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By : Jake Ebdale

Artist/Band: Liam Gallagher

Venue/City: Spark Arena, Auckland, NZ

Date of Event: Friday 20th December 2019

The younger, less prolific and slightly more controversial Oasis brother returns to our shores for a rollicking performance of rock ‘n’ roll – with a few well-known covers thrown in. “You reap what you sow, backstabbed all your friends, and, yes, it’s all about who you know.” Those few lines, taken from Liam’s recent stomp of a single, Shockwave could be directed at any of his Twitter casualties, or ‘shitbags’, over the past decade – be it One Direction, Kanye West, Parka Thieves, Boris Johnson, or just England in general. But more than likely, it addresses big brother Noel Gallagher, the one who wrote all the big Oasis hits, and the one receiving the big performance royalties.

Liam’s a funny fella – his Twitter feed should be preserved in stone before he deletes the whole thing, but he also gets himself into trouble through his thumbs. On one hand, he takes the absolute piss towards Noel – just search ‘Noel potato’ to see what I mean – and also in song, like the aforementioned Shockwave. But in other new tunes, like the saccharine One Of Us, he will gladly extend an olive branch to his Gallagher brethren (there’s one more, Paul) and no one knows what to make of it. Noel, on the other hand, doesn’t want a bar of it. It’s this dichotomy that drives Liam’s career, and thus, his live performances – he wants to be his own guy, and then wants to get the old band together. He wants to be a cocky Manc warrior, but then writes a tune that Robbie Williams would have turned down in 2003. It’s this combustible energy that ultimately makes him such an interesting figure in 2019.

So, to the show...as Oasis did for most performances post 2000, Liam cock-stepped out to a recorded intro of Fucking in the Bushes and Rock and Roll Star. This is a sure fire way to get the old Definitely Maybe heads eating from the palm of his hand – and it worked. It was a decent energy at Spark, although a little tapered off at the top seats. The new songs that follow, Halo, Shockwave and first solo single Wall of Glass, are pretty damn solid and could pass for latter day Oasis bangers – though Morning Glory blows everything out of the water soon after.

Liam is in fine voice tonight too – much better than his late afternoon slot at that Big Day Out at Western Springs years ago – and is quite aware of it. He is a confident bastard, tambourine in pieces and permanently with parka. ‘Noo Zeeland – wot’s noo about it?’ and the like. He is one of the last remaining rock stars we have, and still spews attitude and swagger. Seeing Noel a few weeks ago play Wonderwall opening for U2, I have to give the points to Liam’s performance tonight. It’s something in that voice – that raspy ‘fuck you’ wail that could shatter walls of glass in the mid-90s – that props this tune up and sends it into the stratosphere. When Liam sings it, it transcends its cover band status and transports people to somewhere special. The fact that we get two deep cuts in Columbia and Acquiesce, plus early singles Roll with It, Champagne Supernova, Supersonic and Cigarettes and Alcohol is, well, a nice little cherry on top.

All in all, Liam Gallagher has experienced a deserved late-career renaissance and is probably on par with what Noel is writing with High Flying Birds (or High Flying Smurfs, as tweeted by LG x). This concert was proof that he still has some serious pipes. And with all that combustible energy, who knows whether Oasis could exist again – but it could be proper biblical. This is the closest we’ve got for now – and why not? We’ll take it. As you were.