November 1, 2025 11:47AM
This is the ‘Canonical Version’ of Oasis. May They Live Forever
The 2025 version of Oasis is the best we’ve seen. Rolling Stone AU/NZ was at their five-star show in Melbourne

By Kristen S. Hé

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The good news is, Oasis in 2025 sound amazing. Noel’s guitar might be the best a Gibson Les Paul has ever sounded – a beautiful, warm, organic crunch. They’re touring with three guitarists for the first time – Mike Moore filling in for original guitarist Bonehead, who’s undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, and 2000s band mainstays Gem Archer, and Andy Bell on bass. Joey Waronker, the band’s first American member, is an accomplished session musician who understands that to drum in Oasis, you have to be a bit shit. He plays with a touch of finesse on the ballads, but adds no groove or swing to the rock songs – giving them their signature plodding, almost drone-y heaviness.

Meanwhile, Liam’s at the top of his game. He doesn’t go for every high note in “Some Might Say” or “Slide Away”, but he somehow sounds better than he did 20 years ago. He’s always been the band’s most undefinable quality – the rockstar who barely moves onstage, sings with a flat affect, and somehow draws out even more emotion from the crowd as a result. At one point, he gives a near-incomprehensible anecdote about smoking pot and a talking kangaroo. When the band takes over, he puts his signature tambourine in his mouth, and pounds his hand on his heart. You can feel the love.

The band opens with nine rockers in a row. “Morning Glory” and “Some Might Say” soar, while “Bring It on Down”, “Cigarettes & Alcohol” and “Supersonic” still have that Definitely Maybe grit and dirt, even in a stadium. But it wouldn’t be an Oasis gig without their softer side, and when they pull back into “Talk Tonight”, “Half the World Away” and “Little by Little”, Noel finally gets his moment to shine. His voice is truly ageless – as lovely as it was 30 years ago.

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The Oasis we see tonight isn’t the band of Knebworth 1996, when they were creating their legend – and their notoriety – in real-time. If you couldn’t be there, perhaps the next best thing is to be here now, amongst the generations who’ve kept their music alive. “While we’re living / The dreams we have as children fade away”, they sing – but not tonight.