<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over the first two weeks of September 2025, I took my third consecutive concert trip to the WOAS-FM West Coast Bureau in Eugene, Oregon.\u00a0 This trip was a little different because I didn\u2019t get to actually see a live show.\u00a0 In 2023 and 2024, I got to see live performances at the Cuthbert Outdoor Amphitheater by Ringo Starr\u2019s All-Starr Band and John Fogerty\u2019s show on his\u00a0 hit laden \u2018I got my songs back\u2019 tour, respectively.\u00a0 This year\u2019s trip was geared around me cat sitting the WCB\u2019s three cats (Emma, Bernie, and Oscar) so Elizabeth and Todd could go and see one of the two reunion shows Oasis performed at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles.\u00a0 Emma is the \u2018grand dame\u2019 of the trio, Bernie is a former street cat (nosey but still a little wary), and the new kid is Oscar who is a polydactyl cat.\u00a0 As the youngest, Oscar is the pesky little brother and full of pep (and I have the battle scars to prove it from all the good natured roughhousing we did).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Before I came home, I did get to watch the DVD of a record breaking show Oasis had done at the Knebworth Festival back in 1996 so this trip wasn\u2019t totally devoid of music.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t paid too much attention to Oasis back in their prime so hearing their music fresh again almost thirty years later was a treat.\u00a0 They were a great live band back in 1996 so I was wondering how the brothers Gallagher (Noel and Liam) would pull this off after not working together for almost two decades.\u00a0 In a similar turn of events as happened to the Robinson brothers (Chris and Rich of the Black Crowes), a certain amount of tension had split Oasis.\u00a0 Some were not sure the rifts had healed enough for them to pull this off but the reviews from other shows were upbeat.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like the Crowes brotherhood, both the Gallagher brothers had embarked on solo careers that were good enough, but not spectacular.\u00a0 Chris Robinson put out some decent solo albums but fans constantly compared them to the Crowes.\u00a0 Rich Robinson\u2019s solo band (Magpie Salute) was actually doing quite well but Rich found out that running a band was a lot more work than playing guitar in a band with an established catalog.\u00a0 Guitarist Noel Galagher seemed to have a bit more going for his solo work than Liam did with his group Beady Eye.\u00a0 In the end, both bands saw the (dollar) signs on the wall and decided it was time to bury old grievances and give it another go.\u00a0 When a popular band disappears for a number of years, it seems the fans are the ones who make or break these kinds of outings, assuming they do not implode (the tour, not the fans) before they get rolling .\u00a0 Thus far, neither reunion has sparked any of the \u2018nuclear options\u2019 some fans feared.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While I was on cat duty that weekend, I pulled up an article from <\/span>Variety<\/span><\/i> about the Saturday night show at the Rose Bowl by Chris Willman.\u00a0 He gathered some good background on who exactly the band had attracted on this round of stadium shows by roaming the venue and talking to various fans.\u00a0 One typical exchange with an English fan from Wolverhampton named Kieran went like this:\u00a0 \u201cSeeing the best band in the world, traveling overseas with your best mates, it\u2019s an attraction in itself.\u201d\u00a0 Kieran had already seen Oasis in Cardiff (Wales) and a show in Toronto (Canada).\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s crazy – we\u2019ve seen people that live down the road from us and we are seeing people that live 5,000 miles away.\u00a0 We were at the Whisky-a-Go-Go in L.A. last night to see a tribute act [the Canadian-based band Supersonic] and it was, I\u2019d say, 70 percent English.\u00a0 We were talking to people from Coventry, Birmingham, London, Cornwall, Glasgow – everyone we spoke to seemed to be British.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As for Los Angeles fans, Wilman said they took to Oasis in a big way right up to many sporting Liam\u2019s signature \u2018bucket hat\u2019 and varying tour shirts.\u00a0 For the record, Todd wore his <\/span>Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger<\/span><\/i> shirt that also displayed the song\u2019s chords.\u00a0 Never fear, vendors selling upgraded tour swag were plentiful including a pop-up merchandise store setup in Hollywood.<\/span><\/p>\n The only failure of the American crowd, according to Willman, was in their inability to properly execute Manchester\u2019s favorite dance, the Poznan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To set up the tale of the Poznan, Willman recreated Liam\u2019s lengthy dialogue delivered before the song <\/span>Cigarettes and Alcohol<\/span><\/i>:\u00a0 \u201cAs I was swimming this morning in Santa Monica in the sea, this (expletive deleted) shark jumps out.\u00a0 [He said] \u2018Mr. Gallagher\u2019 \u2026 I said, \u2018It\u2019s Liam.\u2019\u00a0 He said, \u2018Good luck trying to get that lot to do the Poznan.