I saw Oasis in Toronto in 2025 to revisit my '90s youth and here's how that went

Britpop legends Oasis launched the start of their reunion tour's North American leg in Toronto to a sellout crowd on Sunday night.

The packed show at Rogers Stadium marked the first of a highly anticipated two-night run — the rock legends' first visit to the city since 2008 and subsequent breakup months later amid a feud that lasted 16 long years.

As someone with fond childhood memories of the 1990s, when Oasis regularly topped the charts and were inescapable on radio airwaves worldwide, I jumped at the opportunity to see a band that could, perhaps, jolt me back to a time long gone.

But Oasis is more than just a nostalgia act. Brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher are known for their constant infighting, violent confrontations with the media, and also, I should probably mention, producing two (and arguably three if you're looking for a hot take) of the greatest albums of the '90s.

The band is a story of a sleeper, genre-defining success that, high on hubris, track suits, and a buttload of cocaine, came crashing back to mortal status with its polarizing third album, managing to stay alive to record another four records before finally breaking up in 2009, after years of teetering on the brink of implosion.

Smash-hit album Definitely, Maybe (1994) launched Oasis into superstardom, which was followed up the next year by the critically acclaimed (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, cementing the band as one of the biggest in the world. Oasis was riding high in the mid-'90s, but things took a turn with the widely panned Be Here Now (1997), then seen as an overindulgent coked-up mess that, frankly, is aging like a fine wine in this modern era of excess.

And after a hiatus lasting 16 long years, and even longer since the band's disastrous last show in Toronto (which is a whole other story that I'm not going to get into right now), Oasis returned to Canada with a bang, delighting a packed crowd at the newly-opened Rogers Stadium on Sunday night to kick off the North American leg of the band's Live '25 Tour.

But, like the band's tumultuous history, one of the biggest Toronto concert dates of the year didn't exactly go off without a hitch.

The lead-up to the show was rocky, to say the least. Resellers were asking bonkers prices for tickets before the official launch of sales. Even after tickets were available, one fan publicly campaigned for a refund to one of the Toronto shows after lead singer Liam Gallagher tweeted a racial slur, which the controversial frontman later apologized for.

In the final days leading up to the show, an Oasis merch pop-up in Toronto was completely swamped with long lines of fans.

And then there was the much-talked-about experience of actually getting to Rogers Stadium. 

While Sheppard West is the closest subway station to Rogers Stadium as the crow flies, the venue recommends attendees walk from Downsview Park Station to the north.

It's about a ten-minute walk from the subway to the gates, but, with no shade to speak of, I could see how this quick stroll could morph into a very unpleasant slog of an experience during extreme heat or rain events — just a bit of foreshadowing. 

Luckily, the weather was about as good as you can hope for for the first half of the night, though it was apparent that a shuttle service of some sort would benefit the flow of concertgoers.

With tickets scanned, I finally got my first look at the sprawling temporary stadium as I made my way to my seat. The scale of this place cannot be understated — think a sold-out Jays game but with another 8,000 people crammed onto the field.

I was, if anything, rather impressed simply being inside a stadium that did not exist just a few months prior — though some of the venue's shortcomings would grow apparent by the end of the night.

The crowd was warmed up with a performance from U.S. rock band, Cage The Elephant, as the summer sun began to set over Downsview.

Oasis took the stage right at 8:45 as planned, launching into their set with classic, Hello, as fans lost it at the first sight of the Gallagher brothers and co. on Canadian soil since the 2000s.

This is what 50,000 Oasis fans saw as the band's first show in Toronto since 2008 began pic.twitter.com/FQXQ38LLeh

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 25, 2025

So, how do the boys sound? I am not going to lie to you and say that Oasis hit the stage sounding like their 90s prime. Granted, I don't think anyone showed up expecting that, either.

Jack Landau

Liam Gallagher's decades of smoking and drinking have evidently done a number on his vocal cords, and specific areas of his once-wide-ranging vocal register are now just shouted to the crowd like a soccer stadium chant with little tonal resemblance to the album versions he could once belt out effortlessly. 

But, to give Oasis the benefit of the doubt, Liam Gallagher is a few weeks shy of 53 years old, and I can say with certainty that 99.9 per cent of people that age would be incapable of delivering this level of sustained energy to 50,000 fans, halfway around the world from home.

