This was an astounding moment for me and my pals at the Oasis show in Chicago at Soldier Field.
So me and Brian (@okaybrian) got up at 4 am, walked from our airbnb in Chinatown in the rain to be in line at 5 am. We were 8th and 9th in line. We know this because superfan (and one of our Guardian Angel of Oasis Live '25) Rex, had the forward thought that since we didn't think the venue would be giving out wristbands to the early arrivers, we could number ourselves with a sharpie. It seems like this practice was kept up by the first 200 people, a human affirming act in my eyes. Because we were doing this, we told our other three friends to come to the line asap and then we could start doing shifts for food and bathroom breaks. When security came to organize the official line it seemed like at first they didn't care that we numbered ourselves, but then when it came to crunch time and moving us to the actual gate they honored the system. The feelings of solidarity between security and the line members was amazing. We met people from Mexico City, Florida, Boston, Mississippi, and Chicago. My group was half from Vermont and half from Washington state, meeting in the middle for a band that meant so much to us and connected us to each other in different ways.
So we waited since 5 am but really, we'd been waiting for so much longer.
I never expected an Oasis reunion to happen.
I certainly never thought I'd get to yell the title track of the album that started it all for me, with my forever brother who handed me said CD many many years ago (at least 12-15 according to tumblr dates. God Bless this hellsite), his wife, his brother-in-law, and my first college friend/bandmate. Years ago, when Brian was moving to Washington from our home state, he was getting rid of stuff or handing it off for safe keeping until he was settled. He gave me (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. For my high school senior project I worked as a radio DJ at a low frequency local station and I remember playing my favorite Oasis song, Roll With It, on one of the shows of The Junk Drawer.
Over this summer I have been revisiting their catalog and I think Half the World Away might be my favorite, although it changes week to week. Don't Go Away was one of my favorites in high school. I woke up with D'You Know What I Mean? stuck in my head this morning. Really anything off of the first four records (which I've had on CD for what feels like forever) could be in that fight though, plus all those amazing B-sides.
Sharing this with our little adventurous cross country family, and my musical brother, and the new friends made from this moment was unreal. The people around us during the show were fantastic. I fist bumped this guy, Danny, during one of the songs and after the show he said I was the number one fan (far from true but I'm flattered!). People around us didn't hold their phones up for the whole show, they sang loudly, and there was enough room to breathe and just Be Here Now. I expected rowdy pushing and shoving and fighting to hold my ground. Turns out I didn't need to.
I met my friend Bailey, who came with me from Vermont, the very first night of orientation weekend at college in 2014. We became fast friends over our love of music, a big one being Oasis. He asked me to join his band for a Grateful Dead Cover night and the rest is Seven Leaves history. He's seen both Noel and Liam on their solo tours over the years. He told us the first song he ever learned on guitar was Live Forever by Oasis and it made him obsessed with guitar and being in a band. I owe him a lot, and therefore Oasis a lot, for my own music journey, moreso than I realized, because of what he got from them.
I don't normally put as much thought into what I'm going to wear as I did with this gig. I'm usually anti-hat, let alone a bucket hat. I usually don't like animal prints. This occasion needed something extra out of the ordinary though, plus it's been very easy to spot me now in the content coming from the gig. Emilie (@Lookingforanewplacetobegin) made me a bucket hat to match my cheetah get-up! I made her tambourine earrings as the internet didn't offer her vision, which shocked us both. I brought Oasis pins for everyone so we could brand whatever we wanted (obviously our homemade bucket hats). Emilie made pseudo-ticket stubs for us to take home. I even made an Oasis themed 15 min long visualization meditation for us to do because I knew that emotions would be all over the place and I wanted to try some grounding exercise to combat that. We were extremely prepared for the occasion, but also how do you prepare for such an event? I thought I could, but I wasn't prepared for the comedown I'm now facing.
