As the first Los Angeles show of the “Live ’25 Tour” — the much-anticipated comeback tour of Britpop icons Oasis — came to a close, lead singer Liam Gallagher launched into one of his signature inter-song rambles. In a rare moment of earnestness for the typically sardonic frontman, he thanked the crowd for bearing with the band over the years: “I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve been a nightmare to be a fan of.”
For the over 80,000 in attendance, those words could not ring any truer.
“Live ’25” is a tour intertwined with personal minutiae and band history, almost more so than the actual music the band performs. During the band’s world-conquering peak in the mid-90s, Oasis was dominated by the partnership between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher. As their relationship deteriorated and the band’s success faded, the two had a loud, much-publicized falling-out that led to a 15-year hiatus and serious doubts about whether they’d ever play together again.
Nowadays, the band- the Gallaghers, founding guitarist Paul Arthurs, bassist Joe Arthur, and drummer Joey Waronker– seem to revel in the narratives surrounding this tour. After all, the opening of the show featured a montage of various tabloids speculating on their return. However, the takeaway from their two-hour set this past Saturday was about the music: even in 2025, Oasis still rocks.
Their set began with a searing opening leg featuring a number of their biggest, heaviest ragers. “Cigarettes and Alcohol” particularly brought the house down; the opening, crushing guitar riff had the entire Rose Bowl crowd on a string.
Eventually, Liam took a brief break, giving Noel vocal duties for an acoustic reprise around the concert’s midpoint. This stretch of songs gave the show some of its most stunning moments, including a saxophone-backed version (courtesy of Steve Hamilton) of “Half the World Away” that, in many ways, outdid the studio version of the track.
As Liam returned for the show’s back end, the band launched into some of their most iconic fan-favorites. As a rousing performance of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” closed the concert’s main act, the band had, rather miraculously, stuck the landing on a show featuring their biggest hits.
But their biggest anthems were yet to come. The group saved their trifecta of “Morning Glory” heavy-hitters for the encore. But when the band finally got to them, it was a show of their ubiquity; I truly believe this closing three-track run can rival the biggest hits of any legacy act still touring.
Classifying Oasis as a legacy act in 2025 feels like a misnomer. For a band playing songs that are, at a bare minimum, 20 years old, the energy amongst the crowd felt like anything but a rehash. For every bearded dad in attendance, there was a group of twenty-somethings singing every word to songs released a decade before they were born. Sure, there’s the novelty of the Gallagher reunion, but make no mistake — Oasis showed a legitimate cross-generational appeal that gave Saturday night’s show a crackling, energetic and very current edge that many of their contemporaries just can’t seem to capture.
Sure, there’s the novelty of the Gallagher reunion, but make no mistake — Oasis showed a legitimate cross-generational appeal that gave Saturday night’s show a crackling, energetic and very current edge that many of their contemporaries just can’t seem to capture.
All this served as ample distraction from the fact that, at numerous points, Oasis played like … well, a band that hasn’t played together in 15years. The band spent a great deal of the show finding their tempo, culminating in Liam jokingly-but-not-really-jokingly referring to touring drummer Joey Waronker as “Speedy Gonzales” during the band introduction. Noel has never been known for his mesmerizing stage presence, but for the first few songs of this set, he seemed to be one more falsetto harmony away from passing out on stage, especially with the Jumbotron firmly trained on him. If you really took a hard look at “Live ’25,” Oasis seemed to show their age a bit.
But when has Oasis ever been the band you take a hard look at? Anybody who exited the Rose Bowl on Saturday night with qualms about the technical proficiency of Oasis has, unfortunately, missed the point of this band and this reunion tour. Oasis, since their inception, was the band of the everyman. They were the band whose magic was their ability to take rock music down to its simplest, most universal elements. And they were the band who, perhaps better than any band of their era, made music that sounded big. And on Saturday, they sounded as big as ever.