Liam Gallagher
21st July 2022
Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
Review by Charlotte Lightbody, with photography by Doug Peters.
The Butlers opened proceedings with warmth and earnestness. A bouncy, four-piece alternative rock band hailing from Sumner in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. The lead singer’s tan accompanied his story of jumping at the chance to return to New Zealand from sunny El Salvador to fly back and preheat the stage for “The great Liam Gallagher himself!”. The first few tracks were mellow and bluesy tunes from their new album “Back to Basics”. Before shifting to a more upbeat style to raise the volume and energy of the crowd. They also cycled through singers, with the lead, drummer and guitarist all showing us their vocal prowess. Their humility shone through in their candid and excited adherence to pumping the crowd for the main act. Guitarist Bradley King was spotted in the thick of the crowd, by a roaming camera later in the night. Like the rest of us, they were there to see a man we all know and love.
The crowd was treated to a very self-indulgent pre-roll video, brightly flashing words that describe Liam as being ‘enlightened’, ‘magnificent’, ‘lover’, ‘god’ as well as many other strong words describing how much we adore and worship him. The longer it went on, the more the words winked at the audience including ‘Jedi’ and ‘humble’ – just to let us know for sure that this was a piss take… In case we thought the man might have achieved even higher levels of his trademark adoration for his brilliance. He knows who he is and what he’s done, and you love to see it. The man puts on a damn good ‘ROCK ‘n’ ROLL’ show.
Sauntering out, the main man took centre stage in his camouflage parker jacket, messy hair and shades asking us “What’s New?.. Zealand” – a dad joke we lapped up. What a performance – Liam Gallagher swapped between Oasis greats, known songs from his solo work, and even peppered in a bunch of his newer tracks from his third studio album ‘C’mon You Know’ for which the crowd fizzed for. But ultimately Spark Arena warmed most to those familiar and generationally loved Oasis anthems – truly nostalgic excellence.
Songs from his new album hinted at a man of a certain age coming to terms with his past and mistakes made with loved ones. This juxtaposed with a stage persona that was self-awarely poking fun at the famously angry Liam of the past. I was stoked to hear tracks like ‘Everything’s Electric’ being played live, a track which was co-written by rock legend Dave Grohl. ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ brought that gritty, Brit pop vibe through even stronger with the crowd dropping their best dance moves.
One of the highlights of the night was of course the profanity-filled banter between tracks, barely recognizable through that thick English accent. At one point, yelling out “I don’t care if you’re poor because of Covid, buy my new album. I would buy an album if you put one out. Dems da rules”. The crowd erupted in fits of laughter while he circled, shaking his maracas and tambourines, he must have been cooking in that insulated jacket he was wearing?
I adored hearing the track ‘Soul Love’ by Beady Eye – another alt-rock band of Liam’s formed in 2009 with former Oasis members. One that he pretended to introduce as being a Slipknot cover.
At one point, he was having trouble with this sore throat – he recently apologised to fans for cutting a set short as he’s been battling through laryngitis. How does he pull off an entire rock show with such ease? It was effortless for him. He looks so effortlessly calm, but not so much that it hampers the show. Like he could have done it in his sleep with that big rock star energy. He felt too big for Spark arena at times – Glastonbury-sized crowds that this man has entertained we were not!
Towards the end of the show, “because us New Zealanders are such nice people”, we were treated to ‘Wonderwall’ – a completely surreal moment for this 1990’s kid who grew up with Oasis playing constantly in the background of my life. The encore was hilarious because he made us wait, he knew we would, and that just seems totally on brand for Liam Gallagher. ‘Live Forever’ started and then we ended the night with a singalong to ‘Champagne Supernova’ dedicated to “All the newborn babies” – I didn’t get the joke, but I was feeling large amounts of soft, sweet nostalgia. Could it get any better?
This was the second time I’ve seen him and his band play live and Liam is never one to hide from his playful yet arrogant energy. He served up an epic show last night for New Zealand fans which was completely on brand.
Were you there at Spark Arena for this absolutely electric rock gig? Or have you seen Liam Gallagher perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Hello [Oasis]
- Rock ‘n’ Roll Star [Oasis]
- Morning Glory [Oasis]
- Wall of Glass
- Everything’s Electric
- Better Days
- Stand by Me [Oasis]
- Roll It Over [Oasis]
- Slide Away [Oasis]
- Soul Love [Beady Eye]
- More Power
- Diamond in the Dark
- Once
- Cigarettes & Alcohol [Oasis]
- Wonderwall [Oasis]
- Live Forever [Oasis]
- Supersonic [Oasis] (encore)
- Champagne Supernova [Oasis] (encore)
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Just to note, the lead singer of The Butlers is Walt Robberds. Brad’s the lead guitarist.