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Review: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds And Snow Patrol at Rogers Arena













Snow Patrol/Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Roger's Arena

Thursday Night

Noel Gallagher might have told NME magazine in a newly released interview that he doesn’t hang out with musicians because they’re f------ idiots, but that didn’t stop him from joining Snow Patrol for the North American leg of their Fallen Empires tour.

The former Oasis guitarist/songwriter and his new band Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds took to the stage with a tight bluesy cover of Oasis’s (It’s Good) To Be Free.

Most of their set was a tidy mix of Oasis covers with a bluesier edge and Gallagher laying somewhat off that nasal falsetto, and a few more tracks from the first NGHFB album.

Gallagher took a moment mid-set to playfully insult some guys up front who were shouting at him. “It’s whose birthday?” he asked. “I don’t give a f---.”

Then after chiding another audience member for bringing a small child into his swear zone, he went into a stripped-down version of the Oasis super-hit Supersonic.

In the years since Oasis collapsed under the weight of brotherly strife, the elder Gallagher has become the grumpy uncle of Brit pop, his curmudgeonly pronouncements no longer particularly shocking — almost charming.

NGHFB is a bit moodier than Oasis, touched with Mikey Rowe’s catchily dystopian keyboard flourishes and Russell Pritchard stepping heavier on the bass. It lacks Liam’s breathtaking disorder but it isn’t, ultimately, that different from its predecessor. Does it have to be? Wouldn’t it be OK for Noel Gallagher to produce more or less the same work, performed with precision indefinitely?

Not to disappoint the fans, they finished with a rendition of Don’t Look Back in Anger that had the sparsely populated stadium standing and singing along.

Co-headliners Snow Patrol took the stage to a dark instrumental remix of Berlin from the Fallen Empires album that gave its name to the tour. An animated sphere projected onto white screens at the back of the stage promised a stark contrast to NGHFB’s low-fi show.

Lit with floating lights, the five-piece from Northern Ireland opened with Chocolate from their 2004 breakthrough album, Final Straw. Where Gallagher brought bravado, frontman Gary Lightbody opened with a self-effacing, “You all right, everybody?” Bouncing around the stage, he eased into the vocal cartwheels he’s known for with Take Back the City from 2008’s A Hundred Million Suns.

He then stopped to thank opener Jack Bugg and his co-headliner at length. As Lightbody leaned in to whisper a secret proposal to the audience, it was clear that Snow Patrol had a different plan for the evening.

Source: www.vancouversun.com

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds have released International Magic Live At The O2 DVD through Sour Mash Records.

They are currently playing the US and Canada alongside Snow Patrol and Jake Bugg.

For details on the above and more click here.

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