They warn you, the parking's gonna be bad. So it was crazy the number of one's for the road we had at the Pig and Whistle on Hollywood Blvd before heading over to the Bowl. It was crazy, but they went down easy. How crazy was that? Well Sasha took the truck from the Hollywood and Highland lot, crept up to the Bowl, did a u-turn and returned to the Hollywood and Highland lot. Finally we took a cab from the Renaissance Hotel.
A day later and I'm still trying to fathom where the crowd came from for the Oasis show - Hollywood Bowl can seat 18,000 people and there sure weren't many empty spaces there on Monday night. I'd been talking to Alex, our music editor about the show and like me, he'd kinda thought that Oasis had petered out. His choice of words. Too big for college radio, not 'new' enough at 10 for commercial alternative stations, whatever they are.
On stage. Oasis remain obstinately inarticulate as ever. They're not about to glad hand an audience. So, they said nothing, not even the song titles now. Oh except "This is for New Orleans" (Liam) 'Live Forever'. And with a page from the Morrissey playbook - "Any people of Mexican descent...?" (Noel) 'Don't Look Back in Anger'. The great songs are still great and sound fantastic. Of course its true what they say, Liam can't sing them anymore. That rasp just sounds like shouting. Noels voice, intact.
I always liked Liam. I saw him once in a bar in Muswell Hill. He looked better, shinier even more charismatic in real life than on TV. Very, very good looking women would walk past his not so useful then minders to ask him, I swear, "What do you prefer, sex or shopping?"
Last time I saw him play was at the Greek. Came out with the towel already wrapped around his shoulders. My favorite Liam moment though was at Universal Ampitheatre, another huge show and they've been doing this for years - mocked the opening act Travis for their oh so fun Britney cover version. Liam with tons of kids there with their parents or whatever came out and said "While I'm out here, some cunt is back there (back stage) drinking all my fucking beer."
Some way into the set he asked people near the front to throw him their credit cards if we wanted him to sing anymore.
That's entertainment.
I know we construct all of this for ourselves, but for a while there he was just such a charismatic rocker standing with his hands in his pockets like nobody does.
One of the great things about Oasis for sure is that they're never going to let anyone write their epitaph for them. In some respects I suppose, when you start with records as great as Def.Maybe and Morning Glory well, they've written it for themselves. Everyone else will say - they used to be the goods. Always.
The encore and show ended with a version of the Who's 'My Generation" so perfunctory, so dire, the house band at Panama Joe's on New Year's Eve probably gives it a little more brio. I guess it being LIam's birthday and all, they had places to go and they wanted to make sure the audience wouldn't make the mistake of asking them back for more.
