In Their Second Act, Oasis Returns as Everything They Once Promised to Be

“We’re not arrogant,” Oasis lead guitarist Noel Gallagher once famously said. “We just believe we’re the best band in the world.” Your mileage may vary on whether that statement was anything close to true back when he originally said it, but it feels… kind of like it might be now? And not (just) because of their music (which still rips, for those who are curious), but because it appears they’ve done the impossible. They got back together—for real.

Look, when the news broke last year that Oasis was reuniting, the cynicism was off the charts. Probably deservedly so, given the personalities involved, and the variety of ugly things they’ve said to and about one another over the years. The band split back in 2009 after years of heated interpersonal drama and a particularly brutal backstage blow-up in Paris, and, from all reports (and dozens of news cycles), brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher haven’t been what one might call friendly in many years. Surely, an Oasis reunion was a disaster waiting to happen. Lots of people assumed it never would. And if the lads did make it to the tour dates without the band combusting all over again, haters argued that the resulting shows would be a disaster, a phoned-in cash grab (at best).

It is safe to say that is not what has happened.

Like many of the fans attending the third and final night of Oasis’s stop at Edinburgh’s Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, I was ready for the nostalgia of it all. Oasis and their music played a pivotal role in my life, a seemingly delirious number of years ago now—what do you mean, Definitely Maybe has turned 30??—and, if anything, I was ready to honor that memory, tip my (bucket) hat to Noel and Liam in thanks while I had the chance, and keep it moving. That’s what these sorts of tours are, generally. Anyway, here’s “Wonderwall,” right? Joke’s on me, folks, because what I was not prepared for was for the Oasis Live 25 reunion to be the single greatest stadium show I’ve ever seen, but proof positive that Oasis isn’t done rocking our collective worlds just yet. It helps, of course, that I saw the tour in the U.K., where Oasis-mania has once again taken over the country. But it’s also impossible to not be impressed. The tour is immense, but more important than that, it’s sincere, in ways that I think everyone who predicted that Noel and Liam would be at one another’s throats again within a show or two probably needs to eat a little crow about.

It almost goes without saying that the show itself is great: slick, propulsive, excellently paced, with some colorful background visuals and a fireworks display to close out the encore. But it’s mostly the same as it ever was: the Gallaghers on opposite sides of a relatively bare stage, with a confident reliance on the music itself to carry the day. (The most choreographed moment you’re likely to see is Liam balancing a tambourine on his head, which isn’t staged so much as inevitable.) The sound is immaculate throughout—gone is the vocal strain and struggle that was so often present throughout the band’s later years, and current bandmates Andy Bell, Gem Archer, and Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs (!!), along with new addition Joey Waronker on drums, seem to have discovered the proper background alchemy that elevates without overpowering either brother.

Liam’s signature rasp and snarl powers effortlessly through tracks performed at double speed—Oasis has always sung live as though they’re running away from something, and that has most definitely not changed—but without ever sounding like he’s pushing for a note his register can no longer reach. (I suspect there’s a reason he’s not singing “Don’t Go Away” or “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” on this tour, much as it breaks my heart.) It’s a ferocious, fantastic performance, and it sounds like nothing so much as a man who’s been waiting the better part of two decades to grab hold of this moment with both hands.

It’s approximately 1,000-degrees in the stadium, but Liam’s wearing a full-on parka and a scarf along with some serious rock star shades, because, of course, he is. He has sacrificed the bucket hat he’s been wearing lately, in his apparent only concession to the heat. He’s a bit chatty; for the third show in a row he takes a break to talk shit about the Edinburgh City Council, (who slammed the band’s fans as fat and unattractive when the reunion shows were announced last year), tells the audience how stunning they look, and thanks them for putting up with the band’s… everything over the years. (“I know we’re a pain in the ass.”) He dedicates “Live Forever” to those who didn’t make it to see this reunion and complains about not being allowed to throw his tambourine into the crowd anymore. He seems, by every possible indicator, to be having a blast.

Noel, for his part, has genuinely never sounded better vocally and is demonstrably reactive and even a bit emotional in a way that I can’t imagine any of us expected to see (or that his younger self would have ever approved of). He looks so pleasantly taken aback every time the crowd of some 70,000 people enthusiastically sings one of his choruses back to him, and though he’s less talkative than his brother, he still takes a moment to thank all the young fans who’ve shown up, despite most of them not having been around for the heyday of Oasis’s first run. He and Liam walk onstage holding hands and exit after hugging, and if you’d told me five years ago this was something that could ever happen again, I would have laughed until I passed out. Man, I’m really enjoying being wrong.

