Editor’s Note: Richard Ashcroft walked out onto the stage, guitar in hand, and introduced himself to a Blue Hills Bank Pavilion crowd last night (May 14) as the first of two “legend[s]” scheduled for the evening. It was a grand boast, but we expect nothing less from the frontman of British heavyweights The Verve. And when you’re touring alongside a certain Liam Gallagher, confidence must be as high as the clouds above. Ashcroft and Gallagher kicked off the 2018 season at the Pavilion in the Seaport with two hours of familiar classics — Ashcroft, up there on his own, swaggering through acoustic renditions of Verve mainstays (he could pull this off solo, he told us, because unlike many others, he simply has the songs and the voice to do so) and Gallagher in full side-lean, presenting a split of Oasis anthems and bangers off last year’s surprisingly fit solo LP As You Were. For Gallagher, it’s those Oasis songs that get the fists in the air and the crowd sing-shouting along, and he delivered accordingly (“Live Forever,” “Supersonic,” “Rock And Roll Star”). The absence of Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was felt on several occasions, but the songs remain the same, and few in the crowd had any complaints about that. Ben Stas was under the tent on behalf of Vanyaland, and you can scan through his full gallery of both performances below.
