A THOUSAND CHORUSES: WHY I LOVE WHEN A CROWD SINGS

11/07/25

I was talking to my buddy Shane about the Oasis reunion (I'm going to mention Oasis a lot on this blog. Get used to it.) and the energy in the crowd a couple months ago, prior to seeing them in September. When we hung out at my apartment, we'd usually watch a ton of YouTube videos on my TV and talk about music. This was one of those times. 

We watched a performance of "Don't Look Back In Anger" from a 2009 gig at River Plate Stadium in Argentina. This version of DLBIA is one of my personal favorites and one that I show to a lot of people because it is just that good. Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer, alongside Jay Darlington, stood in front of a crowd of 39,000-50,000, the exact number being disputed, and played an acoustic rendition of the song. Noel tells the crowd to "feel free to join in on the chorus." Indeed they did, but not just on the chorus. They sang every single word in a language that most did not actually know. You can barely hear Noel when he sings. He steps back, smiling, during the chorus to let the crowd sing. Absolutely unbelievable. I mean seriously, c'mon. I think that is one of the biggest compliments a musician can receive. 

After I showed Shane the video, he told me that he loves when a crowd sings, but that if he was paying for a ticket, he wants the artist to sing every word. I just kinda looked at him...wondering if he saw the same video I just saw. Watching a group of people that large, overpowering the band to the point were they are the main attraction, is not something you see every day. I do understand where he's coming from, but I want to qualify this and apply it to only smaller artists. A band like Oasis has every right to step away from the mic to let the crowd sing. 

When we went to see Oasis, albeit in different sections and with different people, we finally got to be in a crowd that sang *almost* every word. And that was in LA. If we had been in the U.K. or Ireland, we'd have experienced it tenfold. I had nearly lost my voice from singing, as had most people around us. There was a few moments when Liam and Noel stepped away from the mics and you could hear the crowd get louder. I talked to Shane again recently and asked him if he had changed his mind, he responded, "eh". He didn't pay for his ticket so he didn't have to worry about the band not singing everything...blah, blah, blah. Now, this doesn't really support my case, but I think point of the story is that the crowd singing is still an appealing concept, if you are or aren't paying for your own ticket.

Before going to a stadium concert, I only had videos of singing crowds on YouTube to gawk at. A lot of Oasis, that one video of the Goo Goo Dolls playing "Iris" in the rain on the 4th of July, a crowd of Liverpool fans in 1964 singing "She Loves You" a cappella, etc. Every time I watched one of these videos I would get goosebumps. I did a bit of research and found out goosebumps from music is called "frisson" and only about 50% of people experience it, according to a USC study. So that means I'm special. Yippee! But seriously, even before I had properly experienced a crowd singing along to a song, I was getting goosebumps wishing I was a part of it. 

I saw Green Day during the Hella Mega Tour in 2021 at Petco Park in San Diego. Weezer opened and were actually phenomenal live. Didn't watch Fall Out Boy (sorry Nat!). The coolest part of that show, besides the fact that it was my first stadium gig, was that the opening bands had people singing along to all their songs. Weezer had people screaming "My Name is Jonas" and "Say It Ain't So". I could hear Fall Out Boy's crowd from the merch booth at the front of the venue. Green Day, though, is one of the best bands to see if you love when a crowd sings. They put on such a good show. They play mostly hits so the crowd knows the words. It was so rad. My mom recently saw Green Day at the Ohana Festival in September. Even as someone who isn't a huge fan of the band, she could still appreciate the musicianship and their performance. She f**kin' loved it. Her words. Not mine. At both the show I went to and the show my mom went to, "Good Riddance" was the last song they played, Billie Joe Armstrong alone with an acoustic guitar having the words he wrote 25 years before sung back to him at maximum volume. You can't not love that. But it wasn't just that song. It was every song. Everyone wanted to be a part of the band. Auditioning with a cacophony of other voices to the same tune.

Oasis and Green Day are the only stadium gigs I've been to, so I haven't been able to experience the sheer power of a massive crowd singing a ton. But shows in small spaces still contribute to my love of a crowd anthem. You can easily find videos of either of the Gallagher's solo careers where the crowd is crazy loud back when they were playing smaller venues. I took an hour long break from writing this to find some. Liam's MTV Unplugged has some great stuff. Noel has a few different versions of Oasis tunes that feature a belting crowd. There's something about anthemic rock and roll songs that gets people stirred up. Or acoustic numbers that one can't help but buzz about. Maybe that's why I love Oasis so much...

Anyways, back to crowds in small venues. From personal experience, I've only been to 2 shows that have had stellar crowds that sang. Since I mostly go to shows that exclusively feature screeching electric guitars and a whirlwind of a pit, that's not a huge surprise. The first small venue show that I got to really feel the crowd's enthusiasm in singing was The Chats in 2022. They've got some chanters. "Smoko", from what I can remember, is the one song in particular that people were screaming. It's definitely their most popular song, so I wasn't shocked, but it was still sick. 700 people yelling in their shittiest Aussie accent, "I'm on Smoko! So leave me alone!" The Chats happened to be the first show I ever crowd-surfed at. Killer experience. The people were rowdy. Loud and hammered. Nice. The second smaller show that I noticed people singing at was fairly recently. Osees was playing with Brigid Dawson at the Teragram in LA at the beginning of October, 1 of 3 shows they're playing with her. I was lucky enough to see the first 2. The band brought back old tracks from when Brigid was in the band, and they're all crowd pleasers. I got a great video of "I Was Denied" that is seriously f**kin' awesome. The crowd is chanting, "La la la la la", with John and Brigid and there's a swirling pit when I pan it around. But the chanting is what got me. Everyone around me was doing it. That made the experience a million times better. Me and my peers feeling like we're a part of something special. That show happened to be the last time I crowd-surfed.

I think the main takeaway from singing in a crowd is that you're "a part of something bigger than just yourself". You can't tell me that hearing a few thousand voices sing in unison doesn't strike a chord with you. With anybody! Besides Freddie Mercury conducting the crowd at Live Aid, the best example of what it means to be "a part of something bigger than just yourself" is the outro of "Hey Jude". Watch literally any version of "Hey Jude" and you'll know (specifically, the Glastonbury 2004 or Knebworth 1990 version are the best). Pure ecstasy. It gives me chills every time. And I've watched a million videos tonight while I write this. Every single one I've gotten goosebumps. 

I actually don't think I can fully explain why I love when a crowd sings so much. There's just something about a bunch of people who love music, coming together, and becoming one with a song. Like I said before, it's about being "a part of something bigger than just yourself". 

Thanks for reading everyone! Y'all have some homework to do. Find your favorite video of a crowd singing and get back to me. I'm expecting some good shit. If not, just watch the videos I mentioned above.

See you next week...

Cheers,

Jack