Liam Gallagher & John Squire @ 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland 16 March 2024

Liam Gallagher & John Squire, Jake Bugg

Liam Gallagher & John Squire @ 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland, 16 March 2024,

March 19, 2024
By Lee Campbell
Photo: Lee Campbell
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I counted only two empty pint glasses flying through the air at this highly anticipated concert with Liam Gallagher & John Squire. It seemed to be a relatively well-behaved crowd on this Saturday night during the St. Patrick's Day weekend. Surprised and a little disappointed by such a restrained delight.

Jake Bugg's middle English folk tunes were the perfect tonic in Ireland's capital to kick things off. Just him, his trusty guitar and some really quick finger work. Typically quite reserved, he seemed genuinely happy to feel the love from the Dublin crowd.

9.15 p.m. and Mr. Gallagher swinging his maracas with glee, in suspension, closely followed by unassuming guitar maestro John Squire. After shutting down the crowd's excitement, Liam screamed, “We're not here for long, we're here for a fucking time,” launching into “Just Another Rainbow.” Yeah, okay, it's got that dodgy color checklist in the lyrics, but it's still an impressive track.

“One Day at a Time” keeps the pace going before giving way to the bluesy “I'm a Wheel” and the psychedelic “Love You Forever” with Squire doing his best tributes to Clapton and Hendrix back-to-back. The swampy keyboard intro of “You're Not the Only One” is quintessential South American rock that the Black Crowes would be proud of.

Liam asks, “Anyone here from Mars? – You must be jet lagged!” The most Oasis-esque song on the record, “Mars to Liverpool” has one of the biggest audience reactions of the night. The anthem ends with football chants of “United” and “Liverpool”, much to the disgust of Manchester City fanatic Gallagher. Although Squire was rather quietly pleased to be a big fan of Manchester United FC himself. “Mother Nature's Song” is one of the best tracks on the record and the live version takes it up another notch.

Yes, the duo were done and dusted within sixty minutes, however it was still a thrill to see them perform together on stage with their own material. You know what you're going to get with Gallagher, however Squire's beautiful chord progression is a treat to behold. I don't think he spoke to the crowd once during the set, but it didn't matter. Head down, mop of hair hanging free, just like he did in 1989 with The Stone Roses, just playing his ass.

The Stones' “Jumpin' Jack Flash” seems like a pretty random encore, but it sounded pretty good. Perhaps compensating for the brevity of the set, Gallagher took some time to autograph a significant amount of fan memorabilia, including a Manchester City FC shirt as the lights came on. His appreciation of the Irish crowd was matched by his love of a pint of Guinness the following day, posting himself drinking the black stuff on social media to celebrate all things green. Well done Liam…