They seemed to be having fun?

Could it be? Is it possible the members of Oasis were in a good mood Wed. (Mar. 13) night for the closing gig of their East Coast U.S. tour? There was Liam Gallagher, front and center, introducing each song by name, thanking the audience afterwards, dancing around in his sunglasses -- looking like he was actually enjoying himself!

Throughout the show, Liam was mugging for the photographers down front and bantering with the crowd behind them. At one point, he gave some friendly advice about ear damage to fans standing in front of the speaker stack, pointing to the speakers and then to his ear. While brother Noel played guitar solos, Liam danced a bit of the Charleston. And he even touched the microphone a few times!

They actually played like they were happy to be there, and were eager to connect with an audience of mostly new fans that perhaps had not heard much more than "Wonderwall" on the radio. And they knew every word, judging by the singalong that accompanied Noel's solo rendition of that monster hit.

The venue was the Paramount Theater, a medium-sized amphitheater wedged between the Madison Square Garden arena upstairs and the train tracks downstairs at Penn Station. This was the biggest show to date for Oasis in New York, their fifth gig here in three years.

On their home turf, they may be well-known enough to headline at Earl's Court or Glastonbury, but in New York they're now in a kind of limbo -- too popular to return to their cozy former haunts at small venues such as Wetlands, Roseland or The Academy, but still too new to play upstairs in the MSG arena.

When tickets for this gig went on sale in mid-January, "Wonderwall" was just beginning to get airplay on radio and MTV. It still sold out in an hour. A month later, though, "Wonderwall" was the number one video on MTV, and had risen to No. 12 on the Billboard U.S. singles chart and No. 4 on the album chart.

So while a crowd of 18,000 upstairs watched the New York Rangers hockey team skate to a three-all tie with the Florida Panthers, downstairs the audience of maybe 3,000 people heard a tight 90- minute Oasis set that featured eight songs from (What's The Story) Morning Glory , five from Definitely Maybe, and three B-side gems from their various singles.

And they improvised! Liam acknowledged the roots of "Shakermaker" by singing a few lines from "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing." Noel morphed his solo acoustic version of "Whatever" into "Octopus' Garden." There were long jams at the end of both "Champagne Supernova" and "I Am the Walrus," which also featured a light show that harkened back to the psychedelic '60s dance-concerts.

From the opening notes of the instrumental "Swamp Song" to the closing feedback at the end of the Beatles classic, this was an energetic, friendly, and fun show to watch. We had seats on the middle right side, section 206, from which we could see virtually everybody else in the place as they stood and danced for the show. Down front, a few hundred people were tightly wedged into what would be the orchestra pit at a typical Paramount show, having secured their floor space long before the opening band went on.

Over the heads of the teenage girls in front of us, we could see the occasional mosh pit open up on the floor, and the occasional crowd surfer getting passed up to the front. They started pogoing during "Acquiesce" and kept it up for the duration. Though there were seven or eight teens in front and beside us -- nervously sneaking in their cigarettes when their mothers weren't looking -- most of the crowd seemed to be in their 20s. Some even had less hair than Bonehead, the rhythm guitarist. More than a few had British accents, but this was mostly a local New York crowd.

"Morning Glory" was done in full thunder electric, while "Slide Away" was done solo acoustic by Noel, giving the lyrics the spotlight this time: "Slide away, and give it all you've got. My today, fell in from the top. I dream of you, and all the things you say. I wonder where you are now?"

The missing song of the night was "Cast No Shadow," but no wonder: just before Oasis played, Noel walked out to introduce Richard Ashcroft, ex-singer of The Verve, about whom he wrote the tune. Some people had heard of him, but nobody seemed sure who he was or why he was there. No matter. We clapped politely anyway. Any friend of Noel's is a friend of ours. Who says New York crowds have no manners? Ashcroft did three slow tunes on solo acoustic, said goodnight, and five minutes later Oasis were on.

This was different from their gigs at Roseland and The Academy last year, most obviously not as loud, but also not as out of control. That had much to do with the seating arrangements, which is ironic, because while the crowd was more subdued, the band were much more animated. Perhaps it was their joy that nobody had quit the band on this tour, or perhaps it was because nobody threw their shoes at them all night.

Yes, at times Liam stood still or sat down, peering out at the audience like a lost mariner. But he also did an amusing ape imitation, scratching his head and rubbing his belly in between sips of lager. This being no small club, it was difficult to understand his Mancunian banter between songs (one girl screamed out, "Speak English, dammit!"), but he tried like never before to forge a connection with the Yanks in front of him.

If there was any disappointment last night, it was the lack of an encore. We were wondering, would it again be "Rock 'n' Roll Star"? Or perhaps another closer such as "Columbia"? None of the above. As Noel's guitar continued shrieking feedback from the last notes of "Walrus," the house lights came on and the PA played "Helter Skelter." Encore-less, we filed out to mingle with the hockey fans on Eighth Avenue.

— ATN New York correspondents Eric Arnum, Gayle Lewis and Kieran McAteer

[ Sun., March 17, 1996 12:00 AM EST ]

Back to News »

CLICK HERE

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE TO A FRIEND