This year I decided to give myself a little Christmas present. It had been 8 years since my 16th Birthday when I tried unsuccessfully to spend my Birthday money on a ticket to see Oasis. The gig, just as all the others since, had sold out before I got a chance. Sod this I thought "I'm not waiting until July and paying £50 to have a tough trip up and back from Wembley, why not make a weekend of it."

So two tickets were bought to see Oasis at the Berlin Arena and flights there for the cost of taxes only. Include the cost of a cheap hostel and the total price was only slightly more expensive than the cost of Wembley would have been!

We flew out early Saturday morning (17th) and spent the day getting to grips with the city, planning how to get to the Arena, where to drink, what to see etc and the evening watching the football in a bar, saving energy for the gig day (18th). After a bit more drinking on Sunday we went to the gig. The Arena looks a lot like a warehouse but is a decent size, not too big but not small. Smaller than the London Arena in the Docklands.

We got to the venue pretty early so got a good spot by the second barrier and got the beers in. Those clever Germans have a brilliant idea where if you bring back your plastic beer cups, you get a Euro off the next pint, so no kicking through mountains of plastic cups when you go for a piss or to the bar.
Support was Twisted Wheel. I gave them a brief look before I left for Germany and thought they'd be decent, and they were, worth checking out again. They looked much younger than I thought they'd be, filling me with a jealous rage, wishing that at that age I was touring Europe supporting Oasis rather than drinking myself into comas on the dull streets of Kent. Fair play to them but I don't remeber that much of them as I was more than excited at the thought of seeing Oasis. (They are worth checking out though back in the UK).

There weren't many suprises with the Oasis set, but I didn't particularly want any! I had done enough research into their live performances to be sure that after all these years of waiting, I wouldn't be dissapointed!

I won't bore you with the details of which songs they played suffice to to say that Slide Away was included and they finished on Supersonic. But wait.... they didn't finish on Supersonic. Oh no, back they came for an encore of Don't Look Back In Anger, The Turning and Champagne Supernova. Everybody, whether English, German, Russian, Polish or Alien thought that was the end. Again no... Out they came again for I Am The Walrus ending the set with a triumphant rock n roll finale.

So enough of the details, I'd rather just review the event as a whole. Liam was on good form and on his best behaviour; for as much as I wanted him to be rude, obnoxious and mouthy as he is expected to be, I was equally as pleased to see him polite, mature and proud. His prescence was that of somebody who knew he was fronting one of the biggest bands in the world - a band that defined rock n roll for a generation. And he showed that in a very composed and cool way.

I didn't have a great view of Noel on the side of the stage but it must be an amazing feeling to go to a foreign country and hear people singing your songs word perfect and louder than your acoustic acoustic guitar can be amplified.

The display in the background was very impressive, mixing visuals of the band with psychadelic images similar to the sleeve of the new album. All in all, for me and people my age, this is real rock n roll. Muse, The Killers, whatever, not interesting.


If it's in an Arena, it's Oasis.

Posted In Live Reviews, Jan 21 2009. Words - Sam