Arena Rock From A Luxury Box. It's an odd concept, and on balance I cannot really recommend it. I was invited by a legal services vendor to see the Oasis / Ryan Adams / Matt Costa show at the Oakland Arena last night. I went with JP#s after stopping into the Trappist, a Belgian-ale-heavy little pub in Oaktown. That was the best beer of the night, by far, but the rest was free so it had that going for it. In fact, there were a couple of odd canned beers, including Coronas and Heineken Light, both of which looked like sodas or energy drinks. Weird vibe sitting up in the boonies eating shrimp with chipotle dip instead of standing down on the floor where I like to watch a concert like this one, and unless I was sitting or standing near the open front of the box the sound was dreadful. I might be older than your average rock concert-goer, but I don't need a walker yet and I missed the connection you get from being up close and personal.
Anyway, the show had started when we arrived, and Matt Costa looked like a little minnow in a big fish bowl from our vantage point in the top level of luxury boxes in the right rear corner of the arena. There seemed to be another guy playing guitar up there on the stage, maybe with a slide, but he was blending into the scenery, the stage was dark and the sound was not good enough to be precise. Costa played some sappy and earnest pop songs while looking lost on the giant stage. The sparse crowd wasn't paying a lot of attention to him and I wasn't either, so I don't have much to say about his set other than it was pleasantly short.
After the quickest set change ever, it was time for the middle act. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals were at least as much of a draw for me, and to be honest I didn’t know Oasis was on the bill when I agreed to attend. Two signature roses in neon were hanging on the curtain that dissected the stage left to right and covered up the Oasis rig, and they seemed to provide just about all the light on stage. For some reason, it was quite dark once again and there was not a single spotlight on Ryan or anyone else in the band all night. From t was actually hard from where I was perched to tell who was singing or playing leads. The energy level wasn't exactly off the charts, and this only emphasized the feeling that this was "just the opener" rather than a viable group of its own. I am still puzzling over the only other item of interest on the stage – the giant Fender "amplifier" that seemed to be just a prop behind Ryan. Maybe I just didn't get the joke, but it had jumbo knobs and a big red “on” light as if it were real. Here are some pics from some other guy's blog on the show:
Anyway, Ryan & Co. came out without saying anything and launched into a 45-minute break-neck set. In fact, Ryan said almost nothing the entire set because he was too busy jamming as many songs as possible into the time the Gallagher Bros. must have allotted him. My law partner, who was also in the luxury box, who is a Ryan Adams fan and a singer/songwriter/guitarist in his own right, said that they were playing every song about 1/3 faster than usual and we agreed that it sucked some of the life out of the set. With no banter, the audience wasn’t engaged as much as a typical Ryan Adams gig, and his sometimes bad-boy personality was absent.
Ryan's singing and guitar playing were both excellent really, however, and my guitarist buddy commented that he hasn't heard Ryan play live that well in past shows. Neal Casal was also great on guitar, but I have to admit I was feeling the effects of being in a little room half a block away from the dimly lit stage so I cannot comment on the details of all the players. They were solid and tight, that is for sure. Half of the set was from the new album Cardinology, and the songs rocked a bit harder than on the album. The other songs were a mix of hits from albums Heartbreaker, Gold, and Easy Tiger. My favorite song of the set, and one that really caught my attention even up in the bubble was Come Pick Me Up. Just as it started another friend in the box said how much he liked that song because it is so angry. Lack of spotlight or no, Ryan connected with the crowd on this song and that anger came flying right up into the luxury box. Sadly, the short set did not allow for an encore, so they just left the stage without much ado, and never came back.
Now, I cannot imagine Ryan Adams really clicking in that big cavernous setting, but it was too bad that I and the others in attendance didn't get much of a feel for the kind of live show that I know these guys can deliver. Apparently this was their first night opening for Oasis, so maybe they will ease into the role and loosen up, and maybe even slow down the tempo a bit to let their heart and soul shine through.