Waiting in line was truly an endurance feat, it is wild to me that some people do this for every show. Like Carley (our other Guardian Angel of Oasis Live '25) who has been to every Oasis Live '25 show this tour. The people who don't get it never will, but to me, she is a hero, icon, goat, and legend. I had seen a video of her online and when we got to the line that morning I said to Brian, that's that girl who has been to every show. We started talking to her and I was like, you probably get inundated with the question if you're the girl who has been to every Oasis Reunion show, and she said, well are you asking for context? and I said, I'm just asking because I think you are the girl who has been to every Oasis Reunion show. We clicked after that.
Seeing her after the show, standing with Rex, Joey, and the number 1 man in line, Oscar from Florida, I went over to them and said, 'that was amazing for me and it was because of each of you'. I then thanked them individually which caused Carley to sob and give me the biggest hug ever. I then also started sobbing. On our way out I saw one of the guys from Mexico City, Eric, who had been there since close to 5 am, and slapped him on the back. We both remarked how amazing the show was. I'd be remiss if I also didn't shout out Ashley and Mitchell who shared some love of the Grateful Dead and jam music with me, as well as Trevor and the pilot whose name I sadly did forget.
I had been telling my friends, "I'm sorry for who I'm gunna be when Oasis comes on stage, because whoever she is will be loud." I figured I would sob a lot at this show but as uou can see in this video (taken by Bailey) I was truly too happy to cry. The sense of wonder was high. I was fully swelled up in the rush of seeing them. It was just unreal. I did cry at Half the World Away because that horn part is just so stirring. It wasn't until Carley sobbed at me that I really lost it a bit.
There was some confusion and mis-management with Ticketmaster apparently assigning different colors to tickets and giving wrist-bands that meant you could enter and stand in specific places in GA that were RANDOMIZED. Our WA group had gotten a pre-sale code so four tickets were secured, but I had to get mine off a re-seller. If we had been randomized differently, I could've not been able to be with my group. We're very lucky to have not been affected by this kind of non-transparent BS. I'm so sorry to anyone who did get screwed over by it. There was also 0 bag checking, and the wrist banding station was chaos, then getting onto the field was chaotic (which we expected) but my group ended up 3rd row in front of Noel.
The gig itself was astounding. Their voices sound amazing and they're obviously having an amazing time. Their presence alone is captivating. I had been studying the setlist and listening to as many full bootlegs as I could over the last two months of the tour. Experiencing it, I wish Noel's stuff came a song of two later than it did because I wasn't ready for Liam to leave! It made sense though, and my friends thought it was perfectly placed. We did miss having Columbia on the set. I'm also surprised no Gas Panic! I had figured they'd change out at least one song by the time they hit North America but it's kinda nice to know that all the tracks they've been doing have appeal to the whole world. My face was blasted up on the jumbotron and I was shown right behind a giant Noel for Acquiesce. I sang along to every song for the 2 hours. And so did everyone else.
We were a LOUD crowd. Chicago brought it. Maybe we all just knew what the night meant. First time back in the US. The first stop on the tour with 1 night only. The gauntlet had been thrown down from the band, "You have one last chance to prove that you loved us all along," and we did just that.
I think Liam and Noel knew that we knew to bring it. The amount of times Liam clapped for us and the amount of smiles from Noel were well earned. He did have some moments where he just seemed exasperated at the size of the response. I feel like he put in some extra effort, prolonging endings of words, and letting us sing more than at other stops. Of course, I could be extremely biased comparing being there to some bootleg. Even Bonehead commented on his social media that we sang LOUD. Doing the Poznan was just as epic as I'd hoped it'd be. I get chills watching it back. Liam blessed himself almost constantly with his water. When it was all over I told my friends and messaged my sister, I don't think I can see another concert ever again. What's the point? It's not Oasis.
I'm ruminating on how we all owe each other something. We're all connected, we've all got stories to share and connections to make. A bit of my faith in humanity has been restored. I've been referring to this gig as the Healing of the Nations because if the Gallagher brothers can do it (reconcile), anyone can. Yes, nostalgia is playing a huge part in it, but the thread in all of that nostalgia is love and connection. "I’m connected and protected by a biblical force of well being and celestial good fortune" - Liam Gallagher on Twitter, June 6th 2024. The world needs to come together more than ever and this planted so many seeds of that for me. Be Yourself. Believe in One Another. Live Forever.
