Stealing the show

  Photos by JANA SUMMERS Noel Gallagher of
Oasis performs vocals on Monday at the Greek Theatre during the
"Tour of Brotherly Love" with Spacehog and the Black Crowes. Oasis
did manage to make it through the night without breaking up, though
their performance was less than spectacular.

By Jana Summers
Daily Bruin Contributor

Sibling rivalries, celebrity fantasies and classic rock
discographies are the only common links between the three bands on
the “Tour of Brotherly Love,” which kicked off May 11
in Las Vegas and just finished its second show on Monday at the
Greek Theatre.

Aside from these similarities, the Black Crowes, Oasis and
Spacehog do not belong on the same concert ticket.

While the members of the Black Crowes stand on solid ground with
their unique and raw sound, Oasis can be best described by the name
of its most recent album, “Standing on the Shoulders of
Giants.” These Brit-rockers simply modify the styles of
musical giants like the Beatles and are delusional in thinking that
they may somehow attain the same success with little innovation of
their own.

  Hyperkinetic Chris Robinson, frontman
for the Black Crowes, was the perfect remedy for the lifeless Oasis
and Spacehog. However, no one has perfected the formula of taking a
catchy and successful song, altering it slightly and appropriating
the credit for themselves, like Spacehog.

While Oasis at least admitted to its lack of originality on
Monday night, covering, “I am the Walrus” by the
Beatles ““ blatantly pointing out which musical giant it is
ripping off ““ Spacehog, had the gall to play two minutes of
instrumentation exacting that of a Phish song, before crying out
its own bad lyrics in an attempt to fool the crowd and convince
them that the music was original.

But the disappointment of the show did not stop here. Even close
up, the members of Oasis seemed to be frozen fashion mannequins,
standing on stage in their trendy cop glasses and barely moving as
they performed. Their songs came out sounding exactly as the same
as they do on their albums.

Yet despite the dismal performances by Oasis and Spacehog, the
“Tour of Brotherly Love” was made worthwhile by the
Black Crowes.

The band tore it up in its set and rocked hard, funky jams. Lead
singer Chris Robinson’s energy rallied the crowd into a
dancing frenzy. True to its name, the song “Remedy”
proved to cure much of the audiences frustrations and the crowd
ended up leaving the Greek Theatre smiling with satisfaction.