Time flies huh? Literally, we saw Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds in Downtown, Los Angeles last night nearly four years after seeing him on his inaugural solo tour in 2011. That show was over at UCLA's Royce Hall. Noel's second solo offering Chasing Yesterday has been doing quite well for itself on the sales chart and Mr. Gallagher is in the midst of a world tour. Heading downtown on a Wednesday night was not an exciting prospect but we met up with some friends at The Golden Gopher right off of Broadway and near the newly reopened Ace Hotel and Theatre along with The Orpheum. There were another couple theatres on the same street, The Rialto is now an Urban Outfitters while the others are closed up. I wonder what it was like back in the days when the stages were a bustling. You've heard me talk about Downtown before, while it's nice to see a renaissance happening, the place still looks like it's living in The Terminator's 1984, grungy, dirty, vagrant filled world.
After several dranks and some slices of pizza, we sauntered over to the theatre which was surprisingly not that busy outside. I grabbed a shirt from the merch stand and we quickly found our seats in the solid and ornate yet very intimate venue. Not sure if there was an opening act as some tunes were blasting from speakers and technicians were on stage gearing and tuning up. Before long, the band made their way to the stage and got right into Do the Damage, a fantastic track relegated to B-side status from Chasing Yesterday. A giant screen behind the band had visuals and close ups of the band with lyrics and whatnot in a nice touch. The seats were very close to the kind of small stage making it feel even more intimate for the 2,000 person crowd. It must have been three or four songs in before Noel greeted the crowd and he was chattier and more friendly than I've ever seen him.
Apparently the last time he was inside The Orpheum was for a Marilyn Manson concert with the eccentric rocker face to face with little brother, trouble maker and rock star Liam being quite the meeting of the minds. Tunes flowed fast and furious with tracks from debut album Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Yesterday keeping things rolling. Noel attacked each song with surprising vigor and he looked much more relaxed than on his first tour when I just kept thinking he needed to let it go, open up and go for it. Lock All the Doors was fantastic live as was the self described "fucking brilliant" song You Know We Can't Go Back. The Riverman and The Death of You and Me brought things down a little, maybe swap them out for Some Might Say. Because it's awesome. Noel chatted with the audience from time to time, picking out goers who have attended many of his shows or asking "who's Ian?" when someone yelled out something about Liam.
Oasis favorite (not mine, I prefer their upbeat stuff) Champagne Supernova was a surprise and you could feel the energy in the room lifted by nostalgia. Digsy's Diner, a goofy yet fun song about lasagna from Definitely Maybe coupled with my favorite song from his first album, If I Had a Gun, closed things out beautifully. After a quick break, The Chief, his second lead guitar, bass, drum, keyboard and brass players came back and launched into Oasis B-side The Masterplan, terrific Noel tune What A Life! and finally, the crowd crooning Don't Look Back In Anger. I wasn't excited, at all, two hours before the show but instantly came back to life as soon as Noel walked on stage and left the Orpheum temporarily deaf but foreseeably happy. Thanks, Chief, see you on the next one.
A few years ago Noel Gallagher commented that he didn't like the fact that Jay-Z was headlining a night at the Glastonbury Festival. His main point being that generally guitar driven rock and pop acts had headlined in the past including his own band Oasis, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, The Who, Paul McCartney, Muse and Radio Head among others. Ticket sales were sluggish and the festival looked like it wouldn't sell out for the first time in 15 years. Gallagher thought the hip-hop superstar was the wrong artist for the job and was promptly called a racist and an angry old man. Jay-Z started his set with a mocking rendition of Oasis' Wonderwall while strumming a plastic white guitar. Cut to today and Oasis has broken up and Noel is a successful solo artist while Jay-Z is a corporation onto himself with their media made beef ancient news.
In an interesting development, 100,000 people have signed a petition to block hip-hop superstar with his own opinions, Kanye West, from headlining this years Glastonbury. The petition basically attacks Kanye's outspoken view of himself and music and asks for a rock band instead. While ticket refund requests have only numbered in the single digits, it seems like the internet has spoken on their feelings for Kanye. But honestly, 100,000 e-signatures isn't much in the grand scheme of things, he's probably sold more records than that in a day before. It's just interesting that nobody is being called a racist or angry old man now for pointing out the fact that some people don't like Kanye or his music and want a rock band to headline. And that my friends is what happens when you have an opinion, people attack you. Even when it's supported by facts! Happened to Noel, happened to Kanye. Noel just comes off a bit more clever and less egotistical. So keep educating yourself, say what you mean and mean what you say.
Holy jeez, January is slipping away from me! So where were we? Oh yeah, Noel Gallagher is ramping up another banner year for 2015 following 2011's mega success a a solo artist with his High Flying Birds. Lots of festivals, a world tour, a well received album and The Chief was off and running. After a quick break, NG went back to the studio and latest album Chasing Yesterday is due to drop on March 2nd. Released tracks In the Heat of the Moment, Ballad Of the Mighty I and B-Side Do the Damage are all escalating uptempo tracks in the grand Noel G tradition that demand repeat listening. A North American tour kicks off in Toronto starting May 3rd. While I tried to snag tix to the downtown Los Angeles show via the fan presale, the shit didn't work. Regular tickets go on sale today via Ticketmaster with only a few balcony seats remaining. But Ticketmaster is a bullshit monopoly so I guess I'll sit this one out.
Of course it wouldn't be Noel Gallagher without a mention of Oasis right? On the possibility of a reunion, Noel has always contended it wouldn't be happening anytime soon with friend/mentor/music legend Paul Weller threatening physical harm if it did. Weller has stayed amicable with both Gallagher brothers as he lent his face and name to Liam's clothing line Pretty Green. While little brother Liam recently disbanded Beady Eye, don't expect him to stay quiet for long. His fashion label seems to be doing well with sights set on America with the opening of a New York showroom.
