Words & Photos: Max Falvey.
Closing out a busy summer of gigs in Dublin’s Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Liam Gallagher made his long awaited return to the southern part of the island last week in support of his latest solo album, ‘C’mon You Know’. Performing an 18-song set packed to the brim with legendary and niche Oasis pieces, as well as some new and very little old of his solo discography, the legendary frontman once again mixed nostalgia with modern brilliancy that had had a crowd of all ages singing every word.
Continuing a fabulous little Dublin-based support slot tour after also opening for Alt-J and Wolf Alice this week, Just Mustard opened the show and banged out an unstoppable set which included their best blistering tunes like ‘Frank’, ‘Deaf’ and my current favourite, ‘Seed’. It was a jarring change of tone as The Charlatans were up next with their very danceable guitar and piano based rock classics, but they were just phenomenal. With lead singer Tim Burgess donning just the most fabulous jumper, the band performed a career-spanning 11-song set filled with 90’s nostalgia and awfully hilarious dance moves. “Dublin, best city in the world!” The screen at the back of the stage showed old videos of the band through each song, making the entire set a beautiful throwback to the mid 90’s when the band broke through, and didn’t feel hokey or desperate in any way. It was such a fun and brilliant set, with tunes like ‘The Only One I Know’, ‘Blackened Blue Eyes’ and ‘One To Another’ feeling unbeatable live. I simply cannot wait to see them, and Just Mustard, again.
Liam’s raucous entrance never fails to bring excitement, with the rough and ready crowd just watering at the mouth for his first song. Unusually, ‘Morning Glory’ opened the set with ‘Hello’ being played afterwards, which is a weird move but both are absolute belters so it’s hardly something to overly criticise. Newly added to the set for the ‘C’mon You Know’ tour was ‘Roll It Over’ from Oasis’ 4th record, and in my opinion was hands down the best part of the show. What a belter of a song, and Liam still performs it with such passion, and I love how Liam brings out different Oasis deep cuts every tour, just like ‘Gas Panic’ and ‘Sad Song’ in years gone by. After performing a string of tunes off the new album, which sound much better live than on record, like ‘More Power’ and the badass ‘Diamond In The Dark’, Liam returned to the Oasis classics, dedicating ‘Slide Away’ to ‘all the lovebirds in the house’. That song never fails to run me over.
Asking the crowd, “are we bored yet?”, Liam received an all round ‘NO!’, only to respond “that’s promising!” The man was in top form all night, and as the brilliant set was winding down he dedicated his modern classic tune ‘Once’ to one of his fans, Zack, who passed away a year before. With the entire crowd singing in unison, it was beautiful. Quickly moving into ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’, the mosh pits finally opened up for the first time that night, and then Liam teased the end of the show, hilariously dedicating ‘Live Forever’ to Guinness, and said he would be climbing over the back wall into the Guinness Brewery after the show. ‘Champagne Supernova’ ended it all, on what was one of Liam’s finest Irish performances to date, with the setlist having now been crafted to near perfection. I hope another show isn’t too far in the future. Thank you for reading.
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