Backstage Pass: Noel Gallagher (Acoustic) @ The Forum

Review by Sean Lynch

It took Oasis almost five years to return to our shores late last year to promote their most recent studio album "Don't Believe The Truth", so for die hard Oasis fans - and there are quite a few - it's been a long time coming.

After the relatively poor sales of their new best of album "Stop The Clocks" (it barely scrapped into the Top 40 upon release), the brothers Gallagher have gone into damage control and decided to travel to the land down under - well at least one of them.

Among the music industry, Noel Gallagher's one-off acoustic performance (accompanied by Oasis band mate Gem) was one of the hottest tickets in town. I get the general feeling that Mr. Gallagher is someone of an idol amongst the indie elite, walking through the crowd it was a veritable whose who of the Melbourne music scene.

There was a lot of buzz surrounding surprise fly-in support act (all the way from Sweden no less) The Soundtrack of Our Lives. With an appropriately laid back acoustic set, and some often Chris Martin-esque vocals, STOOL were an absolute surprise packet - and clearly made an impression of the packed out crowd.

With the bar brimming with (mostly hungover) punters, Noel casually trundled onto the stage - accompanied by his trademark cocky English swagger. He looked tired and a tad uninterested, a three day growth starting to get out of control - at one point yawning in between songs. The crowd erupted none the less. What would he sing? How would he sing it? Is this the beginning of a solo career? All questions that were fizzing through the audiences brains as the opening bars of (It's Good) To Be Free.

What followed was one of the most enjoyable acoustic gigs I've seen in a long time. To be honest, I've never heard an Oasis track played badly by anyone. From seeing the local Police Band play Don't Look Back In Anger at a grade 6 assembly, to seeing The Cops play Columbia as an encore at Ding Dong Lounge years later - these tracks always bring the house down.

There was a veritable cavalcade of often unplayed B-Sides; Half The World Away, Slide Away, Talk Tonight, Fade Away. There were also the surprises, the most prominent being the folked up version of Whatever - a song Noel hadn't played for almost five years until this latest series of acoustic shows - and a rare version of The Beatles classic Strawberry Fields Forever.

One of the things about stripping back to a few acoustic instruments is allowing the audience to hear exactly the basis of each tune. And oddly, there were at least three of four times where Mr. Gallagher would begin strumming his guitar - and always sounding like the opening parts of Wonderwall. The truth revealed?

Closing with, my personal favourite, a quiet version of the "Definitely Maybe" track Married With Children the crowd was geared for an ecstatic encore. However, there was no encore to be heard. In fact, Noel was nowhere to be seen - resulting in the loudest mass Booing I've ever heard. In fact, several times throughout the performance, the crowd was quite testy. From the moronic English tourists continually yelling out "Liam's better", to idiot Aussies yelling "2-Nil" well after the joke was over. But in true Noel fashion, a clever and sly remark was never far away.

The presecence, charm, wit and talent of Noel Gallagher is undeniable. Whether you love or hate him, he truly is a fantastic entertainer - and despite the barely one hour running time of the show (and at almost $80 a ticket), it will go down in my memory as something special. Even if the man on stage, seemed at times, Half the World Away.

RATING: 4 out of 5