Somewhere along my journey from Brooklyn to New Jersey, the subway platforms and train cars became swarmed by people clad in Adidas tracksuits, soccer kits, bucket hats and round sunglasses. We weren’t flocking to a Britpop Halloween party. No, the next best thing: the resurrection of Oasis at MetLife Stadium — the first time the Gallagher brothers appeared together anywhere near New York in 17 years.
Oasis announced their reunion more than a year ago, and they had already played 20 shows as part of the Live ’25 tour. (I know this because I’ve been pleasantly inundated with clips from those concerts for the last eight weeks.) But on Sunday night, when Liam and Noel Gallagher strode onstage together, holding hands in triumph, there was a part of me that still couldn’t believe my eyes. The brothers turned rivals spent a decade and a half launching verbal rockets at each other — “idiot,” “knobhead,” “potato” and, quite often, a four-letter word that begins with C. For years, an Oasis reunion seemed impossible. So, the sight of Liam and Noel united, literally, was inspiring.
But before I could get too sappy, the Gallaghers took their places and immediately blasted into “Hello,” Liam leaning forward in a parka, hands behind his back, and Noel strumming a Les Paul, straight-faced. Fans launched their half-drunken pints into the sky, beer spraying all over the pit. In any other setting, getting drenched in someone else’s lager might have been a night-ruiner. Instead, people collapsed into each other, sticky Yankees shouting in Manchester accents, “And it’s never gonna be the same / ’Cause the years are falling by like the rain!”
The crowd bounced to the driving bass line of “Bring It on Down.” Hands shot in the air for a “Supersonic” played faster than usual. And a guy shook his soft pretzel like a tambourine during “Some Might Say.” An early highlight of the setlist was “Acquiesce,” the fan-favorite B-side on which the brothers trade verse and chorus. While Noel has denied the song is about his relationship with Liam, the context of this joyous armistice makes it hard to read the duet any other way: “Because we need each other / We believe in one another.”
Maybe it’s because they are literally brothers, but Oasis seems to evoke the spirit of bromance more than any contemporary band. The crowd was teeming with male friend groups, arms locked around each other’s necks. Guys hugging and jumping, and hugging while jumping. Grown men mounted on other grown men’s backs. Girls, too, got in on the fun, forming their own mini mosh pit and waving the British flag. One woman who was repeatedly featured on the jumbotron held a sign that read: “WE’VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU.”
The energy in the stadium peaked with the blazing blues rock of “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” which kicked off with a “Poznań,” a Manchester City soccer tradition in which the fans face away from the game (in this case, the stage), link arms and jump in unison. “They said you wouldn’t do it, America, and you did it,” Liam said, like a proud football coach. “Congratulations.”
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In fairness, there were also plenty of Brits in the house, some of which had presumably traveled across the pond for their second, third or fourth Oasis reunion show. (One English gentleman in front of me at the food stand asked a stadium cashier for tartar sauce, to which she replied, “Those are chicken tenders you’re holding, sir.”)
Lewis Evans
This has been noted in nearly every Oasis review in 2025, but it bears repeating that the band sounds as good as ever. Noel commanded the stage with a couple of beautifully sung acoustic numbers, and Liam’s grainy snarl was scathing and perfectly pitched, whether he’s spitting out “Stand by me!” or stretching “sunshine” into a three-syllable word. The concert felt less like a rehash of the greatest hits of the 1990s, more like witnessing a band still at the peak of its powers.
Still, if I have one complaint, the setlist suffered a bit of a lull toward the middle of the concert — I might scrap the forgettable “Cast No Shadow,” and I could probably do without “Whatever,” save for Liam’s cheeky interpolation of “Octopus’s Garden.” But once the band launched into “Live Forever,” dedicating it to “the kiddies in Minneapolis,” the concert became a medley of some of the greatest arena-rock songs ever written.
Oasis closed with the scorching “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” before returning to the stage for “The Masterplan” and then its three biggest hits. Teasing “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” Noel told the audience that they’ve probably wondered what it’s like to sing this next song with 60,000 people. “Now you’ll know what that feeling is like,” he said, before those opening piano chords summoned a wave of warm applause. Sandwiched between “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and the final song of the night, “Wonderwall” felt slightly rushed. Introduced with an amusing casualness (“Anyway, here’s ‘Wonderwall’”), the karaoke behemoth might have been better placed toward the beginning of the setlist.
And finally there was “Champagne Supernova,” in which Liam’s nasally vocal crescendo bathed in swirling electric guitar fuzz. The seven-minute song climaxed with a firework show above MetLife Stadium as Liam stood still, balancing a tambourine on his head.
The show was over, but another encore of sorts occurred on the 30-minute commute back to New York City, as train cars buzzed with Oasis fans belting out the choruses to “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Wonderwall” and “Live Forever” a capella. There were older couples who had traveled from overseas, fans in their 20s and 30s who never thought they’d see Oasis live, and children wearing “Live Forever” shirts that were born after the band broke up in 2009.
It reminded me of that “WE’VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU” sign that kept appearing on-screen at the concert. Oasis may have broken up, but their fans stayed together. They existed during the band’s 16-year hiatus, and, while it’s sure nice to have Liam and Noel back together, the fans will remain after the brothers inevitably decide to part ways again.
After this tour ends, Oasis’ future is unclear. The band insists there is no new music on the way, and their manager has called the tour “the last time around.” Still, if there’s one piece of advice the Gallaghers should take from their music, it’s this: Don’t go away.
From Variety US