---

Peter: This is very exciting.

A little background. I don’t know if you know this, Tyler, but you and I are both huge Oasis fans.

Tyler: I am?

Peter: Yes, you are! And this past August 28th, you were lucky enough to attend the Chicago stop of their massive 2025 reunion tour! I was not able to join you, and we haven’t really discussed it until now, so here we go… It’s Peter & Tyler talking Oasis live in 2025!

Tyler: I tried! I tried to beckon you!

Peter: You did, and it was very nice of you! Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it work, but I get to live vicariously through you, which I appreciate as well.

Tyler: Happy to help.

Peter: Do you remember when/where you heard the news that Oasis were reuniting?

Tyler: If memory serves, I was on this very couch, glancing at my phone, aware of some rumors but highly skeptical. I’d honestly been on the fence about any kind of reunited Oasis—I love Noel’s solo work, respect the career Liam has built, and wasn’t at all sure whether I wanted a theoretical collection of random session dudes filling out a stage behind our beloved brothers. Plus, reunions. They often disappoint.

Then, of course, the announcement came and I was immediately prepared to storm Ticketmaster should the lads schedule dates in America.

Peter: I think I texted you about it before you had seen it!

Tyler: You broke the news!

Peter: I was so psyched. It’s rare that you get to share a bit of news like that. Oasis broke up back in August 2009, and, honestly, the prospects of a reunion didn’t seem great for many years. Did you think you’d live to see the day?

Tyler: No. I thought they were done.

And I was okay with that!

Or at least I thought I was.

Peter: Had you seen them live back in the day?

Tyler: I had not. That was actually a question on the presale quiz/test. “How many times have you seen Oasis live?” or the like. I went, truthfully, with “0-1.” I do feel that this helped my odds for early ticket access.

Peter: Wow, well, that makes it even more special. Obviously there’s been a lot written about the reunion, and I’ve been following all the news and tidbits from the start, but you were trying to avoid all spoilers in the run-up to the show. I was under strict instructions to not bring it up at all! How successful were you in trying to stay in the dark about all things Oasis 2025?

Tyler: Very! I noted the performances that the band posted on Spotify, “Slide Away” being the first, but I didn’t listen, and otherwise managed to dodge almost everything about the setlist and performance. Those Spotify releases were pretty clear choices, too—I had already figured I’d be hearing “Cigarettes And Alcohol,” say.

Peter: Right. Of course they were going to play “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” etc.

Tyler: They didn’t! Noel closed the whole show with a solo acoustic rendition of “I Can See A Liar.” It was poignant.

Peter: That would have been insane!

So, even after you had your ticket, how confident were you that the show was going to happen? I mean, given their history, did you consider the possibility that the whole thing would go off the rails before they made it to America?

Tyler: I did buy “ticket insurance.”

Now, that said, as the months passed between purchase and show—like almost a year!—a collapse felt increasingly unlikely. Ticket sales were insane, and the amount of money in the balance was reason enough to play on.

I think there was more to this than revenue, though. End of the day, the Gallaghers are bandmates, collaborators, brothers. Those connections don’t always survive rough weather, but something about the bond of Oasis, at least this time, felt strong.

Peter: Okay, you got your ticket. You avoided spoilers. Let’s get to the show itself. Did you fly into Chicago the night before the show?

Tyler: I drove in, yeah, a day early, and spent an anticipatory night in the company of Loom friend Johnny Chicago. We played at least one Oasis album as we caught up.

Peter: What was the mood like in the city? Were there “Oasis vibes in the area?”

Tyler: I was in Uptown in the evening and Andersonville throughout the following morning, and I’m sorry to report that the Mancunian spirit wasn’t palpable. Now, once I got to McCormick Place, where Loom friend/concert attendee Lance and I were booked at a hotel, there was Oasis love increasingly in the air. The hotel is an easy 20-to-25 minute walk to Soldier Field; we were far from the only fans in house.

I should note that, in addition to the Oasis fans, the hotel was housing a large Chicago step-dancing reunion. A study in contrasts.

Peter: Oh, snap! That’s some weirdness right there! Okay, so what time did the doors open at Soldier Field? And, when did you get there?

Tyler: Not sure when doors officially opened, but we arrived pretty early, Lance and I. Opener Cage The Elephant took the stage at 7:30; we got there, hell, 6:15, 6:20.

Peter: Nice. Where were your seats?

Tyler: Well, here, as I’ve already broken the rules of Loom and posted a personal snapshot to open this article, I’ll include now a slightly-zoomed shot of our view.

Charged with locking down four tickets on a budget, I opted for high and center.

Peter: Looks great to me! How were Cage the Elephant?

Tyler: They were solid! Rocked good and hard.

