Chemistry, which I’ve now heard most of, is actually not bad, although it’s probably not the second-best Oasis album, as Noel Gallagher claims. It’s definitely in the top four. But that isn’t saying much, is it?
The show ended about 9:30 with a cover of The Who‘s “My Generation” as a tribute to the recently deceased John Entwistle. (All Liam said was, “This one’s for John.) Immediately thereafter, my 40,000-strong entourage and I made our way through the packed London streets to the Finsbury Park tube station. And presumably, we all made it home alive.
Oasis set list:
Fucking In The Bushes
Hello
The Hindu Times
Hung In A Bad Place
Go Let It Out
Columbia
Morning Glory
Stop Crying Your Heart Out
Little By Little
Dyou Know What I Mean
Cigarettes And Alcohol
Live Forever
Better Man
Shes Electric
Born On A Different Cloud
Acquiesce
Force Of Nature
Dont Look Back In Anger
Some Might Say
My Generation