I love it, Room for everybody here
Some dates you put on your calendar and wonder if they’ll ever arrive…you wait and wait and wait, and then suddenly: It’s the day!
For example: First weekend of October, 2024, I click up two floor “seats” for the Oasis reunion show in Chicago while Liz and I zoom towards Nashville.
And then, on the last Thursday of August 2025, Liz and I are getting of the L and marching with the masses towards Soldier Field because tonight’s finally the night!
Part of the excitement of the show was it was my first time, in all my Chicago life, of going to Soldier Field. The whole place was abuzz with excitement and merch purchases and merch wearing.
Cage the Elephant was the opening band. They were fine? I don't remember much. They might actually have been good. They had their big cell-phone-lights-lighting-up-the-stadium moment, what more could they (or we?) have asked for?
It seemed to us we had found a pretty good spot on the field, not too far back from the stage (but still, yes, quite far from the stage). Later on looking at other photos I realize we were pretty far from the stage. BUT it didn’t feel like it…I mean I could only see the people on the stage if I got on my tiptoes and Liz, sadly, couldn't see them in anyway besides the screens. I’d never been in a giant mass of concert goers like this before and, you know what? It wasn’t so bad. Thanks to the good vibes of this concert it was just a bunch of (mostly middle aged) happy excited people ready to belt out all the words to every song. Next time I see Oasis at Soldier Field I think I’ll do it from a seat, but, as I said, not such a bad experience standing there in the (maybe) middle of the field for the whole, what, 3 hours? Maybe 4?
Anyway, post Cage the Elephant the stadium was buzzing hard. The anticipation! The imminent rock n roll dream about to come true!
But let’s talk about that rock n roll dream for a second. “Brigham,” you might say “I didn’t realize you were such a big Oasis fan.” And I’d say “Fair…frankly, I didn’t realize I was such a big Oasis fan myself, either.” When Oasis and Blur were fighting it out in the UK charts during the 90s I was decidedly a Blur fan and did not pay much attention at all to Oasis. But I picked up a few used Oasis CDs while doing London study abroad in 2000 and they made me go “Oh wait, maybe I was missing out on something here?” And my interest grew incrementally from there. Couple that with the legendary feuding of the Gallagher brothers and their unabashed rock starness and you’ve really got something going on. In 2012 I got to see Pulp live (twice!) And in 2015 the dream of my life came true and I saw Blur at Madison Square Garden just a few days (more or less) before a major knee surgery. Finishing out the Britpop trinity with an Oasis show sure seemed like an impossibility for a while (what with the band being broken up and feuding) but then about two summers ago rumors of a reunion began to be heard circulating. And I got excited. And then (like I said at the beginning of the post) I got us some tickets last summer. And the excitement just built and built.
The internet said that Oasis was going to go on at 8:00 and…they did! Right at the dot! Almost too suddenly we switched from anticipation to intro music to “…in the Bushes” blasting through the stadium and the band took the stage. Yes, This Was Happening. Ready to rock, they rocketed right into “Hello”, what a way to kick it off. And everyone was going wild. From there it was just hit after hit with a stretch of Noel songs while Liam took a break before they teamed back up to bring the night home, closing it out with fireworks and “Champagne Supernova”. What a night!
And then, the one mild unpleasantness of the night: leaving the stadium and getting back to the L. It was a matter of multiple throngs going in opposing directions through limited space. But somehow (Liz darting and weaving, that’s how) we made it out and were back on the train, sitting right across from a woman who had sat across from us on the way to the show.
I’ve got to add that this show left me with a tremendous rock n roll high. It was just so perfect and fun. (Wish it had been louder, though). I could be heard proclaiming “I would’ve paid $1000 for that” a few times as we made our way off the field. And looking back, I stick to it. My only regret, in a world of fantasies, is that we didn’t go to the Mexico City shows, too. Wow. That would’ve been too much heaven, actually.
It goes without saying, but I’m not going to leave it unsaid, that the Spirit Award of the evening goes to Liz who was an enthusiastic champ and fun-haver all night in spite of having basically 0 Oasis background going into the show. Yet she threw her energy into the show and was a very game participant in all the fun. My favorite part? Maybe when I looked down in the middle of the show and saw she was doing Google image searches of Liam and Noel to better orient herself with the rock stars she was witnessing. Maybe she’s going to be the one that saves me? Oh no doubt!