Ten minutes before Cage took the stage, mind you, around 7:20, the massive video boards played a dreamy video of Oasis fans and the band, set to “Live Forever,” that had me ready to run through a brick wall for the main event.

Peter: Nice.

How was Soldier Field? Had you been there before?

Tyler: I’d been to Soldier, but only in attendance at a wedding in the club level. That was pretty cool—the ceremony was comparatively small, and we were able to walk down the aisles and sit within the empty bowl of seats.

Peter: Nice!

So the Oasis show was bigger?

Tyler: And holier.

Peter: How was it getting around? Did you buy any merch?

Tyler: We had no trouble getting up and around to our seats, early as we were. The merch lines, phew, they were impressive. I harbored no desire to be part of the queue, ha.

I may have acquired a small poster for the show via eBay weeks before the 28th, for a fraction of the cost of similar items at the shops.

Peter: Okay, so Cage the Elephant are done. What was the mood in the crowd at that point?

Tyler: It was all still kind of coming together, dusk setting in, the seats filling up. Additional friend of Loom Wes and his lovely wife Ms. Wes arrived not long after Cage wrapped up—they’d been caught on the Indiana Toll Road—which added to the energy. It’d been about two decades since I’d seen Wes in the flesh, and I’d never met his wife. Such was the importance, to us Oasis loons, of being at this show.

After a little while, we hazarded a guess as to when Oasis would take the stage. Cage had played until, oh, 8:15? A fair guess for showtime felt like 8:45.

Around 8:40, Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World” took over the preshow playlist. It was playing louder than the songs before.

Peter: I’m watching videos from the show on YouTube as we’re chatting. That moment went “Fuckin’ In the Bushes” kicks in feels electric. I’m assuming you were ascending to an astral plane at that moment.

Tyler: That moment, when that song and the opening video montage began…hot damn.

I’m pretty sure I thought to myself, too, “Wow, didn’t expect to hear this song.” Oasis nerdery.

SMH recalling how that all went down. It’s like trying to nail down the details of a dream.

The video, we should describe, was a smartly-edited progression of British headlines, dating to when the reunion was rumored, following through to its announcement, concluding with the words “this is happening” across the screen as oh wait holy shit that’s LIAM AND NOEL RIGHT NOW WALKING ON STAGE AHHH

Peter: Iconic. Yeah, the crowd really loses it when they come out.

That video hype package looks so cool. The screens look awesome. How were they live? How was the sound?

Tyler: Screens were massive and clear, blessedly. The sound, the actual audio quality, was good—damn good, really.

Peter: Okay, so “Fuckin’ In The Bushes” ends. They pick up the guitars. And kick off with…

Tyler: Oh my God, it was unexpected. It took me a bar of the lyrics to realize that it was “Hello.”

Peter: Controversy? What controversy?

Oasis don’t care!

Tyler: Let us explain.

“Hello,” the first track on the band’s all-time LP (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, includes a lyrical twist toward the end that’s an interpolation from an old Gary Glitter song. Gary Glitter, who in the years following WTSMG would be revealed as a pederast. Thus did Noel cut “Hello” from their setlists back in the day.

I figured that would remain the case. That they would leave “Hello” out. And, then, they didn’t.

I couldn’t believe it. I fucking loved it. In retrospect, they made that interpolation wholly their own. In the moment, the band back together, the first song of their first reunion show in America, well, it was transcendent to watch and hear Noel sing “It’s good to be back, it’s good to be back.”

Peter: I love “Hello.” I think it’s great they opened with it. It reminded me of Bono’s little intro to “Helter Skelter” on Rattle & Hum. “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.” It felt like Oasis were stealing “Hello” back. Loved it. And they sound great on YouTube! I think Liam, in particular, sounds really dialed in.

Tyler: A few songs in, Wes turned to me and said, with real oomph, “Dude. I am so pleased with how good they sound.”

They were a powerhouse. They knew what they could do and they knocked us on our asses with it even as we stood for the show’s full two hours. They were in no way tentative, not a flake of rust to be found. There weren’t even chips on their shoulders—the confidence was natural and earned.

Peter: Man, the reviews have just been glowing. Okay, so “Hello” gives way to “Acquiesce.” What was it like watching the brothers trade vocals? I feel like that had to be a moment.

Tyler: “Acquiesce” was another stunner, in that I figured it would be played, but later in the proceedings. It also took me a moment because, as with “Hello,” the studio version I know so well begins with a faded-in excerpt from a different song.

Peter: Those lyrics, “Because we need each other, we believe in one another,” really hitting hard!

Tyler: One of so many highlights: Noel laying it down on lead guitar. He was shredding.

Peter: I was going to ask about that! It’s so cool to see him playing lead.

---