OK, so I have to admit that I’m not the biggest Oasis fan. And to be quite honest, I haven’t heard a full album of their stuff since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. Yeah, that was in 1995 and I was 15. However, with that said, of all the acts that hit Virgin Music Festival in Toronto this year, they were one of the few acts to really impress the shit out of me.
The crowd went wild as the band hit the stage and there was some definite love, both ways from the band and for the band. They kicked of their set with the ever popular “Rock ‘N’ Roll Star” with Liam showing his usual cocky bravado, while his brother, Noel, looked mad chilled off to Liam’s left playing the guitar. With the view I had from the media tent, I unfortunately couldn’t see the other members of the band, but nonetheless, it didn’t ruin the experience at all as these guys killed it. From there, they went into “Lyla,” off of Don’t Believe the Truth, which some have said is their best since Morning Glory. and continued into a new song of theirs called “The Shock of the Lightning,” which is off of the upcoming album Dig Out Your Soul. I definitely was feeling this track and the crowd was also responding quite well to it. After this, Liam took a quick break to banter back and forth with the crowd. I have to say, I’ve heard some negative things about these guys in the past in terms of performances and cockiness, but that was not evident on this night as there was love going back and forth. Liam was consistently conversing with the crowd and even handed his tambourine to a lucky concert goer at one point - pretty sick. They kept the vibe going with “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” “The Meaning of Soul,” “The Masterplan” beautifully sung by Noel, “Songbird,” “Slide Away,” and “What’s The Story Morning Glory.”
This is where the story takes a step in a different direction. As some of you may have heard, Noel was attacked on stage. It was during the song “Morning Glory” that this atrocious act took place. From what I could see, some guy ran from the side of the stage, violently pushed Noel into the speakers and proceeded to move towards Liam, before he was jumped by security. As security jumped him, I could see Liam throwing a punch at the assailant as he was dragged backstage. The whole band left the stage, clearly for security reasons. As one of my friends who I told jokingly asked me “Was it Memphis Bleek?” to which I replied “Not unless he donned a full body Caucasian suit”. Five minutes later, the group was back out on stage doing their thing, but it wasn’t the same anymore. Assumingly shaken, they weren’t bantering with the crowd anymore. Instead, they just performed out the rest of their set.
The band came back and resumed with “The Importance of Being Idle,” “Wonderwall,” “Supersonic,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” and ended the night with “I Am The Walrus,” but like I said, it was not the same as before the attack. Don’t get me wrong, they still killed these tracks, but you could tell that they were still shaken by what had happened. I had hoped that they would perform “Champagne Supernova,” which is still one of my songs.But at last it was not meant to be.
There you have it folks. Once a fan has now been converted back into a fan because of this great performance on their part. If you liked this review and want to read more, be sure to vote for me at this site. Special shout out to Melissa for helping me with the song titles, while I took pictures.
See the rest of the pictures on our Flickr page, which can be accessed via the box on the right hand side of the page.
Stay tuned for more reviews on the Toronto V-fest. And I’m out.
