LIAM GALLAGHER // All Bangers, No Mash

Liam Gallagher
Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Thursday January 4th, 2018

It’s a good thing my New Year’s Resolution involved getting way too drunk, way too early and belting ’90s britpop scorchers with an arena full of sweaty, mullet-donning lad types. 2018 is off to a cracker start, innit!

MORE: The Hyst List – Top 25 Albums Of 2017.

The atmosphere at Liam Gallagher‘s debut Sydney lark was one of dazzling excess, and as the venerated piss-taker shot into a one-two punch of Oasis jewels (Rock ‘n’ Roll Star and the genuinely timeless Morning Glory), Team Hysteria was swept immediately into the belly of the beast. Strangers linked arms and spilt a keg’s worth of lager as a primal chant–“Need a little time to wake up, wake up!”–swept out across the hall. Gallagher himself was damn near inaudible through the off-key bellows, but the showman used that to his advantage: cuts from his former band’s echelon sandwiched tracks from his recent debut–the viciously underrated As You Were–because he knew they’d spur absolute chaos in the pit. They were liquor-soaked bundles of tinder to flick out whenever it seemed like the fire was dwindling. And lamentably, despite their retro-ready spark and stunning execution, lengthy blocks of newer jams did see that fire start to fizzle.

Liam Gallagher // By Britt Andrews

It was a little disheartening: even when standouts like For What It’s Worth (fittingly dedicated to the English cricket team) and Bold rekindled the scratchy brand of britpop bliss that threw us head over heels for Oasis way back when, the sold-out crowd stood restless, itching for more of the tunes they already knew and loved. For those of us welcoming of Gallagher’s new era, there wasn’t a moment of hiccup. The latter track mentioned stood especially strong in the set, our hero’s dusty courts of “I didn’t do what I was told” draping over us a warm blanket of nostalgic elation. The energy waned in off-beat chunks of slow jams, but those only served to make the hotter bops feel all the more spicy.

Of the 17 tracks Gallagher served up, a whopping nine were Oasis hits–all plucked from their first three albums (which are the only ones that matter, in all honesty). Some of the frothier ones were absent due to their ownership to brother Noel–Don’t Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova were particularly missed–but Cigarettes & Alcohol, Be Here Now and Some Might Say all filled in the blanks with resounding acclaim. And, of course, it was impossible to look past the roaring singalong of de facto encore Wonderwall (however cheesy it may have been). There was obviously none of the tight, often volatile charisma that Oasis once revelled in; tonight’s show was unusually calm in that respect, but not to a fault. Instead, the lack of grandeur proved that Gallagher doesn’t need to rely on any false hype or gimmicks (like, say, petty sibling rivalry) to wow his crowd.

Liam Gallagher // By Britt Andrews

The stage setup was also notedly lowkey: in place of the traditional screen or banner stood a wall of rovings strobes, a sole riser plastered with “ROCK AND ROLL” to distract us from the monobrow of the hour. Hell, even Gallagher’s backing band was lit significantly dimmer than himself, as if to make it explicitly clear who wore the proverbial crown of the night (even when he maybe shouldn’t’ve been). We struggled to find justification for such–the frontman’s movement was limited, broken only for the occasional strut and impassioned thrashing of a tambourine–but even at his most robotic, Gallagher never failed to leave a league of devotees endeared and enraptured. With hellish proficiency did his vocals soar, too, every of the battered hollers and searing whines that defined his heyday left intact and sprightly. Stoic pose be damned, Gallagher’s pipes have aged ridiculously well.

It’s a shame his band were relegated to the background, because their concentrated synergy is what truly made the set stand out. Even fighting a weak mix–the biggest downside to a venue move from the Enmore Theatre–lead guitarist Jay Mehler shined with bright, boisterous hooks and solos that cut deeper than Kylo Ren’s lightsaber in The Last Jedi (spoiler alert). Dan McDougall rounded out the act with murderous skill behind the drums, meeting each of Gallagher’s agile quips with the crackling fill to match.

Altogether, the sextet gelled in perfect sync. As expected from a class A shit-talker like himself, Gallagher’s banter was top of the line. It was kept to an uncharacteristic minimum, though, with the focus kept squarely on the bangers themselves. The whole shebang ran a tight hour, which left us starving for more, but widens the potential for a proper headline tour to roll through later in the year (tonight’s gig was one of two Falls Festival sideshows, with Melbourne treated to the other). We’re hopeful that winds up the case: Gallagher’s solo parade is an aural spectacle that deserves to be witnessed by the whole of Australia.

SETLIST

1. Rock ’n’ Roll Star (Oasis song)
2. Morning Glory (Oasis song)
3. Greedy Soul
4. Wall Of Glass
5. Paper Crown
6. Bold
7. For What It’s Worth
8. Rockin’ Chair (Oasis song)
9. Some Might Say (Oasis song)
10. Slide Away (Oasis song)
11. Come Back To Me
12. You Better Run
13. Universal Gleam
14. Be Here Now (Oasis song)
15. Live Forever (Oasis song)

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16. Cigarettes & Alcohol (Oasis song)
17. Wonderwall (Oasis song)