{"id":208608,"date":"2025-09-07T21:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T21:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/208608\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T21:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T21:47:12","slug":"oasis-reunion-show-stirs-up-fans-emotions-at-the-rose-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/208608\/","title":{"rendered":"Oasis reunion show stirs up fans’ emotions at the Rose Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Noel Gallagher scanned the audience at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night and pointed down at a fan in the front row.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung lady, what\u2019s your name?\u201d he asked, tilting his head to try to catch the answer. \u201cI can\u2019t really hear you, but this next song is for you.\u201d <\/p>\n

As he spoke, a camera found a woman wearing an Oasis T-shirt openly weeping \u2014 openly sobbing \u2014 and sent her image to the giant video screens flanking the stage. \u201cShe\u2019s been in tears all night, this girl,\u201d Gallagher added, \u201cwhich I hope is not a review of the f\u2014 gig.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not far from it, in fact: Since launching its reunion tour in early July, Oasis \u2014 the swaggering British rock band<\/a> formed in the early 1990s by Gallagher on guitar and his younger brother Liam on lead vocals \u2014 has been traveling the world inspiring great outpourings of emotion wherever it goes. On social media, memes have proliferated equating the catharsis to be had at an Oasis concert to a form of therapy; more than one observer has suggested that gathering with tens of thousands of people to sing along with the Gallaghers\u2019 songs might turn out to be the cure for the male loneliness epidemic.<\/p>\n

Along with the blockbuster ticket sales and the pop-up merch stores<\/a>, this nightly purification ritual has positioned Oasis Live \u201925 \u2014 the band\u2019s first run of shows in more than a decade and a half \u2014 as this year\u2019s version of Taylor Swift\u2019s Eras tour. Which of course some tour was destined to be: At a moment of encroaching technological alienation, humans are naturally searching out opportunities for real-world connection (which is one reason why thousands paid money last month to sit in a movie theater and watch Netflix\u2019s \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d for the second \u2014 or fifth, or 12th \u2014 time with other humans).<\/p>\n

\"Oasis\" <\/p>\n

Andy Bell, from left, Joey Waronker, Liam Gallagher, Paul Arthurs and Noel Gallagher onstage at the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n

(Kevin Winter \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Yet I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d have predicted that an old rock group with three guitarists that would get it done, never mind this old rock group in particular: The first of two dates at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Saturday\u2019s sold-out show came 31 years after Oasis almost broke up for the first time following a chaotic 1994 gig at the Whisky a Go Go where the famously combative Gallaghers \u2014 having mistaken crystal meth for cocaine, as the story goes \u2014 nearly came to blows; Oasis\u2019 long-promised breakup finally took place in 2009, after which the brothers spent years trading savage insults in the press (and anywhere else they could do it).<\/p>\n

How exactly Noel, now 58, and Liam, 52, managed to come back together has yet to be told; one suspects that sufficiently humongous bags of cash had something to do with it. On the road, the Gallaghers are accompanied by Oasis\u2019 original guitarist, Paul Arthurs (known delightfully as Bonehead), along with Gem Archer on guitar, Andy Bell on bass, Joey Waronker on drums and Christian Madden on keyboards. At the Rose Bowl, celebrities in attendance included Paul McCartney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billie Eilish, Metallica\u2019s James Hetfield, Laufey and MGK \u2014 a varied list of names that tells you something about the broad appeal of classic Oasis songs like \u201cWonderwall,\u201d \u201cRoll With It,\u201d \u201cSome Might Say,\u201d \u201cChampagne Supernova\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Look Back in Anger,\u201d the last of which was the tune Noel dedicated to the woman shedding tears of joy in the front row.<\/p>\n

\"Oasis\" <\/p>\n

Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher in a rare display of brotherly love at the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n

(Kevin Winter \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The songs indeed were the thing on Saturday. Oasis sounded great, with those three guitars snarling and shimmering over sturdy grooves that mapped a middle ground among punk, glam and late-Beatles balladry; Liam\u2019s voice was somehow both brawny and sweet as he reached for the high notes with a kind of taunting effortlessness. And the brothers engaged in a bit of lovable stage business, as when Liam \u2014 looking superb as always in his signature shades and anorak \u2014 balanced a tambourine on his head and offered gnomic shout-outs to Woody Woodpecker and to the sword swallowers in the audience.<\/p>\n

But this was the least showy pop show I\u2019ve seen in years. Oasis\u2019 comeback is as much about the crowd as it is about the band \u2014 as much about the people singing along with the music as it is about the people making it. Song after song took the imperative mood: \u201cAcquiesce,\u201d \u201cBring It on Down,\u201d \u201cFade Away,\u201d \u201cStand by Me,\u201d \u201cCast No Shadow,\u201d \u201cSlide Away\u201d \u2014 each a command happily obeyed until the next one was issued forth, each abstract enough in its emotional specifics to satisfy whatever need it might meet. (\u201cSomeday you will find me \/ Caught beneath the landslide \/ In a Champagne supernova in the sky\u201d still makes gloriously little sense.)<\/p>\n

Because they\u2019d done so much to bring the audience together, you couldn\u2019t help by the end of the concert to long for a glimpse of a little brotherly love between the Gallaghers. They obliged during the finale, Liam circling Noel then clapping him on the back as the last chords of \u201cChampagne Supernova\u201d rang out and fireworks filled the sky with smoky light. It wasn\u2019t much, and it was more than enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Noel Gallagher scanned the audience at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night and pointed down at a fan…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":208609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[40226,1582,276,114568,114569,114567,100346,2961,9068,224,5337,114566,31862,31285,3546,39338,5395,4370,25467,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-208608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-audience","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-champagne-supernova","12":"tag-era-tour","13":"tag-gallaghers","14":"tag-guitar","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-liam","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-next-song","20":"tag-noel-gallagher","21":"tag-oasis","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-rose-bowl","24":"tag-saturday","25":"tag-show","26":"tag-thousand","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115165216817876728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}