Oasis euphoria is real

Britrock brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher stir existential feelings about family, friendship, and the state of the world in this surprisingly epic reunion tour.

Liam Gallagher (left) and Noel Gallagher (right) are reunited on the Oasis Live '25 tour. (Photo collage/ main image by Simon Emmett.)

Oasis lied to us.

In the 1994 song, “Fade Away,” Noel Gallagher sang, “The dreams we have as children fade away.” 

I believed it for decades. Now I know it’s not true.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, last week, the band —featuring Noel and Liam Gallagher, guitarists Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs and Gem Archer, Andy Bell on bass, and Joey Waronker on drums—put on one of the most exciting rock shows I’ve ever seen.

And it was nothing if not a night of dreams, both realized and unrequited, where voices of four generations of music fans reverberated into the sky from the old Murrayfield rugby stadium as seismologists registered the singing and stomping on the Richter scale.

Scant banter. Ample playing. Liam’s voice was so crisp it traveled from the edge of the city to neighborhoods on the North Sea. Noel seared every guitar solo. The waves of awe kept coming, in random order: “Hello,” “Acquiesce,” “Little By Little,” “Supersonic,” “Half the World Away,” “Stand By Me,” “The Masterplan,” “Wonderwall,” “Cast No Shadow,” “Champagne Supernova” fireworks … there’s so much more ... just look at the setlist!

The Live '25 tour taps into pent-up demand and cultural longing for Oasis and also establishes the band's present-day relevance. For many millennials, it’s a first chance to see the band live, with the added intrigue of Noel and Liam’s famously fraught relationship as the feuding brothers from Manchester, England.

In Edinburgh, the emotion was palpable: Noel and Liam walked on stage hand-in-hand, hugged, and hopped on the roller coaster with the rest of us. Fans posted memes of Noel’s moist eyes as he sang “Talk Tonight” on the gargantuan video screens that dwarfed those of recent tours in the venue by Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. My stadium section neighbors, some older, some younger, and a three-year-old whose father accepted a packet of foam earplugs from me, took turns bouncing, yelling, laughing, wiping tears, and throwing our arms around strangers. 

It’s been a week and I haven’t slept a wink since the show … not because the band did acrobatics, climbed the rafters or crowdsurfed (they did not). Instead, without pomp, Oasis presented an underrated catalog of music that has matured to its finest vintage.

I’ll spend the rest of this essay proving that what the music fans experienced at these shows in the U.K. and Ireland is not nostalgia but something entirely new. And I pray this momentum translates to American soil, because God knows we need this good energy. So, please read on.

The world that gave rise to Oasis

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first Black president of South Africa. Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was POTUS, and John Major, a conservative, served as the British Prime Minister. MTV waned, mobile phones transitioned from car-mounted to handheld, and CDs slid into every car stereo. Against the backdrop of grunge overload and the tragic death of Kurt Cobain, Oasis swaggered in with melodic Britpop that resounded on both sides of the Atlantic, strengthening decades of cultural ties and birthing a new generation of anglophile music fans into the post-war, post-Beatles era.

Noel, the poetic melodymaker, and Liam, the snarling, fearless frontman, made for a magnetic dichotomy. They became the last great “everyman” rock ‘n’ roll band of the pre-internet era — hell, of any era — with a fan base that was as much lads in the pub as girls in the merch line. Their songs captured ambition, dreams, and defiance without glam rock’s excess or grunge’s gloom. And their rise paralleled globalism, culminating in a 2006 AT&T ad campaign using their 1992 composition “All Around the World.” The squabbles and infamous band breakups kept Oasis from consistent touring with its original lineup, but the group's songs never left the cultural vernacular, especially on its home shores.

Why the Oasis Live '25 tour is so emotional

The lyrics hit deeper than they did 31 years ago, speaking to fear, uncertainty, and the search for meaning. Between technology, the pandemic, and politics, so much has changed since the first Oasis album Definitely Maybe helmed the third British invasion of American radio stations in the 1990s. While scary politics may divide audiences, the shared musical legacy between the U.S. and the U.K. remains airtight.

In an era of short attention spans, screen-based connection, and three-word chants from democracy-dismantling politicians, Oasis’s anthems remain blunt objects of optimism. If today's pop stars write personal, self-referential songs about dating and heartbreak that translate into a 1:1 connection for fans, then Oasis taps into something more universal and inclusive. There’s no ratio. The bond is as instant and basic as, “We need each other, we believe in one another.”

Millennial and Gen X men, who are statistically experiencing record loneliness, are packing Oasis shows and using the stadium as a place of communal bonding. Like my seatmate on the airplane to Edinburgh, who was headed to the same show with four golf buddies, all in their early 40s, these guys recalled younger days on sports teams or as lads down the pub who finally found a band to love that wasn’t drowning in eyeliner, hairspray, or depression. For many, their first experience with Oasis wasn’t solitary or fragmented listening through earbuds, but shared moments in living rooms, cars, and bars. 

And it’s not nostalgia in 2025 if the collective listening that fans long for is right in front of them in the stadium at the Oasis show, right? It’s happening now!

Noel and Liam Gallagher’s ability to perform together again reflects cooperation and reconciliation, even if the whole venture is partly business-driven. Don’t get me wrong, Oasis is riding this Live '25 tour all the way to the bank, and the merchandise alone has the entire European continent outfitted in head-to-toe Adidas trainers, tracksuits, bucket hats, and three-stripe tees. Reportedly, some of the proceeds will be donated to a teenage cancer trust and other charities, so that’s good.

Why Oasis matters now

With each new album that miraculously trickled out in fits and starts between 1995 and 2008, [(What's the Story) Morning Glory?, Be Here Now, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, Heathen Chemistry, Don’t Believe the Truth, Dig Out Your Soul] fans knew the pose wouldn’t last forever. A group can only be the biggest band in the world for a fleeting moment, and no one thought Oasis’s time would stretch to middle age, despite the great solo and other band work Noel and Liam put out with the High Flying Birds and Beady Eye.

An Oasis fan since I heard the first note in 1994, I never thought I’d keep returning to lyrics from my 20s in my 50s. When you were born in the same era as the Gallagher Brothers, you wanted to take on the world, you wanted to conquer the world, and you wanted your favorite band to do the same. Now, here we are. We did it, but the story's not over...

For many of us in 2025, the world is not turning out to be the dreamy future we’d hoped for. So this reunion, while potentially temporary between Noel and Liam, has lasted long enough to bring hope and joy. Seeing and hearing Noel and Liam together symbolizes cooperation in a divided world, offering not nostalgia, but a bridge between childhood imagination and creating a brighter future. In a cultural moment where rock’s role is fading, Oasis delivers rare, in-person human unity … something no feed, clip, or algorithm can replicate.

So, if you're heading to the gig in Toronto or Chicago or New Jersey, or Pasadena, don't leave your dreams behind.