August 2002, Pompano Beach Amphitheater, Pompano Beach, Fla.
It is a famous, or infamous, show — depending on who you ask — but fitting for Oasis. This is a band used to selling out 80,000-seat arenas — had back-to-back gigs in front of 500,000 people — and here they were in Pompano Beach, playing to less than 3,000 (and seats were available). It didn’t help the friction between the Gallagher brothers was never worse.
I expected something crazy to happen. Something crazy did.
I was with my wife and my sister (who I think brought a date), and we had great seats. Actually anywhere you sat at the amphitheater was good seating, and there was no monitoring of who was sitting where, so people moved on up. With no opening act, the boys strolled on stage as the sun was still up and Liam broke into “Hello”.
“Hello” then broke Liam’s voice, a tiny bit, at first. I had a friend from England who was there that night and taped the performance (which I have), and you can hear his voice fraying from the start. I looked over at Kristen with a concerned look: Is this a one-song show? Liam worked through it, and was fine through “The Hindu Times” and “Hung in a Bad Place”.
But “Go Let It Out” was the end. Liam’s voice made a terrible crack early in the song, he yelled “fuck it” into the mic, tossed it up in the air and walked off stage right. Noel was pissed, the band stopped. Noel walked off stage, came back, and for the first time in his career, sang lead vocals for “Morning Glory” and “Stop Crying Your Heart Out”. After “Little By Little,” the band put down their instruments and walked off.
Wow.
I’m thinking that’s it, and as pissed as I was that I waited years to see Oasis only to have them play six songs, I also found the whole thing quite epic. Our lives are stories, and this was a good one.
But then Noel walked out, apologized, and proceeded through an eight-song acoustic set which floored the audience. If there is ever a choice between who is the better Gallagher brother, it will always, ALWAYS be Noel. He played songs from The Masterplan, including “The Masterplan,” “Half the World Away” and “Talk Tonight”. He sang “Live Forever,” and in a grand gesture, did “Wonderwall”. “I don’t ever play this song,” he said before strumming the familiar refrain.
He walked off and returned with the full band, which no doubt adjusted the set as if there was no Liam. The band rumbled through “She’s Electric,” “Acquiesce,” “Force of Nature” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (of which I’m sure Noel was) before covering Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My” to end the show. People wanted an encore, but what they got was a piece of Oasis lore.
In the days following I read through the Oasis fan walls, and people were pissed they weren’t there. Some of the people that were there were pissed Liam didn’t perform. In the one to 10 scale of Oasis outrage, it was a 10.
Turns out two nights later Liam was back on stage, leading the band in Orlando for a full set.
What a dick.
