What's Going On In The Head Of Randy....: Oasis and Ryan Adams

Oasis and Ryan Adams - Palace of Auburn Hills 12.13.08
Sunday, December 14, 2008

I will start off with Wow, this was an amazing concert and one of the best Oasis shows I have ever seen. The night started off with Matt Costa playing to a few hundred people but he didn't seem to mind. He was quite good and pulled off an acapella/hand clapping song which I thought for sure would fail. Next was Ryan Adams and the Cardinals who had about half the stage and 2 large flowers (his logo) on each side. They ran thru a number of new songs; "Cobwebs", "Go Easy", "Fix It", "Crossed Out Name", "Natural Ghost"and "Magick" which they closed their set with. I was looking forward to this song live and was very happy they played it. Its Ryan's homage to Neil Young and 70s Butt Rock. He also played "Two" and "Everybody Knows" from Easy Tiger. Ryan also pulled out "Let It Ride" from Cold Roses and a few others which are slipping my mind.

About 9pm Oasis took the stage and started out with their usual "F@ckin In The Bushes" Instrumental then broke into "Rock N Roll Star". They also played "Cigarettes And Alcohol", "Slide Away", "Supersonic" from Definitely Maybe. Then there was "Morning Glory", "Champagne Supernova" and "Wonderwall" from (What's The Story) Morning Glory. Noel actually included the whole band on "Wonderwall" instead of his usual acoustic performance. Surprisingly, they played "The Masterplan" a song I didn't expect. We had "Songbird" from Heathen Chemistry, then "Layla", "The Importance of Being Idle" and "The Meaning of Soul" from Don't Believe The Truth. From Dig Out Your Soul, Oasis played "The Shock Of The Lightning", "Falling Down", "To Be Where There's Life", "Waiting For The Rapture" and "The Turning". They closed with "I Am The Walrus" which is what they do every show. I know they played a few other songs but I am at a loss right now what they were.

The stage setup was great, there were 4 large screens that alternated between each of the band members and video. The lights set the mood on some of the music and they used the color blue when playing much of their new stuff. What I find quite funny is how their latest cd is very psychedelic yet they are actually clean now. Maybe it took getting off drugs to finally complete the sound. The new songs open up even more when played live, the heavy mood of some of the music hovered throughout the stadium drawing you in.

As usual, if you have never seen Oasis you must check them out at least once (or twice) to experience one of the greatest bands. They all stand around, don't move much and let the music speak for them. Liam snarls at the crowd, leaves the stage when Noel is singing and gets pissed off at little things. He is always over dressed in coats and hangs onto the tambourine the whole night. Its part of his act and I wouldn't expect him to do anything else. We did get a bit of tantrum at the end, Liam's mic stopped working so he got pissed and threw it into the crowd.