It was just yesterday that I attended the sold out first show of the Oasis 2008 “Dig Out Your Soul” tour at WaMu theater, and I got a lot on my mind. Promoting their upcoming album Dig Out Your Soul due out in the U.S. on October 7th, I’m here to give you my play-by-play experience of viewing those infamous bad boys from Manchester for my second time.
Before the Show
Arriving in Seattle to the sound of my Oasis playlist in the car, we arrived at WaMu at about 5:00p, a half hour before doors would open. Just narrowly beating Mariners traffic of which there was very little “Hey-Oh!” you know because no one goes anymore. Anyways, being that the show was reserved seating we decided to screw waiting in a line, and instead went over and got some of those over-sized hot dogs with the caramelized onions on them. The dogs were fine and pretty filling but there was this irritating asian guy yelling “Peanuts!” right in front off us and then birds defecated on my brother and my dad, so we decided to kill some time in line and at 5:30 headed inside.
I usually like to get a shirt or some kind of souvenir before the show, before the crowd gets to big and forced myself into a mob of people buying shirts and posters while Paul and my dad went to go get some Red Bull. I only had two people in front of me, but these two ladies bought over $200 dollars worth of stuff and since Wamu’s credit taking devices were broken, the two had to find an alternate way to pay. By the time it came to my I picked out a very basic red shirt with the Oasis logo at an outrageously overpriced $35 dollars, I was pissed but I didn’t want to walk away empty handed after being suffocated in a mob.
A little later we all met up and decided to head to our seats, we made our way to the left center section and sat down in row 24. Definitely not as good as row 3 the last time I saw Oasis, but still some pretty respectable seats, even if they were like $65 dollars each. At this point there was only about a half hour before the show and now we would play the waiting game.
First Act: Matt Costa
Opening up the show was solo singer/songwriter Matt Costa, whom I knew beforehand for his song Mr. Pitiful which strangely enough he didn’t play. Taking the stage with an acoustic guitar and his guitar bound friend Mitch, he looked to be a nice change of pace after listening to the deafening house music of WaMu. His music for the most part was pleasant pop with a few bluesy numbers in-between accompanied by a very strong voice. I liked a handful of his songs and wouldn’t mind hearing a couple of cuts off of his last album. He didn’t play for very long, but long enough for an opening act. He finished his set with a fun acapella piece took a bow and thanked the audience. I was disappointed that he didn’t play the only song I knew him for, but it was still enjoyable.
Second Act: Ryan Adams and The Cardinals
Next up was Southern alt-country/rock singer Ryan Adams, not to be confused with Canadian superstar Brian Adams. A lot of people seemed to be pretty big fans but I frankly had no idea who he was. I did some research before the show to find out Adams and his band had been on Letterman like a billion times, but I honestly wasn’t looking forward to their rock/country stylings and after watching them I knew why.
Ryan Adams and The Cardinals were boring, boring, boring, I had absolutely no fun. In what seemed to be a neverending performance I couldn’t find a single song I liked except maybe this song that kind of sounded like that “Who Do You Love?” song from those Sam Addams commercials. They did a lot of unique harmonizing but I got to say Ryan Adam’s probably has the worst voice in the group and I found his laid back “I’m so cool disposition” to be annoying. They were getting a pretty positive reaction but not from myself, my dad or my brother, I just couldn’t wait for it end which thankfully about 45 something minutes later it did.
They ended their set somewhere at about 8:30 and after the house lights came on a whole crew of guys rushed the stage to set up Oasis stuff, who would soon take the stage.
Final Act: Oasis
Finally at 9:00p the lights dimmed and the anticipation started to set in. People were trying to chant “Oa-sis! Oa-sis!” but it just sounded bad, too difficult a name to chant I guess. Soon enough a sweet light show hit the stage with four large screens flashing imagery to the tune of Oasis’ “Fuckin’ in The Bushes” playing on the house speakers (which is usually how they’ve started their shows since about 2000) and not long after; Liam, Noel, Andy, Gem and new drummer Chris Sharrock took the stage to roaring applause and opened the show with “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.”
The energy was high as Oasis banged through a collection of both new and old songs. The last time I saw them their top priority was playing all the tracks off their new album, but with Dig Out Your Soul not coming out until October, they only played about four new songs which was fine for me, cause I got to see a lot of songs I didn’t see last time.
They seemed to play a lot off of Definitely Maybe but after I wrote down the whole set list later I’d say it was pretty diverse. There were four songs from Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, three from Don’t Believe the Truth, two from the B-side compilation album The Masterplan. one from Standing On the Shoulder of Giants, one from Heathen Chemistry, none from Be Here Now and four new songs, so it was definitely mixed up. I rather enjoyed all the new stuff and couldn’t be more excited for the new album, but I could talk about that kinda stuff all day.
The audience was pretty enthusiastic and not too annoying from my vantage point, except this one guy who after every song would yell “Fuck Off!” I couldn’t tell why he was doing that but his friends thought he was pretty funny, some people I’ll never understand. One hilarious highlight was during Noel and Gem’s acoustic rendition of “Don’t Look Back In Anger”” when the audience, who sang quite poorly, sang the end of the song during an extended guitar break. Noel laughed and said something about Australians maybe but fun was had by all.
The show ended with an epic performance of “I Am the Walrus” which was damn heavy and a fitting end to a truly epic rock show. After our hearing returned, my dad, Paul and myself took to the rain drenched streets of Seattle filled with fans singing loudly and homeless people trying to sell their homemade inventions. We were quick to leave and after a half hour of muddling through stormy Seattle picked up some McDonald’s chow, as is our tradition after concerts, and headed home.
Set List
(Intro) Fuckin’ in the Bushes
Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
Lyla
The Shock of Lightning (New Song and First Single) “
Cigarettes and Alcohol
The Meaning of Soul
To Be Where There’s Life (New Song)
The Masterplan
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
Ain’t Got Nothin’ (New Song)
The Importance of Being Idle
Wonderwall
Supersonic
Encore
Don’t Look Back In Anger (Acoustic)
Falling Down (New Song)
Champagne Supernova
I Am The Walrus
