Basic Britpop
By Jill Alphonso for Straits Times

Oasis does not believe in working the crowd. What you see is what you get. No more, no less

Most bands there days know that to keep their fans interested, they ahev to pander to them a little; to put on, as they say, a show.

Not Oasis

At their concert on Thursday, the British rockers sand, muttered once or twice to the crowd, and generally fif not bother with much more.

If some of the 9,000 strong turn out were disappointed by the lack of small talk and interaction, you could say it was not really the band's fault.

After all, the Machester blokes have never played to the gallery. They have never given a hoot what their fans want.

Instead, they rely on their music, as well as their bad-boy antics, particularly fracticious bickering between the Gallagher brothers, singer Liam and siger-guitarist Noel.

In the same vein, one cannot expect them to execute flying leaps at their gigs, or to even smile.

The guys were the leaders of the 1990s Britpop phenomenon, a nationalistic movement against America grunge, that both rebuffed American pop domination and emulated its attitude.

And back then, it was the slacker-cool image that Brit bands like Blur, Suede and Oasis adopted, for it was what American grunge acts Nirvana, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and SOundgarden expressed to the world. It was an attitude that reflected a move against the mind numbing commercialism of the 1980s.

You could see that right from the start of the gig when Liam, 33, took to the stage at 8.35pm.

He sang in the trademark sideways stance he has developed over the years - standing with one foot forward, both ahnds clasped behind his back, hunched over and stretching his neck up to reach the microphone.

After launching into new songs Turn Up The Sun and Lyla, taken from their 2005 album DOn't Believe The Truth, he inexplicably left the microphone to standm arms crossed, centrestage.

From behind the sunglasses he wore, he stared into the crowd.

It appeared as if he fancied himself a kind surveying his kingdom. Or perhaps he was just challenging the crowd, as if to say, take us as we are.

Or, maybe, he was jsut bored.

In any case, those in the $160 free standind section were there to make sure they got their money's worth.

The crowd in the mosh pit launched themselves skyward, some crowd-surfing for a few seconds before getting pulled out by the bouncers.

Two men in the back did exuberant jigs to the songs, throwing the occasional full-body twirl and a moonwalk or two.

Liam left the stage mid-way through the set, allowing Noel to sing on hits like Masterplan, the title track of their 1998 fourth album.

Suprisingly, Noel's voice was expressive, a contrast to his brother's shouting, raspy vocals.

If Liam is a singer whose voice would fit in a pub where brawls break out over football matches, Noel's is a loftier, rangier counterpart, one you might enjoy listening to while drunk and almost falling asleep.

The band were at their best when they launched into WOnderwall, their eponymous hit of 1995, and older hits like Champagne Supernova.

To hear those songs was to feel a twinge of what it was like to be a teenager in teh 1990s, knowing vaguely that the roads ahead would be winding, but not knowing exactly which road you would have to walk down in life.

Everything was new, and the world seemed full of possibilities.

"Don't put your life in the hands of a rock n roll band who'll throw it all away," sang Oasis on DOn't Look Back in Anger.

They were right.

Some members in the audience might have felt that 70 minutes they had put in Oasis' hands were 70 minutes wasted because, where were the theatrics?

But in an era where big-rock bands with big shows and crowd-pleasing antics have become indistinguishable from commerical pop acts, Oasis' back to basics, no frills approach was a breath of fresh air.

They might not be crowd-pleasers today with their posturing, incessant swearing and disinterested stage presence.

And, yes, they even left the stage with nary a good bye. But the die-hard fan would have gone home with memories swirling in his head, recoellections of a time when Britpop was young and when the world was younger.

Oasis were unapologetically, unabashedly all that they have ever wanted to be- and what is wrong with that?