Oasis - Olympic Gym, Seoul (S. Korea) - 4.01.08

Posted by Jesse Coy on 04.09.2009

Britain's alternative and sometimes controversial darlings play the Far East on April Fool's Day.

First, if you’re inspecting some enlightened article that charts the full progress of Oasis, how they’re performing live on this tour compared to other tours, forgot it. Look elsewhere, and you have been forewarned. If you want to hear of all the songs they played, type Oasis Tour 2009 on your computer, and I’m sure that someone compiled their set list somewhere.

On the flip side, if you want to hear about attending a concert in South Korea, complete with some random thoughts, plus place and perspective glued in place, by all means read on. The fact of the matter is, being the sort of music junkie that I am, I am sadly lacking in attending live shows while overseas, because not many bands come to my neck of the woods (Seoul). From May of ‘08 to nearly May of ‘09, there was only one concert before this? Yep… (Judas Priest, by the way). Compare that to 2007, when I saw twelve concerts and four full-blown (jam-packed) music festivals. This year, the numbers are sad indeed.

So when I heard back in December that Oasis would be coming to Seoul on April 1st, clearly I had to be there. What did I know of Oasis? I’ve learned a bit since then, but at the time… well, who doesn’t know “Wonderwall,” I guess. So I went in search of their most famous release, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, which I picked up early on in March, learning that I also recognized “Don’t Look Back in Anger.”

My impression of Oasis had always been of them being sort of like Beatles or 70’s era Bowie-ish (“Look Back in Anger” the title of a Bowie tune), only lighter. As a matter of fact, Oasis came out around a similar time (a couple years earlier) as Spacehog, who I quite like, those guys having gone the more space glam rock route. I found out that Spacehog was actually an opener on one of Oasis’ tours. Anyway, as for Oasis, I’d vaguely heard of the controversy. Why were those brothers always fighting? Or the band was fighting with Blur. I just don’t know. Personally, I like my music and controversy separated, just like I don’t like my mashed potatoes and peas to mix.





My girlfriend was rushing and frantic. I’m at the venue now, by the way.

“They say if we don’t go in now, we might not get in.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been to hundreds of concerts. They will let you in even if you’re late.”

I ambled over to the press tent. Got our tickets, and we headed to the entrance.

“Drink that beer I gave you,” I said. I’d had mine.

“It is in my purse.”

No drink or food inside. Don’t they check? Apparently not. Inside, the head security folks looked quite odd. They wore suits with pink ties. On the way in, too, I wondered… is every British teacher in Seoul here at this moment? That’s what it seemed like, overhearing accents. There were certainly plenty of Koreans, and either they knew the songs quite well, or they made a good show of pretending that they did. We stepped into the Olympic Stadium, a nicely intimate venue as far as I’m concerned. We stepped inside right as the band began.

I started to try to do my usual thing of writing down a set list. I got as far as the first song, “Rock and Roll Star,” I think. After that, the next song rolled out, and then another, and I realized, nuts! What the hell am I doing? I have one Oasis album. I just picked it up. Unless they play mostly everything from their second release, I’m in some trouble. Better change the focus. So I did.

“Anyone here from Korea?” Liam asked early on. He’s being cheeky, I thought. Later, he said something I thought to be a bit ignorant. “Meet our new drummer. He’s your size.” In other words, the drummer was short. That’s rather rude, and also actually ignorant of the fact that in Asia, Koreans tend on average to be the taller and larger compared to those of other Asian countries. I’ve met many taller and bigger than me, and I’m not a short guy.

They played “Morning Glory.” Yee-haw, I know that one, I thought. My girlfriend took note of the singer and his style of singing. “He sings weird. Look at him.” Liam was wearing a green overcoat that sort of made him look like a flasher, especially because his hands were in his pockets the whole time. But that’s not totally what she meant, because he also just stood there, bending into the microphone, and then when he was done, he bent back to his standing position. It was kind of like one of those toy birds that nod for water. Damn, I thought, isn’t he a bit warm in that coat? Maybe he was paranoid after the Montreal attack, and was concealing weapons under the coat. Or was he paranoid about North Korean missiles? He also had a tambourine that he never played.




(he did not do this with the tambourine when I saw him)


He eventually went off stage as Noel sang some songs. I think one was announced as “Master Plan.”





Later, I thought… why does that cute girl keep looking at me? I’d look over, and this Korean chick would be rocking out, watching me as she did so. That went on for several songs. Eventually, my girlfriend came closer, wrapping herself in my arms. “The sound here is good,” she said.

When I looked up some time later, the other girl was gone.

Later, my girlfriend said, “some of this sounds similar.”

They played “Wonderwall,’’ and the place went wild.

Shows at the Olympic Stadium start and end quite punctually, allowing people to catch their train home. I looked at the time. Okay, it’ll be a two-song encore. It was Noel who came out for the encore, playing “Live Forever.” Then he went into “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” Yep, I know that one. It takes on special meaning for me, as I have a Korean coworker I’ve come to greatly dislike, a rather immature girl (taller than Liam, actually) whose American nickname is Sally. Liam came out for “Champagne Supernova,” still wearing that green overcoat, hands still in his pockets.

My girlfriend had been getting tired. She wanted to leave. “Babe, I need to stick around. This is my job.” It’s not like you’re beating any traffic jam rush here like in the States. You just hop on the train. It’ll be equally filled anyway.

So the tally was four Oasis tracks that I recognized.

Hey, guys… thanks for coming over here and playing a show.

Maybe I’ll catch you again some time.

The 411: It’s rocking out to 90’s British alternative tunes. I agreed with all of my girlfriend’s comments, actually. Oasis sounded good on the ear, though (not being entirely familiar with them), some of the songs eventually did sound similar. And Liam’s singing style is… odd. But having seen other live photos of him, it looks like that’s a standard posture for him.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]