Here's to a wave of hilarious interviews where Noel tells it like it is because he's the god Dammed boss:
After 5 years and 2 albums, the Liam Gallagher lead, post-OASIS rock group Beady Eye has quietly disbanded. After imploding backstage in 2009, then OASIS members Gallagher, Andy Bell, Gem Archer and Chris Sharrock quickly reunited sans Noel to form the new group. Their first album, the fast paced, guitar and piano charging Different Gear, Still Speeding dropped in 2011 to mixed reviews and tepid sales. Psychedelic and meandering follow up BE fared little better in 2013. After keeping busy with launching clothing line Pretty Green (which Noel attributes to bringing tension to OASIS), starting Beady Eye, raising kids and sadly getting divorced after admitting to fathering a love child with a journalist, it sounds like Mr. Gallagher could use a little break to reassess. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here as he's only known the rock and roll lifestyle since OASIS formed in 1991 when Liam was only 21 years old and found success shortly thereafter.
Never short for words or wit, Liam Gallagher is one of our last great front men. He's brash, cocky, hilarious, driven and talented. While singers today avoid the spotlight and don't look like lead singers, Liam's manic energy and one of a kind attitude is both mesmerizing and polarizing. Whereas bands are only too grateful to be noticed, Liam has always been of the "if you like it, great, if you don't, fuck off" camp which is both refreshing yet off putting to parts of the desensitized yet hyper touchy population. Not letting big brother Noel put the kibosh on his music career, Beady Eye managed to headline world tours, appear at countless festivals and even popped up at London's Olympic Closing Ceremony in 2012. Unfortunately Liam's voice is hit and miss these days since he was never trained as a singer and years of cigarettes and alcohol probably haven't helped. But Gallagher doesn't seem to be the type who can sit still for long so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he's sticking his finger up our nose and reminding us what a true rock and roll front man is all about.
"It is called In the Heat of the Moment, is it great? Of course it is. What does it mean?
It don't mean anything. Will you love it? Yes, you will."
- Noel Gallagher on his latest single
Exciting news for all Brothers Gallagher and OASIS fans today as The Chief, singer/songwriter Noel Gallagher, announced a new single, album and world tour coming soon via Facebook. Following up 2011's well received Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds will be Chasing Yesterday, out March 2nd of 2015. March? That's 5 months from now! New single In the Heat of the Moment drops on November 16th and I'm sure another single or two will follow. UK, Ireland and European concert dates have already been set for March while North America and Japan will follow. Heat is online now and it's fucking excellent, very easy to listen to, very Noel, very upbeat, forward charging, moody and will probably be fucking beautiful played live. I hit repeat at least a half dozen times because the track just isn't long enough.
Gallagher partook in a fan Q&A where the very first question was in regards to an OASIS reunion with perennially angry at the world yet hilarious and brilliant brother Liam, who is currently fronting Beady Eye. Noel showed no interest in getting the UK's most popular band from the 90's back together. The Chief went on to explain that after coming off tour on the first High Flying Birds album, he was bored at home and started tinkering on a new album. The sessions finished early, right after the World Cup. While Heat is a pretty digestible track, psychedelic, "space jazz" and think Pink Floyd were used to describe some other songs on the new album. Lock All the Doors, has taken Gallagher 23 years to complete.
After OASIS imploded at a French concert in 2009, brother Liam took the remaining band members and immediately formed Beady Eye. Their first album, 2011's Different Gear, Still Speeding was a stripped down, hard charging (in typical Liam fashion) pop-rock album with pianos and back up singers adding a 50's motif that was a bit strange at first but I really dug it when I laid down on the floor and listened to the album in it's entirety as one should when digesting new music. Reviews were mixed although NME did nominate them for Best New Band and the album debuted in the Top 10 of half a dozen countries, moving 170,000 copies in the UK total. Four Letter Word, Bring the Light, For Anyone and Standing on the Edge of the Noise were all solid efforts that utilized Liam's sneering delivery and rock n' roll sensibility. Vowing not to play OASIS tracks live, concerts were a subdued affair as decades long fans no longer knew the lyrics to be able to sing along. 2013's follow up BE rode a nice wave of hype as Liam and the boys wanted to make something completely different, feeling that the masses rejected Different Gear's vibe. Instead of giving us more fast tempo rock and roll snippets, we got a meandering, plodding, goes nowhere album I honestly had trouble listening to or caring about. By now, Liam let a couple OASIS tracks sneak into the set list but sales were weaker than Different Gear.
Also released in 2011 was Noel's solo album, simply dubbed Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds that played like a light OASIS album since he was responsible for writing most of their arena anthem classics. Reviews were good and the album was certified Platinum in the UK, selling over 700,000 copies and landing on several year end best of lists as well as nominations from the Brit Awards, NME and Q. If I Had a Gun has become one of my favorite songs in recent memory while AKA...What a Life, Dream On, AKA...Broken Arrow are all fine, light rock tunes and makes for a great car ride album.
Apparently the last time he was inside The Orpheum was for a Marilyn Manson concert with the eccentric rocker face to face with little brother, trouble maker and rock star Liam being quite the meeting of the minds. Tunes flowed fast and furious with tracks from debut album Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Yesterday keeping things rolling. Noel attacked each song with surprising vigor and he looked much more relaxed than on his first tour when I just kept thinking he needed to let it go, open up and go for it. Lock All the Doors was fantastic live as was the self described "fucking brilliant" song You Know We Can't Go Back. The Riverman and The Death of You and Me brought things down a little, maybe swap them out for Some Might Say. Because it's awesome. Noel chatted with the audience from time to time, picking out goers who have attended many of his shows or asking "who's Ian?" when someone yelled out something about Liam.
