Years from now, when people look back on this long, hot Toronto summer, what will they remember? Perhaps, they’ll think fondly on Metric’s front-to-back Fantasies concert. Or maybe Kendrick Lamar’s Drake-trolling tour, or the BLACKPINK K-Pop extravaganza, or, maybe, the hometown celebration for Abel “soon-to-no-longer-be The Weekend” Tesfaye.
Probably, though, it will be this, the back-to-back sold-out mania of Oasis Live ‘25, the long-longed-for, feverish-hotly anticipated reunion of the notoriously mercurial Gallagher brothers. Even if you’re not an Oasis diehard – and, full disclosure, your resident Toronto Guardian music critic owns nary a Liam or Noel poster – it’s not hard to deny the hype surrounding these concerts, the first in Canada since a December 2008 show in London, Ontario, shortly before their much-publicized breakup.
The Oasis fandom was out in full force for Monday night’s spectacle at the not-to-be-confused Rogers Stadium out by Downsview Station (there’s actually a disclaimer on the concert website, warning you not to accidentally head to the S̶k̶y̶D̶o̶m̶e̶ Rogers Centre), legions of fans wearing their gear – lately picked up at the Oasis Pop-Up over in Kensington Market – and shouting/screaming along to nearly every lyric in the set.
The evening started off impressively enough with the brilliantly selected opener Cage the Elephant. Fresh off their killer Osheaga show in Montreal, Cage the Elephant earned rapturous applause from fans existing (Guardian included) and brand-new. Songs included “Spiderhead”, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked”, and the utterly fantastic “Cigarette Daydreams”.
After a brief interlude for some between acts setup, Oasis took the stage promptly at 8.45pm, for what ultimately proved to be a two-hour set, concluding well before the venue’s 11pm curfew.
Appropriately enough, the concert began with “Hello”, the debut track off Oasis’s most celebrated album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995). With its nostalgia-laden lyrics – “Cos the years are falling by like the rain / It’s never gonna be the same” – it was a fun, if predictable, choice to launch the concert. At least the second track was wholly unpredictable: the B-Side “Acquiesce”, originally released opposite “Some Might Say” in 1995 before making its way to the 1998 compilation album The Masterplan.
Speaking of predictability, it’s clear – and probably wise – that Oasis is leaning heavily on the favourites for this reunion tour. A quick glance at the band’s Spotify or Setlist.fm statistics confirms the obvious – with very few exceptions, the songs we heard in Toronto (and which fans have been hearing across this forty-show tour, the North American leg of which kicked off here) are the songs we most want to hear.
That includes our personal highlights of Monday’s show, including “Some Might Say” (1995), “Fade Away” (1994), “Half the World Away” (1998, amusingly dedicated to “the Irish”), and “Cast No Shadow” (1995).
As readers may have noticed, with the singular exception of (the excellent) “Little By Little” (off 2002’s Heathen Chemistry), every song on this tour has been pulled from a 20th century album, Oasis essentially disregarding its later output, which includes Heathen Chemistry (2002), Don’t Believe the Truth (2005), and Dig Out Your Soul (2008).
Spend enough time around Oasis, and you start to notice other things: the recursive lyrics – two of their biggest hits deploy the phrase “I said maybe…” – the barely-there interaction between brothers Noel and Liam (Liam in fact departing the stage any any time there was a Noel song, as on “Don’t Look Back in Anger” or “Little By Little”), the many and various Beatles references (ranging from Lennonesque guitar licks to the band interpolating “Octopus’s Garden” in its performance of “Whatever”).
As for the dynamic, we are happy to report that the brothers Gallagher were mostly on good behaviour. Though rock and roll’s grumpiest frontman was clearly still irked by the terrible weather conditions from the previous night – Liam showed up kitted out head-to-toe in rain gear for Monday’s show, hoodie half-masking his face – he made a decent go off interacting with the audience, half-jokingly lecturing Canadians for our overabundant drug use since cannabis was legalized, even taking a moment to acknowledge the rapturous welcome of the fans.
Which, for what it’s worth, actually means something here in Toronto, a city which Oasis could easily have written off, given what happened last time they were here. As readers may recall, Toronto is the site of the notorious 2008 incident when a drunken fan attacked Noel on stage, breaking three of his ribs and derailing the Dig Out Your Soul tour for several months as Noel recovered. (Impressively, Noel stuck it out for the rest of that concert, which is a very Oasis thing to do.)
Any discussion of Oasis Live ’25 must inevitably turn to the venue inflicted upon the band and its Toronto fans this time around.
Now, in fairness, our experience with the temporary (and occasionally rickety) Rogers Stadium was overall a positive one, the venue clearly having worked out most of the kinks that plagued earlier shows like the infamous Coldplay concert in July. Traffic flow was smooth, there was a designated Crowd Safety Manager in charge of the lengthy queues afterwards – shout out to Kyle, the crowd safety guy! – and plentiful water refill stations and portable toilets (including a dedicated accessible area).
On the other hand, Toronto is going to have to figure out a long-term solution for this temporary stadium, which is slated to be dismantled in five years: the bleachers still shake whenever fans get rambunctious (which happened often), the crowding is still intimidating even with Kyle the crowd safety guy, and the complete lack of weather protection led to scenes like Sunday’s rain-soaked show. (Our concert Monday stayed mercifully dry, though the cold winds had us shivering.)
But back to the thing we all came for: not even pretending like they hadn’t held back the favourites for an encore, Oasis wrapped up its main set around 10:30 pm, taking a brief break before returning for a greatest greatest hits mini-set of the songs that made them.
That included, in order, “The Masterplan” (the impeccable B-Side to “Wonderwall”), “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, “Wonderwall”, and show closer “Champagne Supernova”, accompanied by a fireworks display.
While the danger, of course, is that we’ve all heard – and the Gallaghers have all sung – these songs too many times, there’s no denying the sheer force of these collected masterpieces. The opportunity to sing along with 50,000 other fans, Liam/Noel happily stepping back from the mic as we took over for the choruses, is something well never forget.
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The Oasis Live ‘25 tour continues through November 2025.
The Oasis Pop-Up Shop at 468 Queen St. W. remains open through Wednesday, August 27, 2025. Get there early.