\u00a0 You know what L.A. crowds are like;\u00a0 they\u2019re all stoned out of their heads, in the sun all day\u2026the best you can expect is more of a Grateful Dead kind of dance\u2019 (which Liam mockingly demonstrated, telling the crowd, \u2018but he [the shark] had faith in us\u2019).\u201d\u00a0 Liam then addressed the crowd:\u00a0 \u201cYou got it in you?\u201d as he went on to describe the shark doing the dance out in the sea.\u00a0 Todd and Elizabeth reported the same story was attributed to a crab at the Sunday night show and presumably the L.A. crowd didn\u2019t do much better with the Poznan than the Saturday night crowd (who \u2018failed miserably\u2019 according to Willman).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Just for clarity sake, this is how Willman described the origin of the famous Poznan dance that I had never heard of before now:\u00a0 \u201cVirtually the whole crowd seemed to be jumping up and down in unison during the following number, having some kind of grasp on what the Poznan might be supposed to look like, if not the fundamentals.\u00a0 But Angelenos might have mistaken it for basic pogo-ing.\u00a0 Simply put, the Poznan – first popularized by Polish football team Lech Poznan in the \u201860s, and picked up and broadly adopted by Manchester City fans a decade and a half ago – consists of audience members wrapping arms around one another\u2019s shoulders and jumping in place with their <\/span>backs to<\/span><\/i> the central action.\u00a0 Faced with this nuance, California was largely clueless.\u201d\u00a0 It made sense to me because a football team (soccer team) no doubt started it to acknowledge their fans in the surrounding stadium. \u00a0 A concert isn\u2019t staged in the round like a soccer game, so fans would presumably turn their back to the stage to be doing it correctly?\u00a0 Yes, it is confusing, especially if one has not seen the Poznan in action at any event.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Detractors back in the \u201890s often used the \u2018Beatles wanna-bes\u2019 label to describe Oasis\u2019s music.\u00a0 As I watched the 1996 Knebworth festival, I found this to be a rather thin comparison.\u00a0 The Beatles 1960s pop phase, for the most part, didn\u2019t have that \u2018wall of sound\u2019 effect Oasis generated.\u00a0 With three guitars in the current touring line up, Todd said even from their vantage point a football field away from the stage, you could feel the band as well as hear it.\u00a0 The big screens employed these days do give those in the back a better view of the action.\u00a0 Todd and Elizabeth found sitting in (reserved) cheap seats preferable to standing in the scrum on the field.\u00a0 Willman alluded to the Beatles comparisons by noting, \u201cNear the end of the two-hour performance, Noel Gallagher had the visuals team train a camera on a young woman in the front who he said had been weeping throughout the whole show, and indeed, she looked like she\u2019d been directly transported from the Ed Sullivan Theatre in 1964 to this spot.\u00a0 If this stuff tended to get written off back in the \u201880s as phony Beatlemania, it certainly hasn\u2019t bitten the dust.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Willman was able to track down some American fans as well.\u00a0 Walt and his wife from Thousand Oaks, California were sporting bucket hats, but not ones sold at the merch tent.\u00a0 Walt\u2019s wife knitted these and when asked what seeing Oasis means to him, he said, \u201cOasis reminds me of a time when I didn\u2019t have as much to worry about.\u00a0 When I still had light in my eyes.\u201d\u00a0 He declined to give his last name in case the <\/span>Variety <\/span><\/i>article made him sound suicidal.\u00a0 Walt\u2019s friend Jess from Washington state said, \u201c[The show was] super nostalgic for me.\u00a0 These albums came out when I was in middle school and my daughter is in middle school right now, so it is weird for me to be the same age she is, thinking back on the music that came out when I was her age.\u201d\u00a0 Jess had also seen Oasis live in San Francisco when she was around 14 years old.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A film maker named Craig noted the Gen-z generation would take to, \u201cThe simplicity and solidarity of the lyrics.\u201d\u00a0 Craig pointed to the anthemic quality of the songs and the fact that fans could join in without having to have done a whole lot of homework.\u00a0 He continued, \u201cI\u2019d say for me, it is the collective joy of this show\u2026 it was almost overwhelming.\u00a0 People shouting at the top of their lungs, including my son and I;\u00a0 there were lots of dads and sons around us.\u00a0 It was like they were at a church service – a lot of hands up, raised and joyous.\u00a0 Exaltation, for sure.\u201d\u00a0 Willman pointed out that all the Oasis-isms were still there;\u00a0 Liam\u2019s hands clasped behind him unless he was playing a tambourine or maracas, his tendency to scowl and deliver lyrics with a sneer in his voice, and stage patter that is more jokey than serious (see the shark \/ crab story mentioned earlier).\u00a0 Noel\u2019s songs tend to veer toward emo-like sentiment (ala Coldplay) but in a more \u2018stiff upper lip\u2019 British way.