Oasis - Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands - Wednesday 21st January 2009

As I was due to be in the Netherlands for a couple of days on a work trip, I was overjoyed when I found out that Oasis were playing in Amsterdam when I was due to be at a loose end of an evening. I was even more happy when my trip got extended from one night to two - and Oasis were playing the other night too. Both gigs were sold out, but a trip to Seatwave got me tickets for both nights, at not too much of a premium (most of the rip off was in Seatwave's booking and insurance fees - so as well as encouraging touting, they are making a hefty chunk of cash out of it too - scumbags!). Early in the week, Oasis cancelled a date in Dusseldorf, when Liam was told to rest his voice. So, the shows were touch and go in the end, and I was in full solidarity with Liam by having a full blown sore throat as well.

The venue was the Heineken Music Hall, a purpose built music venue in the complex next to the Amsterdam ArenA football stadium - alongside a big cinema and some shops and restaurants. It was a good size venue, which looked quite a bit smaller than (say) Wembley Arena. There was a big flat floor, a few seats at the back, and a couple of small balconies on the first floor. Given that most of the venue was on the ground floor, I'd say it was a bit bigger than Brixton Academy, but not much bigger - making it a pretty small venue to see a band like Oasis.

As I was going into the venue, I was standing with quite a few (mainly Northern) English lads, who had been on the drinks and smokes all day in Amsterdam. But, once I got inside, I heard few English voices - it was a largely Dutch crowd. One thing that amused me was the generally wide tolerance of spliff smoking in the venue - a very Dutch audience indeed - along with some crazy mullets in evidence in the crowd.

Oasis bowled on stage at 9pm on the dot, and played a setlist that was extremely standard by recent standards (i.e. the same as they have been playing for the last 6 months). Liam was wearing a very cool looking coat - like the jackets the Libertines used to wear, with columns of buttons down the sides. His voice sounded somewhat ropey from the off - even as early as second song Lyla, he couldn't really hit some of the high notes in the chorus, and needed considerable help from Noel's harmonies to make the choruses sound OK. On a couple of other occasions, most notably in To Be Where There's Life, he was distinctly out of tune, and it seemed as if the instruments were carrying him a bit. Liam dedicated Cigarettes & Alcohol to anybody "not stoned", which got a big cheer from the front.

As the set went on, Liam got better, and so of course did the songs - saving bankers like Wonderwall and Supersonic for towards the end. When they play songs like that, you can't really fail to like them. I thought that a couple of Noel songs, especially The Masterplan and The Importance Of Being Idle, sounded immense tonight, and really underline how many great songs they have. They may not have made a decent entire album for 10 years, but there are some real standout songs along the way, and The Importance Of Being Idle is definitely one of those.

All in all, this was a relatively standard Oasis gig, pretty good, but a setlist that they just seem to be able to bash out in their sleep by now. They are very polished at playing this particular set, but you hope that it might change a bit before their big UK gigs in the summer. After a day's work, I'll head along tomorrow night for some more!