“We were unsurpassable”: The era Noel Gallagher called Oasis’ peak as a live band
Any passive rock fan in the 1990s can remember the moment when they got to see Oasis live in concert. Despite having some of the greatest records to their name at the height of Britpop, the main appeal of the Gallagher brothers was seeing them, especially with the sounds blasting louder than anything else or the feeble attempt they made at trying to recreate that brick walling effect in the studio. Although Noel Gallagher may have fond memories of watching their performances at Knebworth, he still felt that one of their peaks as performers came years after their golden age.
Then again, it’s hard to look at the good without appreciating the bad, and Noel also had a wealth of horrible performances to choose from in Oasis’s back catalogue. The lion’s share of their greatest performances had come from Noel and Liam arguing, and despite a few shows where Liam would leave halfway through because his voice was shot, seeing him royally screw fans over with a drunken performance at Wembley in 2000 is tragically hilarious to look back on.
Even though Noel and Liam had been at arm’s length ever since, hearing them in the studio actually saw them getting better by the 2000s. While Standing on the Shoulder of Giants was viewed as the sad comedown after Be Here Now went out in a blaze of glory, Heathen Chemistry became the best and worst of their catalogue, with knockout singles standing next to tracks that aren’t even worthy of standing next to their B-sides.
It’s easy to forgive that record for being the first time the band became democratic, but Don’t Believe the Truth became the moment where everything clicked. The group had their most stable lineup since the 1990s, and despite fluctuating between band members, every track stood up as fairly solid, whether Noel getting up to his 1960s worship on ‘The Importance of Being Idle’, Liam showing a tender side on ‘Love Like a Bomb’, or Andy Bell’s gorgeous ‘Keep the Dream Alive’.
But that was only the first taste of what awaited fans in the documentary Lord Don’t Slow Me Down. While the film itself is a strange watch documenting the band’s tour through the US and the UK, the performances are impeccably shot, including the black and white filter put on everything that makes it feel like a lost relic from the past.
While a lot had gone by since Noel had last seen the footage when working on the documentary Time Flies, he still argued that this was the finest that Oasis ever sounded whenever they performed, saying, “It brings back good memories. That particular tour we had risen to our peak, and I think we continued right up until the end as a live band. I think we were unsurpassable.”
And it’s hard to really argue with the way that the band presented themselves when playing tunes like ‘Rock and Roll Star’. Even if things weren’t cordial between the brothers, seeing them tear through their version of ‘My Generation’ made for some of the wildest moments whenever they played, coupled with the fact that Who drummer Zak Starkey was behind the kit for most of those gigs.
While Dig Out Your Soul ended up being a sad epitaph for the band’s final moments together, Lord Don’t Slow Me Down is still a time capsule for when they were still doing it for the love of the sport. Money hadn’t been a big priority in years, but the thrill of plugging in an electric guitar and hearing that signature road wasn’t lost on them.