\u00a0 As brothers and musicians, the Gallaghers couldn\u2019t be more different, but the two of them proved they are still a force of nature even sixteen years after they first drifted apart.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Todd said Liam\u2019s dialog was sometimes difficult to decipher but the one thing that he thought sounded like typical Liam humor was, \u201cSo, America.\u00a0 Are we dating?\u201d\u00a0 As long as I had already read Willman\u2019s take on the Saturday show, I asked Todd for his one paragraph review of the Sunday night show:\u00a0 \u201cOasis (now a septet) created an immense sound.\u00a0 The addition of a third guitarist (and original rhythm player) Paul \u2018Bonehead\u2019 Arthurs lifted the band, allowing Noel Gallagher and Colin \u2018Gem\u2019 Archer to share lead duties.\u00a0 Noel reclaimed lead parts to iconic songs like <\/span>Live Forever<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Don\u2019t Look Back In Anger<\/span><\/i> that previously shifted to Archer.\u00a0 The result was a return to the classic \u2018O\u2019 sound but with an elevated experience.\u00a0 And then to complete the band alchemy:\u00a0 the verve, swagger , and powerful sneering lead vocals of Liam Gallagher – who sounds arguably the best he has since 1997 – made for an epic night with 90,000 fans under a full moon at the Rose Bowl.\u00a0 Yes, the mighty O was BACK!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over the two nights at the Rose Bowl, a lot of celebrities were spotted in the crowd.\u00a0 Fellow Brit Sir Paul McCartney was there and the celeb scorecard was an even split between musicians and Hollywood stars:\u00a0 Kristen Stewart, Salma Hayek, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billie Eilish and her brother FINNEAS, Sofia Vergara, Vince Vaughn, Noah Cyrus, Niall Horan, Demi Lovato, Rita Ora, Taika Waititi, and Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) were all in attendance.\u00a0 Other A-listers were also seen in Chicago (Gwyneth Paltrow) and London (Tom Cruise attended with Ana de Armas).\u00a0 McCartney drew quite a bit of interest as he filmed part of the show (with his phone) from a suite and later confided to the paparazzi it was, \u201cFabulous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The weekend after the concert, we had the opportunity to travel an hour and a half north to have lunch with my old buddy Mitch.\u00a0 He drove down from his home base in Boring and we met in Silverton.\u00a0 Just east of Salem, Silverton is an area I have never been to so it was an interesting side trip.\u00a0 We had a nice long catch up visit, managed to hit a couple of book stores and a record shop in Salem, and still be home by late afternoon.\u00a0 Try as I might, the WCB wouldn\u2019t let me so much as buy lunch on this trip (I must be a high paid cat sitter) but I will make up for it on the next trip.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Down the road, I am going to have to do an FTV about traveling tales.\u00a0 I do not travel as much as some, but living where we do, getting to the west coast always involves multiple airline hops.\u00a0 Unlike my August 2024 trip, I didn\u2019t get COVID (which I had shared with the West Coast Bureau) this time around (and yes, I followed the masking protocols on all flights both years).\u00a0 Routing from Hancock to Denver to Eugene is always an 18 hour travel day but somehow my bag arrived in Oregon six hours before I did.\u00a0 My handy United Airlines app informed me, \u201cYour bag arrived early, see the attendant at the baggage carousel\u201d (which makes no sense in a smaller airport with limited staff).\u00a0 With no one at the ticket counter and only one more incoming flight that evening, we decided to come back and get it the next day.\u00a0 Again, the full details of the round trip are too long to relate here so this part of the story will have to wait for the <\/span>Travelin\u2019 Tales <\/span><\/i>edition of FTV down the road.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I am already looking forward to my next inspection tour to the WCB.\u00a0 It will be another chance to have an extended visit with Emma, Bernie, and Oscar\u2026oh yes, and also with Elizabeth and Todd.\u00a0 In the past couple of years, Taj Mahal and Ke\u2019 Mo have performed in Eugene but my schedule didn\u2019t match up.\u00a0 I also missed ZZ Top at the Cuthbert by a couple of weeks, but there is always next summer\u2019s concert season pending!<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0\u00a0Don’t Go Away\u00a0<\/em>performed o Letterman in 1997 – before the 16 year hiatus!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over the first two weeks of September 2025, I took my third consecutive concert trip to the WOAS-FM West Coast Bureau in Eugene, Oregon.\u00a0 This trip was a little different because I didn\u2019t get to actually see a live show.\u00a0 In 2023 and 2024, I got to see live performances at the Cuthbert Outdoor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3664"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3667,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664\/revisions\/3667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}