A few quick thoughts on The Chief’s show at the Warner Theater in DC. This was a good counter point for me as I shot this show and was *ahem* of clearer mind than I was when I saw him in Boston last year. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, even though the setlist was the same except for two songs (more on that in a minute).
One thing that stood out at this show was the weaker songs for me actually sounded pretty great. “The Death of You and Me” had a more straight ahead and horn-less arrangement and that helped tremendously. Even “Broken Arrow” and “Solider Boys and Jesus Freaks” seemed to fit in with the set better last night. “Stranded On the Wrong Beach” still does great as the main set closer, I think thats a underrated tune with a very strong groove. It’s quickly becoming a favorite of mine.
As for the encore and the one new song to the set. I had been watching the setlists for the European tour (even though they NEVER change) and Noel had added “Whatever” in as the first song of the encore and I was holding my breath when they came back on stage after the break, hoping and praying that he wouldn’t drop it form the set. He didn’t and it was BRILLIANT. I love that song and hadn’t heard it played live since September of 1996! As a result, “Wonderwall” was dropped from the set, and while I like WW much more than “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” trading that for “Whatever” is definitely an upgrade.
Noel’s stage banter was in rare form last night. Lots of cursing, sharp quips, witty remarks and Mario Balotelli shout-outs. He’s becoming quite a frontman.
Last night’s crowd also deserves mention. It wasn’t as rowdy as the Boston fans from last year, but everyone stood up for the whole show and sang along with gusto. It was a great environment that doesn’t always happen in this town, so cheers everyone!
I am heading to Detroit this weekend to do the whole thing over again (sans camera) so I am very much looking forward to this weekend. Last night was my 21st time seeing Liam or Noel perform, so Saturday at the Royal Oak Music Theater will be #22!
I’ll have more photos up today or tomorrow. Stay tuned!
Lastly, feel free to reblog this photo, but please don’t re-use it without my permission.
Looking back, I actually listened to more music this year than I thought I did, but I am proud to say I still haven’t listened to any Lana Del Ray. Having a Spotify account certainly makes it easier to check things out but it’s also harder for me to keep track of what I listen to. That said, here are the albums I listened to the most on 2011.
1) Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo Definitely the album I listened to the most over the course of 2011. More stripped down than his last effort, this album really surprised me and would not get out of my head all year.
2) We Are Augustines - Rise Ye Sunken Ships Pela was one of my favorite bands in the last few years and I was so sure they were due for big, big things, so it’s nice to see half of the band regroup and put out a record like this. Honestly, this album isn’t very different from pela, but that’s a good thing. All the love the band got from Chase Jarvis this year certainly didn’t hurt.
3) Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - S/T I made my thoughts known about this album when it came out and I still stand by it. But man, seeing him in Boston was incredible and put this album back in heavy rotation.
4) Those Dancing Days - Daydreams and Nightmares Just the latest in a never ending line of awesome female Swedish pop/punk bands. Still gutted they weren’t allowed to come over for SXSW.
5) High Highs - S/T Technically this is a 4-song EP, but song-for-song, this might be the single best thing I heard all year.
6) My Morning Jacket - Circuital This album totally clicked for me after MMJ’s absolutely monster show at Merriweather. A return to form that grows on you.
7) Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne Obvs.
8) Jessica Lea Mayfield - Tell Me One of the best things about shooting shows for the Post is getting introduced to artists I would never know about otherwise. That certainly happened when I shot Jessica Lea Mayfield at Iota this year. She was AMAZING and I couldn’t wait to listen to this album when I got home. A keeper.
9) Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO Another such case. Caught him playing a great show at the RnR Hotel and immediately was hooked on this album when I listened to it.
10) The Strokes - Angles Half of this album is great. The other half I just don’t listen to.
Honorable mention:
Elbow - build a rocket boys! (Great but I like them better when they rock) Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding (Fine debut but I got burnt out on it) Radiohead - The King of Limbs (Had its moments, but otherwise, pretty boring) Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee (MUCH better than To The 5 Boroughs) Buffalo Tom - Skins (Not a true return to form, but any new music from them is a wonderful)
I’ll put it this way to you: the first two Oasis albums were a complete and utter dictatorship, and they’re the best records we ever made. Democracies are bollocks; they don’t really work. British bands generally have two people driving them, and two or three people in the passenger seats. In Oasis we tried to do something different – I wrote one half of the album, they’d write the other half. We’d try to make it concise and have a narrative but eventually you’d run into a brick wall. One song would never quite run into the next and the balance was all wrong. We got it right once on Don’t Believe The Truth but there was too much compromise and trying to keep everybody in the band happy. Oasis in its essence was me doing the writing and Liam doing the singing. As the years progressed, I wrote less and he sang less and then it became something else.
Ewan MCGregor was my neighbour, right, and he came round (to) my house the night he got the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi. I just happened to have two of those lightsaber toys, so I said, ‘Come on - in the back garden.’ And we had a f**king lightsaber fight. His first Jedi training session was with yours truly in my back garden at eight in the morning.
