_Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds @ Enmore Theatre, Sydney (23/01/2012)
_
From the minute Deep Sea
Arcade began performing, it was
fairly obvious as to why they had been selected as the support act for the
night. Sitting comfortably in the ‘indie’ genre but clearly aiming for a more
psychedelic angle, the Sydney locals are reminiscent of 60’s acts The Kinks or
The Zombies. With Nic McKenzie’s
vocals having that sweet lilting caress over much louder and denser bass provided
by Nick Weaver. It’s their more
upbeat tracks though that perks the attention of the audience, like the cute
vocal harmonies in ‘Lonely In Your Arms’ or ‘Don’t Be Sorry’ with
its marching beat like drums. I’m not entirely sure whether this band won over
any new fans in this particular crowd though.
It has been many moons since Noel Gallagher has performed on Australian soil. The last time I saw him was in 2006 at the very same venue with Gem Archer (of Oasis) in a semi-acoustic mode. That night was almost pure live music bliss for me, so to say I had fairly high expectations for this full band performance is a little of an understatement. Thankfully, I believe Noel and his High Flying Birds managed to deliver.
Surprisingly the set was a solid mixture of material from his debut self-titled solo record and Oasis songs. Opening with ‘(It’s Good) To Be Free’ followed on by ‘Mucky Fingers’ in a back-to-back blast of sound. These contrasted nicely against his evidently more mellow material from his own catalogue. His current single ‘If I Had A Gun’ is such a beautifully written love song wrapped up in an indie blanket, while ‘Everybody’s On The Run’ swells and lifts gradually. Just prior to the acoustic portion of the set we are treated to a completely brand new song titled ‘Freaky Teeth’, with intense droning guitars and eerie organ sounds provided by keyboardist Mike Rowe, perhaps something to look forward to on a sophomore release, that hints at Gallagher’s new found foray into experimentation.
The song that brought Oasis mainstream notoriety, ‘Wonderwall’, was performed early and acoustically, with just Noel, drummer Jeremy Stacey and keyboardist Rowe. It’s cliché but I still love this song, and I’ve always preferred it sung by Noel more so than his brother Liam. This was followed by another Oasis classic ‘Supersonic’ also performed acoustically. It seemed to become a completely different song when played in such a minimalist form. Another track to get a live makeover was ‘Talk Tonight’, which had the full band onstage tearing it to shreds but in a bombastic way that breathed new angsty emotionally heartwrenching life into the song.
One of the advantages of the High Flying Birds is the choice of live band mates who are not only adept at their instrument of choice, but also provide vocal harmonies that suit Gallagher’s voice, something that was often lacking from an Oasis show.
If you wanted any sort of evidence of the crowd attendance though all you needed to witness was the almost football-crowd-like atmosphere prior to the encore that included some hard discerning lyrics in a monotonal chant. Once again, it was clear that even though Noel Gallagher was in Sydney, Australia, the majority in that room were English.
The crowd though were well rewarded with energetic performances of ‘Little By Little’, ‘The Importance Of Being Idle’ and show closer ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ that had the entire room on their feet singing it like a makeshift national anthem. I guess that makes his new-found tag of ‘God-like genius’ appropriate then. All hail Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds!
Carina Nilma
It has been many moons since Noel Gallagher has performed on Australian soil. The last time I saw him was in 2006 at the very same venue with Gem Archer (of Oasis) in a semi-acoustic mode. That night was almost pure live music bliss for me, so to say I had fairly high expectations for this full band performance is a little of an understatement. Thankfully, I believe Noel and his High Flying Birds managed to deliver.
Surprisingly the set was a solid mixture of material from his debut self-titled solo record and Oasis songs. Opening with ‘(It’s Good) To Be Free’ followed on by ‘Mucky Fingers’ in a back-to-back blast of sound. These contrasted nicely against his evidently more mellow material from his own catalogue. His current single ‘If I Had A Gun’ is such a beautifully written love song wrapped up in an indie blanket, while ‘Everybody’s On The Run’ swells and lifts gradually. Just prior to the acoustic portion of the set we are treated to a completely brand new song titled ‘Freaky Teeth’, with intense droning guitars and eerie organ sounds provided by keyboardist Mike Rowe, perhaps something to look forward to on a sophomore release, that hints at Gallagher’s new found foray into experimentation.
The song that brought Oasis mainstream notoriety, ‘Wonderwall’, was performed early and acoustically, with just Noel, drummer Jeremy Stacey and keyboardist Rowe. It’s cliché but I still love this song, and I’ve always preferred it sung by Noel more so than his brother Liam. This was followed by another Oasis classic ‘Supersonic’ also performed acoustically. It seemed to become a completely different song when played in such a minimalist form. Another track to get a live makeover was ‘Talk Tonight’, which had the full band onstage tearing it to shreds but in a bombastic way that breathed new angsty emotionally heartwrenching life into the song.
One of the advantages of the High Flying Birds is the choice of live band mates who are not only adept at their instrument of choice, but also provide vocal harmonies that suit Gallagher’s voice, something that was often lacking from an Oasis show.
If you wanted any sort of evidence of the crowd attendance though all you needed to witness was the almost football-crowd-like atmosphere prior to the encore that included some hard discerning lyrics in a monotonal chant. Once again, it was clear that even though Noel Gallagher was in Sydney, Australia, the majority in that room were English.
The crowd though were well rewarded with energetic performances of ‘Little By Little’, ‘The Importance Of Being Idle’ and show closer ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ that had the entire room on their feet singing it like a makeshift national anthem. I guess that makes his new-found tag of ‘God-like genius’ appropriate then. All hail Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds!
Carina Nilma