Liam Gallagher delivered the first performance in Los Angeles of his solo project at the Wiltern on Tuesday night, a stage he hadn’t visited since a 2011 show with Beady Eye. Right before the infamously misunderstood Oasis frontman hit the stage, Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” played over the speakers, and the excited crowd echoed the statement, singing along, “I love L.A., we love it!”
While Gallagher is currently touring in support of his solo debut, “As You Were,” the packed audience eagerly anticipated some Oasis classics would appear in the set, and also hoped to see a potato being peeled on stage*. Indeed, the show kicked off with some familiar things, “Rock N’ Roll Star,” the opening track from 1994’s “Definitely Maybe,” and “Morning Glory,” from the second Oasis album, “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory.” These elicited an eruption of cheers that did not abate until the show was over. Fans were just as excited about his new songs, and let him know by echoing every word. While a mutual appreciation was clear, the frontman did not engage the audience too much during the hour and a half set, turning away when he wasn’t singing and pacing the stage, instead channeling his energy into an intense performance. He mouthed a “thank you” to the endless screams of “I love you” from the audience and gave a lot of high-fives after the show. When he finally left the stage, the audience would not relent, chanting his name, saying to their friends, “He’ll come back …” Alas, he didn’t.
L.A. quartet Warbly Jets opened the night, playing a 30-minute energetic set that warmed up the crowd. They seemed just as excited as everyone else for Liam Gallagher, pausing in between songs to say, “Liam Gallagher right? It’s fucking Liam Gallagher.”
Set List: Rock N’ Roll Star (Oasis), Morning Glory (Oasis), Greedy Soul, Wall of Glass, I’ve All I Need, Bold, For What It’s Worth, Some Might Say (Oasis), Slide Away (Oasis), I Get By, You Better Run, Be Here Now (Oasis) // Encore: Cigarettes & Alcohol (Oasis), Live Forever (Oasis)
*Just another page in the Gallagher brothers feud: Since Noel had a person on stage playing scissors on the Jools Holland show, Liam tweeted a request for “somebody to peel some spuds live on stage.” So, at his London concert on Nov. 7, a fan brought a potato and peeled it during the set.