Oasis @ Target Center 12/10/08

Last night I got home from work around 630pm. After months of not being able to decide what concert to go see (The Black Crowes or Oasis - both 12/10/08) we sat down and said, “ok, we’ll go park in Garage A and take the skyway over to the ticket office at the Target Center. If seats are good, we’ll hit up Oasis. If not, we’ll cross the street to 1st Ave. for the Crowes show".

This was a hard decision. I generally hate stadium shows. I like small venue shows. The smaller the better, but I’ve seen the Crowes a LOT, and never seen Oasis. Stadium acoustics always seems horrid. And I wouldn’t consider myself an audiophile by any means. Well, we ended up getting some great lower level tickets about 3 sections back half way up the section. Great view and I couldn’t pass them up. And the acoustics were really good, considering it’s a stadium show. I will now return to the Target Center for other concerts. My friend mentioned he heard the acoustics have been improved at the Target Center and even from my untrained ear, I’d say it’s true.

The vocals were a little muffled at times, but part of that is Liam smashing his mouth against the mic. I’ve never been able to understand him when he speaks anyway. Noel you could understand, but I’ve never had trouble understanding Noel. Anyway, it’s exactly what I expect for a stadium show. People stood there, bobbed their heads to a few tunes and generally stood around. Even on the main floor there wasn’t a lot of movement. Well, except sporadically in the first few rows. Later, Liam dedicated a song to the “three stooges in front right there”. Not sure what he was referring to other than a couple people who you may have thought had pogo sticks they were jumping so much.

Oasis I have often thought write some of the most melodic songs I’ve ever heard. And a few songs into the show I realized it is pretty amazing how they can hold those melodies together live even when Liam head butts his vocals into the mic and backs away like the mic is kryptonite, basically ruining the vocal melody…Noel as you can tell he’s done many times before compensates for it and everything is fine. Liam’s swagger on stage was full throttle (the cockiest walk and stances you’d ever imagine). Noel played around with the crowd a bit. At one point when Liam was off stage Noel started talking and asking the crowd why we live in MN. He said, “you do realize there is a state in your country called California, right?” The crowd booed in a playful manner. Noel retorts, “yeah, well, over there right now they’re wearing shorts and girls are in bikini’s while you’re over here freezing you’re ass off!” After the final encore (which was 4 songs) Noel said, “see you soon.” Then stepped away, and once more back towards the mic, “in California!” That got a good laugh from the crowd.

The show was definitely what others have mentioned of the ’08 tour so far; it’s more of a shoegazer performance. For those unfamiliar with shoegazing and for me not wanting to explain much, it is basically standing in the lime light playing your songs without much physical movement…gazing into the crowd. Sounds boring, right? Oasis has the ability to mix that gazing-stand-still with such great melody and raw british guitar rock n’ roll that it doesn’t matter. You’re still excited to hear it. And besides, there is always Liam to watch who for whatever reason never gets boring. I found myself smiling at the cockiness of Liam strutting around on stage, holding a tambourine in his mouth and standing still facing the crowd for the first minute he got on stage. He flicked off people a few times in the front rows in good fun, made yelling hand gestures to his sound man once (that even the sound man couldn’t have understood), but overall Liam was extremely nice to the crowd. Lots of thank yous and even some banter which I didn’t expect from Liam. The basic lead-singer banter, but honestly I only expected the banter from Noel. Noel got creative on a few guitar solo’s and the best description is effortless. It shows he not only can compose an amazing song, but he can improvise great as well. I don’t know the other guitar player, but he was fantastic. He is a very technique-strong guitar player. I was impressed.

Without a doubt the Dig Out Your Soul songs were the best of the night. Other things worth noting, Don’t Look Back In Anger was Noel on acoustic guitar, the drummer with a tambourine only, and the other guitarist on electric. It was a pretty cool version of the song. The crowd was belting the lyrics the whole time (to that and the other populars). Falling Down encore was awesome and I now have a new fondness for that song. Waiting for the Rapture is amazing. The way Noel sings that song is so cool. His voice was much better than Liam’s last night…but not really a surprise. Rock n’ Roll Star was a great opening song. Hearing Cigarettes & Alcohol 4 songs in was a nice surprise. On Morning Glory, Noel’s guitar sounded awesome – lots of energy there. Supersonic could have been the final song…and was until they came back for the 4 song encore. I will say that I think the Minnesota fans were a little ticked when they said Supersonic was the final song…that was at an hour and 10 minutes. I even turned to Janet and said “this is the quietest encore cheer I’ve ever heard.” They still came back and played another half hour. Total time was around 100 minutes. My Stadium show qualms aside, this was a 5/5 show.

Rock 'n Roll Star
Lyla
The Shock Of The Lightning
Cigarettes & Alcohol
The Meaning Of Soul
To Be Where There's Life
Waiting for the Rapture
The Masterplan
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
Ain't Got Nothin'
The Importance Of Being Idle
I'm Outta Time
Wonderwall
Supersonic

Encore:
Don't Look Back In Anger
Falling Down
Champagne Supernova
I Am the Walrus