March 20, 2006
Air Canada Centre
Toronto, ON
by Noah Love

If The Tragically Hip, U2 and Pearl Jam didn't exist, Oasis would be the most popular rock band ever to touch down on Canadian soil. Even though their album sales have dropped off since 1997's disappointing Be Here Now, concert ticket sales for the band are as strong now as they ever were. But the real question on Monday night was whether the band would be upstaged by a much-hyped quartet known as Arctic Monkeys.

Fresh off conquering South By Southwest last week, the Monkeys blazed through a series of tracks from their recently released debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm NotUpstaging Oasis, it turned out, was never an issue and the band knew it. They're polished, but the near-full house just wasn't that interested.

"This isn't the time or the place," lead singer Alex Turner muttered halfway through their set. "Someday though."

The biggest cheers came for album closer "A Certain Romance," but by then, the British lads seemed more than a little deflated that the crowd wasn't chanting their name. Turner was right, though — they have the swagger and their songs are catchy enough that they could be back headlining a venue like this in a few years. And I'll concede that they're a lot more interesting live than on record.

Oasis took the stage to a pre-recorded version of "Fuckin' In The Bushes" 15 minutes earlier than expected. The pure adulation from the audience quickly died, however, when they steamrolled through lacklustre new tracks "Turn Up The Sun" and "Lyla."

But Oasis know what the people come to hear. "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" announced the true theme of the night, classic Oasis. The set, for the most part, drew almost entirely from the band's two seminal records, Morning Glory and Definitely Maybe. At one point, the band pulled out a murderer's row of hits — "Live Forever," "Wonderwall," "Champagne Supernova" and set closer "Rock 'N' Roll Star" (which Liam Gallagher dedicated to the night's boyish openers) all blurred into one full arena singalong.

Liam wandered offstage periodically, leaving brother Noel to handle mic duties for several tracks, prompting one slightly behind-the-times girl behind me to obnoxiously ponder whether he would return on every occasion. Seriously, Liam looks a little too out of it these days to throw a classic hissy fit. I know people love Liam, but Noel should have dumped him when the two were at each other's throats. Noel's voice is a) not whiny, b) tuneful and c) comprehensible. But that's not why people love Oasis and you have to give Liam some credit for that. That said, Noel's run-throughs of "Masterplan" and encore favourite "Don't Look Back In Anger" were the two highlights of the night.

Ending (as it seems they always do) with The Who's "My Generation" was an interesting choice. About five years ago, concert reviews said the song was one of the highlights of the set. Now, it seems like Oasis close with it because they simply don't know what else to do. When Liam's voice finally devolves to a point of non-use and Noel realizes he wrote all the band's hits, maybe Oasis — or more aptly, Noel — will become artistically relevant once again. For now, they're stuck pandering to the same tracks they've been playing for the last 12 years. Good for them that their fans wouldn't have it any other way.