When we became successful, I thought, in my own naivety, that a hundred bands would reform the next week and they’d all be in the charts, and we’d live in some fucking Beatles-derived nirvana. But it took 10 years for the Libertines, Razorlight, Arctic Monkeys, and Kasabian to all come out and all go, “The first album we ever got was Definitely Maybe,” or, “The first song we ever played was ‘Talk Tonight’.” That made me feel really proud. And what made me feel prouder still was that I really fucking liked all those bands— apart from Razorlight.
…someone came in and said ‘Five minutes to stage time’, and we said to Morrissey ‘Come back and see us for a drink afterwards, we’re having an after-show party’, and he said ‘Oh don’t worry about that, I’m only staying for the first three songs’. We’re like ‘Well, at least he’s being honest’.
I finally secured a copy of the new Noel Gallagher album last night and gave it a listen during the 4th quarter of the Lions / Bears game. I then gave it a second listen during my commute this morning. My thoughts:
Track 1) Everybody’s On The Run - An amazing album opener. The choir and extraneous instrumentation are a preview of the album’s (somewhat overblown) production, but good lord, this vocal! One of the best Noel’s ever committed to tape. A corker. One of the best songs on the album. Here’s a soundcheck version that gives me chills.
Track 2) Dream On - An updated version of “(It’s Good) To Be Free” that honestly leaves a little to be desired. The horn section makes its first appearance. This song could have used a bit more work.
Track 3) If I Had A Gun - You’ve no doubt heard this song (and seen the video) if you’re at all interested in this album, so not sure I have anything new to say here. But I love this song and think it’s a great choice for the first US single. This is a great example of a great song that didn’t need much done to it during the recording process. Some of the other songs on this album were not so lucky.
Track 4) The Death of You And Me - The first track to be released off this album had many (including me) scratching their head after the first few listens. And while I don’t love this song, I think it works MUCH better in the framework of the album as a whole. It provides a nice change of pace in the tracklisting. Not one of my favorite songs on here by any means but I have to admit I had the hook in my head when I woke up this morning. Damn you, Noel!
Track 5) (I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine - Oasis fans have been waiting for this one ever since the demo was leaked with some of the other songs from the Don’t Believe The Truth sessions. The finished version is pretty great and while I really like this song, I could do without the recording of the kids playing at the beginning and end of the song. Again, this seems like production for production’s sake. It doesn’t really add anything to the tune. It’s just there to make sure you know this is supposed to be a big ballad/album centerpiece. The drumming is a bit too Alan White for me as well. I do love the “Stop The Clocks” snippet at the end, which is a nod to the “Wonderwall” snippet in “Hello.” This song was originally meant to be 10 minutes long but it has been shortened to under five. Boo.
Track 6) AKA…What A Life - FUCK YES! This track is 100% perfect and the best track here. When I pictured this album in my head, this is what I wanted this entire album to sound like. A big 4/4 drumbeat with accompanying piano driving the tempo with Noel using all of his vocal range on top of it. This song is directly related to Dig Out Your Soul’s “Falling Down” (easily the best song on that album). I will probably listen to this song 100 times before the end of the year. Also, this acoustic version is pretty badass.
Track 7) Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks - Has a tempo very similar to “The Death Of You And Me,” only without the brass foundation. More choral arrangements for no reason. A bit of a clunker, honestly.
Track 8) AKA…Broken Arrow - A fine enough song, but not really noteworthy in any way.
Track 9) (Stranded On) The Wrong Beach - Nice tempo, unlike any other song on the album. Another track driven by the drumbeat. Has a big, soaring chorus that’s somewhat reminiscent of Dig Out Your Soul’s “Waiting For The Rapture.” Noel has always stuck a song on the last few Oasis albums that don’t sound like anything else on that record, and this is that song for High Flying Birds. Like.
Track 10) Stop The Clocks - A huge, huge disappointment. This is another demo that leaked from the Don’t Believe The Truth sessions that has been rumored to be on every Oasis release since then, but has never made it because the band couldn’t agree on a version they liked. After listening to this version, it seems like Noel and Dave Sardy couldn’t decide what direction to go in and just chucked every studio trick they could think of onto the track. This is a track that should have sounded like “Let There Be Love,” a plaintive beginning that builds over time. Instead, it’s full on kitchen sink from the beginning. The choral backing vocals are contrived and it just sounds like a muddy mess. The saxophone makes me want to jump out of a window. The 4 track demo I have is 10x better than this. Shame. A real missed opportunity.
Well, there you have it. I tend to be overly critical of everything Oasis related, especially when it comes to Noel’s songwriting, so while it may not sound like I enjoyed the album very much, that’s not true. I gave this a 7 out of 10 last night on Twitter and that feels right for this album. There’s a great album in here, it just gets lost in the production. I will say that i am VERY excited to hear some of these songs live next month in Boston, as I’m sure they will sound miles better when stripped down. Ultimately, I am just happy that my favorite songwriter on the planet is back in action.
The premise of Oasis’ career happening in reverse is an interesting thought experiment and not altogether incorrect (had this inverted sequence actually transpired, it’s easy to imagine the kind of person who’d argue that “Supersonic” sucks and that the real Oasis music can only be found on the likes of Heathen Chemistry).
Hi there. I'm Kyle Gustafson, a photographer / blogger / web editor living in Washington, D.C. I take concert, sports and event photos for media outlets like the Washington Post, DCist, Washingtonian Magazine, Pitchfork and many others. For more of my photography, check out my photo site.
