Concert Reviews

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds at TD Echo Beach

Photographs by Randall Vasquez.

On Sunday evening, Toronto music fans were blessed with a heavy dose of nostalgia at TD Echo Beach. It had only been just over a year since Manchester, England’s Noel Gallagher brought his High Flying Birds through  Toronto in support of the Chasing Yesterday tour at the Sony Centre. The principle songwriter and co-lead vocalist of the British rockers Oasis showcased a large amount of his solo material and only a handful of Oasis songs at that show, but for the gig Sunday night, Gallagher split the set list evenly between his solo material and Oasis songs.

Noel and his High Flying Birds opened up the set with Everybody’s On The Run a song from their debut, self-titled album. They followed the opening tune with three songs from their more recent album Chasing Yesterday, in the form of the songs Lock All The Doors, In The Heat Of The Moment and Riverman. He then addressed the crowd by asking what was happening in Toronto on a Sunday Night, which he quickly answered himself “there’s fuck all happenin’”. He then engaged in some banter with an audience member (a common occurrence through the evening and the previous show in Toronto) joking that they should hang out after the show because he “seems like a right fuckin’ laugh” and then quickly joked in a deadpan manner that it wouldn’t matter because “I’ll have you thrown out long before then”.

Noel then broke out the first of many Oasis songs during the evening by playing Fade Away from their 1998 album The Masterplan. He followed it up with two more High Flying Birds songs The Death Of You And Me and You Know We Can’t Go Back. The latter, Noel (in a very tongue in cheek manner) dedicated to Oasis fans around the world. The song features the lyrics “but it’s alright and you know we can’t go back” clearly a joke that he is unlikely to reunite with his brother Liam and reform Oasis. He joked with the audience once again between songs after some random cheering broke out from mostly silence and a tambourine warm-up asking, “What are you cheering for? The tambourine? Actually, it’s quite good innit?” the question prompted more cheering from the audience to which Noel replied “fuck off” before breaking into one of the biggest sing-alongs of the evening, Champagne Supernova.

To set the record straight and avoid any misinterpretation, Noel was having a great time on stage. He was constantly engaging with audience members and cracking a lot of off-hand and sarcastic jokes. The audience really seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. They were laughing at his jokes and comments between songs, while dancing and singing along during them. Noel never came across in a malicious way, it was fairly obvious he was joking around; his blunt, and rude comments could easily be misconstrued. His willingness to constantly engage with the audience added to the overall entertainment of an evening filled with incredible music.

Noel followed the big sing-along up with Ballad Of The Mighty I, a song from Chasing Yesterday. Then, some more banter ensued as an audience member informed Noel that his (the fan’s) brother Steve was a huge fan of Noel’s, to which he replied with “I truly couldn’t give less of a fuck, is he here? Is he over buying some merch right now? Then I don’t give a fuck”. He then broke into I Wanna Talk from The Masterplan, and pulled out a B-side from the early days of Oasis called D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman?

Noel, after once again joking around with the audience, played The Mexican from his latest album; before playing two more songs from The Masterplan, Half The World Away and Listen Up. He then played If I Had A Gun before engaging in more banter. This time his “victim” was a tall audience member whom he pointed out whilst yelling, “Fuck me! Look at the size of that guy!” after trying to briefly figure out what sport the man played, he digressed and played yet another Oasis song. This time he pulled out Digsy’s Diner, a deep cut from their debut album Definitely Maybe. Noel then went back to the tall man in the crowd, who seemed to have informed him that he was an Olympic athlete of some kind. Noel started guessing that he may be a luger and described it as “that one where you fly down on the breakfast tray” before being told he was actually a figure skater. Noel was shocked to hear, he reacted in a very animated way before quipping in a very dry fashion, “Well that’s embarrassing”. He then informed the crowd that this would be his last song. Noel finished off the set with title track of what appears to be his favourite Oasis album, The Masterplan.

After a brief break, Noel returned to the stage and once again engaged directly with an audience member. The member was motioning to Noel with his hand, he addressed the member asking, “What, what is this why do you keep doing this?” as he mimicked the motion with his hand (looking similar to the way your hand moves at the start of the chicken dance). The man replied he wanted a guitar pick to which Noel replied “Why? Do you collect them? Well here’s one you won’t have in your collection”. His humour is very harsh and usually at the expense of someone, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t hilarious. It has almost become a bit of trademark for Noel to behave this way.

He opened the encore with the biggest song in Oasis’ history, Wonderwall. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. It was the last song I was expecting to see him perform this particular night. It was not played last time they were in Toronto, and as someone who never checks set lists before a show, I had no idea it was coming. It was certainly the most welcome surprise of the evening. He followed up with AKA…What A Life! from the self-titled debut album with the High Flying Birds; before ending the show with another massive sing-along, Don’t Look Back In Anger.

When it was all said and done, Noel played ten songs from his solo venture and ten songs from the Oasis days. It was a healthy serving of Oasis songs, which was not expected going into the show. I was constantly growing more and more surprised through the evening as he kept pulling out hit after hit from the catalogue. It also seems Noel has grown so comfortable as a solo-artist and front man, that he will even perform songs that brother Liam sang on in recordings. So, will Oasis ever reunite? The answer is unclear, and probably always will be until it actually happens (which may actually never happen). So, what’s a fan to do? Well the answer is clear, you go see Noel Gallagher. The solo material he has recorded, released and performed live to this date, holds up with some of Oasis’s best material.  It is not much of a shock considering we are talking about the principle songwriter and co-vocalist of the band. I feel very lucky to have seen him perform twice now, and even more lucky that I was able to attend a show where he pulled out ten Oasis songs to perform for us. Noel Gallagher is arguably one of the best songwriters of the last twenty-five years, and one of the biggest personalities in British music. It was truly a pleasure to see both sides of the man on display Sunday evening in Toronto.

About author

Writer at Live in Limbo. Ryan is a lover of music, vinyl, concerts and festivals. He's a fan of a large variety of alternative, indie, folk and electronica music. He can be found killing time at the local record shop, trying to see over all the tall people at concerts that tend to stand directly in front of him, or asleep on the couch in track pants. You can follow and share your thoughts with him on Twitter @rdubs89.