Before “cigarette daydreams” and “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” Matt Shultz Growing up and learned to play Oasis songs with his older brother, Brad.
Taken by the musical report by Liam and Noel Gallagher, whose Britpop hymns “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look in Irger” dominated the 1990s, Shultz Brothers sharpened their songwriting skills and eventually formed the rock band Cage the elephant. They released their debut album in 2009, the same year as Oasis called it ending in one of the nastiest break-ups in music history.
Now Liam and Noel Gallagher have reunited and launched this year’s most exciting concert tour. And in a little Serendipity, they have asked the Shultz brothers to open to them.
“It’s definitely been surreal,” says Shultz Amount. “It’s extremely humble.”
With hits like “Come Little Closer” and “Trouble”, Cage Elephant has steadily climbed from clubs to theaters to arenas. Recently, they have commanded stadions with capacity approaching 90,000.
“The first moments to go out on stage are quite astonishing,” says Shultz about the Live’25 tour. “I went into it and thought the audience would fill over time, but the audience has really appeared early. It’s fantastic.”
Cage Elephant’s set list includes punk-infused alt-rock jam as “Broken Boy” and “Spiderhead” along with the Catartis Tinderbox track “Telescope”, which sets up a sea of telephone lamps in the crowd. While Shultz is prone to stage diving, there is no audience that browses this tour, partly because Shultz has recently recovered from two injuries and partly because on football arenas the fans are too far back.
In addition, with the unexpected increase in an acoustic ballad in 2013, the cage of the elephant’s audience demography has changed. “Since the success of” cigarette daydreams “, there are many younger girls. I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” says Shultz. (In The Pit at Metlife Stadium, a group of Preteen girl was actually seen forming a dance circle with their moms.)
More than a decade ago, Shultz reminds playing an early version of the song by phone to his friend Michael Goldstone, owner of Mom + Pop Music. “Exit this song right now,” Goldstone told Shultz. “This is special.” After he recorded it and listened to Tom Elmhirst’s Mix, Shultz went, and it got closer to “Melophobia”, Cage the Elephant’s third studio album. “The label at that time didn’t even look at it as a single,” says Shultz. “And I pushed really hard.”
Since then, “Cigarette Daydreams” has taken up 1.2 billion listens to Spotify and become the band’s biggest song. Alongside “Wonderwall”, it has been included in the Pantheon of songs Almost everyone who can spur an acoustic guitar has in their Rolodex.
During the years that performed at music festivals, Shultz has been given the chance to meet both Liam and Noel Gallagher – of course separately. But the singer has not yet interacted with the brothers like Oasis.
“They are very family -oriented on this tour. I have seen some of their children around, but (Liam and Noel) have been quite isolated,” says Shultz. “They live a kind of home life on the road, so we haven’t really hung out yet. Hopefully we get a chance to hang.”
Still, after each cage the elephant set, Shultz has gone straight to the pit, where he has seen Oasis put stadions in fire night after night. Witnessing Gallaghers puts their arms to deliver one of rock music’s most triumphant comeback stories has led Shultz to reflect on sharing his band – and life – with his brother, Brad.
“How couldn’t that?” he says. “We have never had a period of time where we were not close, but it has definitely deepened our relationship.”
