The Cleveland Plain Dealer will run the story tommorow. Here is what Akron said though. I have been to 14 Oasis Shows and never saw anything like last night. It was truly a spectular. I was in the Beatles Sweatshirt in the front

Posted on Sat, Oct. 01, 2005
www.vanguard.com

British rockers Oasis give nod to past

By Malcolm X Abram

Beacon Journal staff writer

The old bon mot that everything old is new again was in full effect Friday night as Oasis, Kasabian and Jet -- three bands whose sonic roots lie firmly in the past -- rocked a nice-size crowd at Blossom.

Opener Kasabian, whose sound harkens back to late 1980s and early 1990s British dance rock groups such as Primal Scream and Stone Roses, played a quick 35-minute set to a slowly filling pavilion.

The polite group of Brits performed songs from their self-titled debut album and had a few folks in the audience dancing along.

Aussie quintet Jet dwells in the 1960 garage and 1970s Camaro-rock realm. Not a single note of their music sounds original (including a new acoustic song that featured Beatles-esque harmonies), but they've absorbed their influences well enough to come up with decent hooks in tunes such as the hit Are You Gonna Be My Girl. The arriving crowd cheered their approval.

Oasis has never been shy about their love of 1960s guitar rock, such as the Kinks, early Who, T. Rex and most obviously The Beatles. But in their decade as a big rock band, principal songwriter and guitarist Noel Gallagher along with singer and brother Liam have turned their influences into a signature ``Oasis'' sound of long winding melodies, a sonic wall of guitars and anthemlike choruses evident on their latest release Don't Believe The Truth.

Noel has always been his band's hardest critic and apparently he isn't too happy with a significant chunk of the the band's output, as the set list ignored their last three albums (Be Here Now, Standing On The Shoulder of Giants and Heathen Chemistry ) in favor of a mix of new songs and fan favorites from their 1994 debut Definitely, Maybe and the multiplatinum follow-up (What's The Story) Morning Glory.

With an opening double shot of new songs Turn Up The Sun and the first single Lyla, the crowd immediately stood up and remained up for the rest of the show, singing along to the new songs as if they'd been listening to them for years instead of a few months. Upbeat hard-rockers including Bring It On Down and the T-Rex rip-off Cigarettes and Alcohol and the Velvet Underground-flavored Muck Fingers were played with more pure rock muscle than their recorded versions. Liam, sporting a trench coat and sunglasses and assuming his usual slightly crouched position at the mic with tambourine in hand, kept his banter brief but did compare the chilly night air to being at home in Manchester.

True to their songs' anthemlike nature, several tunes -- including fan favorite Don't Look Back In Anger and well-played hits Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova and Live Forever, which Liam dedicated to New Orleans -- became big singalongs.

The band ended the show with The Who's My Generation, bringing an evening of expertly recycled rock to a truly rocking end.