They’ve been playing the same setlist every night and it’s full of heavy hitters—the final encore sequence of “The Masterplan,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Wonderwall,” and “Champagne Supernova” is honestly insane—but what stands out most prominently are the lesser-known tracks, the ones a lot of mainstream American music listeners probably couldn’t name if you offered to pay them. In this show, they’re at its heart. There’s “Slide Away” with its thundering outro; “Little By Little” and the surprising catharsis of its sing-along chorus (justice for the perennially underrated Heathen Chemistry!); the blazing opening guitar riffs of “Cigarettes and Alcohol” underscored by the crowd’s communal Poznan bounce; the heartfelt harmonies on “Stand By Me” that nowadays sound an awful lot like forgiveness; and, of course, “Acquiesce,” the B-side banger from the (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? era that’s possibly still the best song the band has ever made.

Both Liam and Noel have done their share of solo projects over the years since Oasis split. And in the process, both have regularly covered some of their previous greatest hits. Noel sang “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Wonderwall” often, and Liam took cracks at everything from “Slide Away” and “Morning Glory” to, on one memorable occasion, “Half the World Away.” (That Reading Festival performance early last year, where he unironically dedicated the song to Noel, probably should have been our first clue that the proverbial guns had, in fact, finally fallen silent.)

But “Acquiesce” is the one they have to play together, because it simply doesn’t work any other way. It comes early on, but it’s the best song in the set by a mile, with Liam spitting through the verses and Noel confidently holding up the chorus. While its evident themes of reconciliation are not what anyone might call subtle—this is still Oasis and subtle is not their brand—that doesn’t make them any less powerful. Reader, I was in tears, and not for the only time that night. (Apparently, I also find “Cast No Shadow” a lot more moving than I used to.)

An Oasis reunion was always going to bring critics out of the woodwork: music snobs who consider themselves too good for the band’s stadium anthems; performative haters who snottily assume just because something is popular that also automatically means it’s bad; closet classicists that get weirdly judgy about the lads’ working class Manchester roots; casual celebrity gawkers hoping for a chance to watch another all-too-famous Gallagher brothers crash out once again. But it’s never mattered less. The band has grown up now, and so have we, settled into a middle age that seems to have, if nothing else, brought some important home truths into clarity.

Chief among them, to crib a line from “Acquiesce”: We need each other. If you’ve seen any footage from the U.K. leg of this tour, you’ll have some sense of where I’m going with this, with the shots of the massive crowds dancing, jumping, and singing every word back at the band. We’ve all had a shit few years—the members of Oasis themselves included, to varying degrees. In a global sense, everything from pandemics to political polarization has pushed us all further and further apart. There are fewer shared joys and communal spaces than ever outside of the internet, a closed-loop horror show that too often prioritizes and uplifts the ugliest and worst aspects of humanity. (Hello to the haters who will inevitably locate and shit all over this piece.)

Oasis

But standing in a sea of people sporting Oasis Live 25-themed football jerseys and Adidas tracksuit jackets, in a country thousands of miles from my own, I have rarely felt more comfortable or at home, and it’s a feeling that’s vanishingly rare in our current cultural moment. Hugging, dancing, crying with strangers—when’s the last time any of us did any of that? But as we all got hype together over the opening licks of “Hello,” the folks around me suddenly felt like lifelong friends. We need more of this in the world, not less.

So much of the Oasis experience the first time around was scowls and arrogance and performative attitude, set to a seemingly endless backing track of Noel and Liam arguing. This time? Nothing but smiles—from the crowd, from the band, from the Gallagher boys themselves. Middle age has, perhaps, of necessity, made us all mellow the fuck out. Part of growing older, I think, is learning to appreciate the moments in front of us, to genuinely allow ourselves to experience and embrace joy in a way our younger selves would have almost certainly found, as the kids put it today, cringe. Oasis has found its joy again, and in doing so, has become something bigger than any of us expected along the way. Those who’ve been dreaming about this reunion tour knew it was going to be a big deal, but I don’t think any of us truly understood how much.

How this will all play in America is, of course, still to be determined. It’s true, the United Kingdom offers the Gallaghers the sort of home-field advantage to launch this reunion run that every other act on the planet would probably kill for, and the band will head across the pond with nearly two months of riotous, near-perfect celebration behind them. Will U.S. arenas similarly embrace the communal party hug-it-out vibe, or will audiences head to the beer stand or the restroom the moment a B-side like “Fade Away” kicks in? Do Americans even know what a Poznan is? (Admittedly, some part of me is honestly looking forward to Liam explaining it.) But here’s my advice—and I’m also heading to the second New Jersey show in a couple of weeks, so I’m putting my money where my mouth is, folks: roll with it, embrace it, do the fucking Poznan. Hug your neighbor, sing the chorus to “Don’t Look Back in Anger” as loud as you can. If Noel and Liam Gallagher, of all people, have become sentimental enough to admit that they need each other (musically and otherwise), then surely it’s okay for the rest of us to admit that, too.

Lacy Baugher Milas writes about TV and Books at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB.