How the Oasis Reunion Has Become 2025’s Most Wholesome Story
Apparently, we’re all putting our lives in the hands of this rock and roll band.
By Lacy Baugher Milas | September 22, 2025 | 11:30am

-snipping the first paragraph, about worries that the Oasis reunion tour wouldn't be as successful in the US as in the UK-

At some point, I’m really going to have to stop underestimating this reunion. Because the crowds showed up, the fans showed out, and, impossibly, the band somehow sounded even better than they did in the United Kingdom. The setlist is the same as it was four weeks ago, yet somehow the songs are tighter, the attitudes more confident, and the emotions more evident, from those onstage and off. Media headlines have declared the North American shows “triumphant,” “emotional,” and the “feel-good event of the year”. And they’re not wrong; I’ve seen the tour in two very different locations (Edinburgh and East Rutherford) now, but attended the second assuming the full reunion experience couldn’t possibly translate outside of the homeland that loved the lads best. What a delight it has been to be so thoroughly proven incorrect. Because while I got weepy at different songs the second time around (“Stand By Me” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” for those who are curious), the sweeping sense of cathartic euphoria was exactly the same.

It’s probably obvious that none of us expected this. Noel and Liam Gallagher’s combustible personal and professional relationship is the stuff of legend, after all, written across decades of fraternal tension, onstage bickering, backstage brawls, tabloid headlines, and interview soundbites. Given the things they’ve said to and about one another, it’s genuinely a miracle that this tour happened at all. But there’s no way any of us could have guessed that when it did, it would be this, a wild, improbable, seemingly impossible joy bomb that’s fully taken on a life of its own. In every city across North America, from seen-it-all New York (er…New Jersey) to too-cool-for-everything Los Angeles and raucous Mexico City, the story of Oasis summer has been the same. Tears, smiles, full-throated sing-alongs by fans spanning generations, and a concert hangover that lasts for days afterward.

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It is very easy to imagine a different version of this tour, one where Liam and Noel trot out from opposite sides of a stage, play the hits, and exit, collecting their presumably massive paychecks without a backward glance. But a big part of Oasis’s appeal, for both good and ill, has always been how honest they are. From slagging off musical rivals to beefing with each other, the Gallaghers have never been anything less than completely willing to wear the rawest, ugliest parts of both fame and family on their collective sleeves. If they weren’t feeling as sentimental and moved by all of this as we are, there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t be as obvious now as it was back then. Instead, the same happiness and enthusiasm that’s powering the massive crowds appears equally evident among the folks onstage, expressed in smiles, hugs, fist bumps, and unexpected laughter that’s now as much a part of the show as the pair’s harmonies. The result is a seemingly endless feedback loop of joy that unironically celebrates not just the songs so many have loved, but the apparent reconciliation of the men who made them.

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But Oasis has always been more subversive than most realize. From their unapologetic and oft-stated determination to become the biggest band in the world to their complete rejection of the moody, grunge vibes that were so popular when their first album hit shelves, they and their music have always had a certain kind of aspirational undercurrent. (Don’t ever tell either Gallagher I said this, but it’s hard to think of two people who are more romantic about the power of their chosen profession, in the end.) Rock and roll is supposed to be a good time, music is meant to lift people up, and there’s nothing so shitty in the world that a good tune can’t make it better. (Even, apparently, after almost two decades of estrangement.) Oasis has never forgotten that fact. And if we did…well. Thank goodness they’re back to remind us.

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No pretense. No apologies. Oasis was void of indie’s elitism or grunge’s propensity to whinge. Fuck your dues and fuck your dress code. We’re the rock stars now, and it’s on our terms they were saying. Oasis’ rebellion was optimism. They had a dream and an aliveness in their sound, and no one was going to step on it.

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Now Oasis has reformed for a tour, and here is the point of this whole essay: I don’t believe their return after 15 years is random. It’s not because Noel needs to pay for his divorces, or because Liam mellowed, or some nostalgia nonsense. I believe they are being called back by the collective consciousness of a culture longing for that precious swagger’s return.

These days, people of good conscience have been balled up into a defensive crouch for more than a minute now — and they’re ready to emerge. We’ve been told to be afraid while the bullies eat cake. We’ve been encouraged to acquiesce in despair while the world around us is defouled. Might as well just park your sad blue face in a screen and cuck out till you rot.

As an artist, I sense a collective voice gathering that says: Fuck all that. I think the millions of people at the No Kings protests were there less for a specific policy than because they are ready to feel optimism over fear again.

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