For the most part, it was still the best Liam has sounded in years. Even if sometimes drowned out by enthusiastic and boozed up fans.

Liam Gallagher belts out classics to a Toronto crowd of 50,000. Photo courtesy of Big Brother Recordings.

Older brother Noel, now 58, had no problem hitting notes for the much smaller repertoire of songs where he delivers lead vocals. His lead guitar cut through the summer evening air as clear as ever.

Noel Gallagher during Oasis' first of a two-show run in Toronto. Photo courtesy of Big Brother Recordings.

The rest of the band — including guitarists Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (touring with the band for the first time since his departure in 1999), along with Bonehead's replacement, Gem Archer, and bassist Andy Bell, who were both with Oasis for its final decade from 1999-2009 — was a well-oiled machine with minimal slip-ups. 

Jack Landau

The sonic density of three lead guitars was impressive at times, but a bit muddy at other times. Whether that was the product of a competing rhythm section or the audio setup of the new venue is hard to pin down, but there were a handful of times where the set would have benefited from one fewer guitar.

The venue's sound quality was about as loud as one would expect from a live concert venue, with acoustics leaving a bit to be desired.

Still, as a band, I feel like Oasis sounded better overall than any footage I had seen from the past tour dates across the pond from this summer.

A raucous crowd of mostly fellow Millennials sang along to some of the biggest hits of the '90s, like Cigarettes and Alcohol (which quite literally rocked the stadium as tens of thousands jumped up and down in unison).

Excited Oasis fans in Toronto quite literally rocked the stands at Rogers Stadium on Sunday night pic.twitter.com/RdVIJXwBsp

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 25, 2025

By the latter half of the set, clear skies suddenly transitioned into a surprise downpour. Rogers Stadium is entirely lacking in shelter, forcing many concertgoers to scramble to stairwells and tunnels in hopes of escaping the weather. Even the venue's limited sheltered spaces still dripped rain onto concertgoers due to the porous material used to sheath the temporary stadium.

Meanwhile, Liam Gallagher re-emerged wearing a jacket to insulate him from the increasingly heavy rainfall, and launched into a diatribe about Toronto's unpredictable weather in his characteristic and, at times, entirely unintelligible Mancunian accent.

Jack Landau

But, while the rain did partially dampen some spirits, one could argue that the sheets of rain illuminated by stadium lighting, combined with the emotional connection of songs many of us grew up on, had an undeniable emotional element that somehow rekindled my youth and made me feel very old.

A deluge of rain hampered the mood for some at Rogers Stadium, but fun fact: Oasis was formed out of a pre-existing band called The Rain, so this was pretty fitting pic.twitter.com/ReaVQ12Ib6

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 25, 2025

Oasis closed out their set with perhaps their best-known hits, giving the fans what they wanted to spirited performances of Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova — the latter being capped off with a barrage of fireworks.

Oasis fans got one final treat to close out the night when a massive fireworks display illuminated the rainy skies pic.twitter.com/tp6QTydi1i

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 25, 2025

But, with the show complete, there was still one more hurdle for the evening in the commute home. At this point, it was still raining, and there is nothing in the way of shelter between the stadium's northern gates and Downsview Park Station — a distance of roughly one kilometre.

Factor in the crush of thousands of concertgoers filing towards the station, and your ability to quicken your walking pace and escape whatever inclement weather is harshing your concert buzz will be limited by the speed of (likely inebriated) crowds ahead of you.

My final verdict?

Between a solid performance, strong '90s nostalgia, and the background narrative of the two quarrelling Gallagher brothers willing to put their years of differences aside for a fat paycheque, I'd give this concert a solid 9/10 rating in a bubble.

However, this concert did not occur in a bubble, but rather in a temporary stadium in the middle of an abandoned airport on a rainy night. So, due to factors entirely out of the band's control, I will have to dock a couple of points and rate the overall experience at a still pretty impressive 7/10.

But did Oasis even briefly bring back a taste of my millennial youth? I'd have to say it did, though it somehow also served as a somewhat unwelcome reminder that we are all getting older, and that a trip back in time can have the side effect of underscoring the passage of time.

Oasis returns to Rogers Stadium Monday evening for the second in a two-show run.