The majority of my pubescent years are not worth remembering. I don’t miss anything about being a tween – at age 12, I had very little going for me. As a young lass who was both socially and physically awkward, and still waiting to grow into her face, “uncomfortable” hardly begins to describe my pre-teen years. If Jesus Himself came down and offered me a million bucks to relive junior high, I would swiftly raise one middle finger and decline his offer. Now that I know how to properly apply eyeliner, and that having boobs isn’t all that great, there’s no turning back from here.

Except, of course, to relive the one shining relic of my transitory tween years: music. After my love for *N Sync began to wane and before my obsession with Tori Amos kicked into high gear, there was No Doubt. The glory days of Tragic Kingdom started late for me, circa 1998. I was nine years old at the time, armed only with a third grader’s tenacity and a library card. I picked up No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom from the library’s CD collection simply because Gwen Stefani looked like a badass chick. For the next year, I renewed the shit out of that CD, and developed a massive girl crush on Ms. Stefani.

Eleven years later, when I dropped a staggering 15 dollars on my No Doubt lawn ticket for last Saturday’s show, I arrived at the Chicago-area amphitheatre with low expectations. The opening band was pop-punk Paramore (vom), and to be honest, No Doubt had let me down with its most recent album, Rock Steady, eight years ago. The heavy ska influence of Tragic Kingdom and the polished yet emotionally raw sound of Return of Saturn were both absent from Rock Steady, and I was still feeling a little cheated eight years later. A small, ill-advised part of me truly expected Gwen & co. to zero in on their Rock Steady singles and neglect the band’s celebrated classics; a move that would seriously compromise the group’s relevance not only to me, but to any other fan who felt “Hey Baby” was a personal slap in the face. Wrong I was.

All you really need to know about No Doubt’s summer tour:

- Gwen Stefani is still a badass chick at 39. She rocked the f*ck out of the stage, and her abs are to die for.

- No Harajuku Girls were present. At least temporarily, Gwen went back to being one of the guys.

- The rest of the band was equally as energetic as its front woman, especially the two reggae dudes (not original members, but still cool), and the ever-flamboyant Adrian Young on drums, sporting black lipstick and a junk-hugging speedo. Even from the lawn, where I was situated directly behind a huge f*cking pole, I could see Gwen and the reggae dudes dancing and flailing their athletic figures across the stage.

- The set was engaging, but not too flashy. Certainly more elaborate than anything from an early No Doubt concert, featuring oversized TV screens with artsy, heavily edited video of the band during each song. For a big-name national tour at a large commercial venue, I’d expect no less of the set. But any of the concert’s theatrics came from solely the band’s charisma, not from a glitzy backdrop.

- Most importantly, No Doubt constructed a near perfect set. Opening with “Spiderwebs” instantly ignited the crowd’s energy. Immediately after, they moved on to “Hella Good” – getting a quick Rock Steady single out of the way – and under celebrated tracks from Tragic Kingdom, “Excuse Me Mr.” and “Different People,” followed soon after. Other songs at the Chicago show included “Running,” “Just a Girl,” “New,” “Don’t Speak,” “Ex Girlfriend,” “Hey Baby” and even “Squeal,” an early song from the more obscure Beacon Street Collection of 1995. Basically, they whipped out all the major hits from 1995 to now.

- Don’t even ask me about Paramore because I left to get chicken fingers as soon as they came on stage.

The show was worth every last penny of my 15-dollar lawn seat. Despite a major blip in 2001 (Rock Steady), and an even larger blip over the past several years (Gwen Stefani’s solo career), No Doubt successfully convinced me that they’re just as solid and cohesive of a group now as they were when I first discovered them at the library over 10 years ago.

It’s natural that No Doubt’s contemporary relevance would come into question. Gwen Stefani is married with kids and riding the wave of a highly successful, highly mainstream solo career; guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young are married with families of their own, and bassist Tony Kanal has a girlfriend of six and a half years. These original members are now well into their late 30s and early 40s, and although age and talent aren’t inversely related, a maturing band doesn’t always make for a successful reunion tour – or at least, not as successful of a comeback as No Doubt managed to pull together.

Had I been born a few years earlier, I would have witnessed No Doubt in its heyday: years marked by unrequited love and exes within the band (Stefani and Kanal), and the awkward transition from punky blonde Anaheim chick to pink hair and braces. Unfortunately, I was still undergoing my own awkward transition and was barely old enough to ride my bike past dark, much less attend a concert unsupervised. Now that I’ve escaped the era of parental groundings and time-outs unscathed, I’m glad to have seen No Doubt live, even this late into the band’s career. Whether you’re a moderate No Doubt fan or you share a whopping Gwen Stefani girl crush with me, I highly recommend biting the 15 bucks for a lawn seat, pregaming that shit in the parking lot and enjoying a solid set of '90s rock nostalgia.

-Lauren Sieben

PS – Check out a horrible quality video I grabbed at the show to hear a sound bite from the July 11 concert in Chicago. Three videos are now up on my channel, for your low-quality listening pleasure!


Follow us on Twitter or Friend us on Facebook! Leave a Comment -