Here's the Ryan Adams and the Cardinals setlist (even thought I think they go by just The Cardinals these days, that’s not what the venue billing said):
Cobwebs
Crossed Out Name
Everybody Knows
When The Stars Go Blue
Fix It
Let It Ride
Go Easy
Sink Ships
Come Pick Me Up
I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
Two
Magick
There was a much longer set change and break before Oasis came out. Quite a few lights arranged in a grid behind the stage, four separate vertical video screens, and a whole lot more PA were all in effect when the headliner made its way out. The video screens projected either random artsy stuff or close-up cropped shots of Liam or Noel, apparently from midget cameras on their gear (very similar to the video techniques and screens used at the Sigur Ros show I saw this Fall).
Oasis had zero stage presence as far as I am concerned. Zero. For five rockers who pump out a big sound, they were mostly lifeless. Liam at least displayed a little emotion while doing singing, and even shook a tambourine every once in awhile, but he doesn’t do anything much to fire your imagination like some other lead singers. I like Noel’s voice maybe more than Liam’s but he doesn’t really do the front man bit at all. His guitar playing is the stuff of big arenas, but not particularly inspiring to me. The new drummer Chris Sharrock is boring to watch – thump thump, twirl stick, thump thump – and even more boring in terms of his yeoman-like playing style. Of course you mostly couldn’t see him because he was wearing dark clothes and stood back in the shadows, but the bass player literally seemed to be velcro’d to his amp stack. The keyboard player was no different, playing in a little cubicle of keyboards behind a goofy looking screen of patterned fabric that Liam mocked as the Shroud of Turin. They were flat and lifeless and just played their songs. Well, most of them soldiered on but Liam was off-stage about one-third of the show doing whatever he does off stage during his shows. It certainly wasn’t coke because he never moved faster than the Queen Mother.
The sound was not great, and the bass and drums were jacked up so much such that the glass wall of the luxury box was thrumming (did you read this far, Reks? ) along with the beat. The guitars were not particularly well mixed but the wall of sound was pretty well constructed between two guitars and multiple keyboards. As for the music itself, I guess it was about as expected but with less life than I might have hoped. I liked Oasis back in the 90s, and I have listened to their latest paean to the Beatles, Dig Out Your Soul, a couple of times but haven’t gotten into it. As my partner musician buddy said, their songs are well put together and catchy but their lyrics are mostly insipid. They played a few of the new tracks in their 21-song set, and played their hits toward the end and in the encore. The lackluster crowd wasn’t helping them much except during their biggest hits like Morning Glory and Wonderwall, both of which were flat and one-dimensional, although Wonderwall was the much better of the two.
Numbers was dying to hear Don’t Look Back In Anger for some sentimental reason, and we made a deal that if they didn’t open the encore with it we were gone. He got his wish and the band, sans Liam once again, played a nice version of that ballad and even got a small percentage of the crowd swaying along to the music and singing. Like true luxury box muckity mucks we proceeded to bolt after that song to beat the crowd. Unfortunately, that meant we missed Champagne Supernova and a trippy rendition of I Am The Walrus, but we were on the freeway before the lights went up.
Good to add another big group I once liked to my long life-list of concerts, but I cannot say I would recommend Oasis to anyone who is not an actual fan. The songs are pretty compelling but their performance is anything but. Go check out Ryan Adams and The Cardinals in a smaller venue instead, because there’s sure to be some soul in more than just an album title.
Oasis Setlist for the completists:
Fuckin' In The Bushes
Rock 'n' Roll Star
Lyla
The Shock Of The Lightning
Cigarettes & Alcohol
The Meaning Of Soul
To Be Where There's Life
Waiting For The Rapture
The Masterplan
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
Ain't Got Nothin'
The Importance Of Being Idle
I'm Outta Time
Wonderwall
Supersonic
Encore:
Don't Look Back In Anger
Falling Down
Champagne Supernova
I Am The Walrus
