Live Review: Liam Gallagher – Down By The River MelodyVR Stream

Liam took over the Thames in his new stream ‘Down By The River’. The show saw the ex-oasis frontman playing on a barge while floating down the river whilst slowly floating past famous London landmarks. The stream was hosted on the MelodyVR app, but unlike the majority of MelodyVR gigs, the broadcast was not filmed with 360° cameras.

The set saw a whole mix of songs from both Liam Gallagher’s solo albums, as well as a bunch of Oasis classics. The sound was also mixed really well, and the band played excellently throughout. Liam Gallagher himself also sounded great. The camera’s were high quality with nice bokeh, and provided excellent angles, showing off all the landmarks, as well as the band and Liam himself.

Unfortunately this show was pre-recorded, which meant that there was no interaction with fans. This however did mean that it felt polished, but didn’t feel as special as some other live broadcasts.

Liam didn’t have a lot to say throughout the night, however he did call out Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson, when singing ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’, after singing the second verse “Is it worth the aggravation/ To find yourself a job when there’s nothing worth working for?” Gallagher pointed his maracas at the camera and said “That’s for you fucking Rishi fucking Woshi Woshi…and fucking Doris.” He also called out the London eye when passing it saying “That wheel can fuck off… Can not give a fuck about you, you big wheel”.

It was nice to see something different with the whole floating down the Thames on a barge thing. Seeing the different landmarks as the boat floated by gave a nice change to the staticness of the backgrounds of most streams from venues or homes. Liam Gallagher truly showed us that the world is his stage.

The gig finished on ‘Champagne Supernova’ with Gallagher ending with “Thank you, good night, Merry Christmas!”. The credits roll and lead onto… an encore of the live debut of “All You’re Dreaming Of” clearly filmed before the rest of the show, I do wonder how many people left while the credits rolled.

A truly good and unique hour of entertainment, however I personally enjoyed the other MelodyVR gigs I’ve seen more, the 360° in VR make you feel really immersed especially in VR.