Tag: Return of Saturn Tour

No Doubt

Geared up to Rock Steady. By Jon Weiderhorn

A touring rock band has to evolve and adapt to survive. Fans might embrace a group’s original style and image for a while, but if a look and sound remains constant for too long, a band can become stale, its music bordering on self-parody.

The members of No Doubt are keenly aware of that phenomenon, which is why the band’s live performance over the years has changed as much as its music. In 1987, No Doubt was a high-octane ska/punk band armed with simple staccato songs, delivered by musicians who pogoed as they performed. Not long after, the band added ’80s pop melodies to their music and began playing with a sharper stage focus. In 1993, they downplayed the pop elements and amped up the punk-rock anger, reflecting the alternative angst of the time. The band began turning heads with its powerful concerts and the onstage energy of its front woman, Gwen Stefani. Read the rest of this article »

Pretty in pink

Gwen Stefani infects the crowd with her upbeat charm and energy, fully charging No Doubt’s stage comeback by Trinh Bui

In the waning minutes of No Doubt’s lively show, a sprightly Gwen Stefani plucked four pink hair girls from the audience and onto the stage for “Excuse Me Mr.”

Stefani instructed the embarrassed pre-teens to lead the hyper crowd through the chorus but after one meek try, the girlish Stefani decided it took a woman to do a girl’s job. So up she went onto a wall of speakers and proceeded to rev the sold-out Universal Amphitheater into a final frenzy of jumping bodies and pumping fists.

It was like that all night. Read the rest of this article »

Stefani proves she’s more than `Just a Girl’

No Doubt singer performs newer material along with `Tragic Kingdom’ hits By GEMMA TARLACH

There’s nothing tragic about the kingdom ruled by No Doubt’s fantabulous front woman, Gwen Stefani. Before a near-capacity crowd Friday night at the Marcus Amphitheater, Stefani and her bandmates gave a show equal parts ska fest, spectacle and self-examination as shocking as her fuschia hair.

“Hey, I’m really having fun tonight,” said Stefani midway through, echoing the opinion of the crowd. “This is a treat.”

Ah, so what if “Return of Saturn,” the band’s much-anticipated follow-up to 1995’s blockbuster “Tragic Kingdom, has done a slow slide down the chart. The more mature songwriting of “Saturn” – largely drawn from Stefani’s way-premature mid-life crisis – isn’t as immediately accessible as the band’s earlier saucy ska-pop.

But Stefani, part Debbie Harry-ish punk vixen and part pure pop showgirl, should be commended for daring to reveal her self-doubts and yearning for a more conventional life, including motherhood, on such tunes as a “Simple Kind of Life.”

The newer material, with the exception of the explosive set-starter “Ex-Girlfriend,” drew mostly respectable swaying from the younger majority of the crowd – well, they’ll understand where Gwen is coming from in a few years.

Perhaps knowing their audience, Stefani and her bandmates padded their set with “Kingdom” material such as “Happy Now?” and “Different People.”

No Doubt demands to be thought of as a band, but she can’t help outshining the guys with her star power. Only perpetual motion bassist Tony Kanal comes close to matching the whirling dervish Stefani. Whether doing a demented “I Dream of Jeanie” dance with two back-up multi-instrument musicians or push-ups by way of introducing a ferocious rendering of “Just a Girl,” Stefani was unstoppable.

Kudos to whoever came up with the tour’s lineup. A less creative mind would have booked any one of a zillion SoCal ska-punk acts who – no pun intended – would no doubt be happy for the paying gig. Instead, the show was opened by diverse newer acts nearing the top of their game, Lit and the Black Eyed Peas.

Lit excelled at 45 minutes of tight, high-energy hard-pop, particularly on tunes such as “Quicksand.” Beefy, tattooed A. Jay Popoff, looking like a Backstreet Boy on parole, makes for an engaging front man, though the many parents in the crowd probably could have done without his liberal cussing.

But A. Jay needs to have a talk with his brother, guitarist Jeremy Popoff. No matter how many time you throw up the devil-horns gesture, grimace and cop all James Hetfield’s other stage moves, dude, you are so not in Metallica. Be happy supplying the chords to the rock-lite act of the summer, and giving up clever, well-written little ditties such as “Miserable” and “My Own Enemy.”

The sparse early crowd didn’t seem to know what to make of the Peas, perhaps the freshest hip-hop trio on the road today. The Amphitheater eventually warmed to the Peas, just as they wrapped their half-hour set.

DATE UNKNOWN: Day and month are just an estimate based on the events mentioned within the article.

No Doubt by Neala Johnson

Adrian, the drummer, has an aversion to wearing pants.  Gwen has pink hair.  Tony, the bass player, has a bleach-blonde thing going on.  Tom, the guitarist, well, he’s just opened the door to his Japanese hotel room, and the phone is already ringing.  “Amazing timing”, he says, with a more sunny  disposition than many in the same situation would do.

No Doubt have just flown into Japan from Germany, at the beginning of a world tour to promote their new album Return of Saturn. “There’s this level of stress from not speaking the language, ” says Tom Dumont of his comfort in foreign climes, “and I guess we’re so used to conveniences in America, that things just operate a little differently. But we’re getting better at it, so no real complaints. The worst bit is jetlag at the moment, and dealing with that, but that goes away as well. ” Does it go away, perhaps, with the help of the right stimulants? Read the rest of this article »