Oasis (Hollywood Bowl, 12 September 2005)

Part 2 of 3

I landed in Burbank at around 4pm and already there's something wrong in the confines that is Ill-Eh. There was some major power outage earlier in the day, thus all the traffic lights were going blinky. I had no clue what was going on, thinking that this is just another daily occurrence in the chaos that is this City.

Otherwise, everything was going well. Got my car rental: a Hyundai Accent that seemed to be falling apart once I get pass 85 mph on the freeway. The car is really dinky, but it was a lot of fun to drive because of it's small stature and tiny wheels. When I was next to an SUV, I felt like I was in one of those clown cars in the circus.

After getting semi-lost around Burbank, I finally found my hotel. My "suite" smelled like that disinfectant at a beauty salon.

After ordering some veggie Chinese food, Chris came along and bought some Newcastle for the pre-drinking festivities. We drank it all and drank more at the show.

With that in mind, the Oasis show at the Hollywood Bowl was SO MUCH BETTER than their performance at Mountain View the night before. There's something magical about the Hollywood Bowl. I've seen several shows there and each and every time, regardless of how far away I am, it's still a good gig. We intentionally missed Jet again, but caught the last 2 songs of their set before opting to get more Red Stripes.

Oasis came on like clockwork at around 9:45pm. Once again, they dimmed the lights to "Fuckin' In the Bushes" before the band launched into "Turn Up the Sun." Liam was wearing a plain white undershirt along with a pinstriped suit jacket. He again wore sunglasses. Noel looked like he was wearing something similar from the night before.

What made this night better was the sound. Hollywood Bowl's sound is just amazing and each and every bass and strum can be heard. The banging of Zack Starkey's drums was ever more prevalent tonight than the night before. Liam's vocals, as rough as they were in the beginning, became more finely tuned as the show progressed.

Also, with the sound improving means that the songs weren't so flat. The new songs from Don't Believe the Truth had some added zing to it. "Mucky Fingers" was especially good, and "Lyla" had renewed vigor.

If you thought the new songs sounded good, the classics were much better! "Live Forever," "Wonderwall," and "Champagne Supernova" were absolute tear jerkers. "Cigarettes & Alcohol" and "Morning Glory" were done so well that footballers all around were just shouting the lyrics. The best song of the evening was "Don't Look Back in Anger" where Noel's voice and the line, "please don't put your life in the hands, of a rock n roll band, and throw it all away," had more impact on me than any previous night that I can remember.

Like last night, Liam dedicated "Live Forever" to the people of New Orleans and "A Bell Will Ring" to all the deaf people. Noel made a semi-speech saying that they finally made it this far in L.A. compared to playing all the fucking clubs. He also dedicated "Don't Look Back in Anger" to all "people of Mexican decent." I guess he's trying to tap into the Morrissey fanbase?

A fantastic show that only deserves one rating:

Beer Rating: 0 Beers (although I had 5 or 6 that night).