taken from: Boston.com

(click on photo to go to gallery)

No Doubt hasn’t lost its bounce
By Sarah Rodman
Globe Staff / June 22, 2009

MANSFIELD – It’s been eight years since No Doubt’s last studio album. Since then lead singer Gwen Stefani has produced two successful solo albums and two kids. But evidence of either was scant during the band’s exuberant regrouping Saturday night at the Comcast Center.

It was as if the antic ska popsters had been cryogenically frozen in 2003 after the release of their greatest hits album and thawed just in time for the show.

The quartet, aided and abetted by endlessly energetic horn blowers-keyboardists-backing vocalists Stephen Bradley and Gabriel McNair, bounced, skipped, skanked, and pogoed through a delightfully high-octane, hit-rich 90 minutes.

Stefani was her typical tireless self, balancing her girlie lyrics and tough-chick rock-star cheek with veteran skill. No doubt many of the moms in the largely female crowd of 17,000 were more amazed at Stefani’s sculpted abs than perturbed that her solo material wasn’t included.

But there was honestly no room for “Hollaback Girl’’ as the live No Doubt jukebox kept issuing forth can’t-misses: the bubble-pop electricity of “Hella Good,’’ the ska stomp of “Bathwater,’’ the dancehall curves of “Hey Baby,’’ the caffeinated guitar riffs of “Just a Girl,’’ the lighter-beckoning break-up ballad “Don’t Speak.’’

The band frolicked on a stark white stage with an octopod-like riser hoisting drummer Adrian Young – resplendent in two-tone mohawk, black briefs, and checkered thigh-high hose and later, a tutu. They amped up the mood with stylish, colorful new videos to accompany the songs, including a spy motif for the dizzying “Ex-Girlfriend’’ and, appropriately, a futuristic cityscape for “New.’’

The night’s two sweetest moments came when vintage home video of the fresh-faced No Doubt-ers floated by during “Running’’ and when Stefani hauled a female fan from the pit onstage to show off her devotion in the way of elaborate band tattoos.

It would behoove the group to make a new record as soon as possible. They clearly still have the juice and if they wait much longer they could get trapped in turn-of-the-century amber, relegated to oldies status before their time.

Points to No Doubt for bringing along the outre and extremely limber Janelle Monae to spice up the beginning of the night. Monae, jitterbugging around the stage like a female André 3000 sporting a fluffy pompadour and Colonel Sanders tuxedo, was a sight to behold, but the sounds weren’t quite as beguiling as her industrial space funk was hampered by typical opening act sound issues.

If Monae’s act was treated like something to be withstood by most in the audience, middle act Paramore was embraced wholeheartedly. The chipper pop-rockers, led by spitfire Hayley Williams, buzzed genially and energetically through their stack of bouncy radio hits.

Tags: Boston, Concert Reviews, Live, Photos, Tour

taken from: Boston Herald

No Doubt delivers Hella Good show

By Lauren Carter / Review
Monday, June 22, 2009

You could say they left No Doubt about their live-performance prowess.

For just over 90 minutes at the Comcast Center in Mansfield Saturday night, lead singer Gwen Stefani and her larger-than-life band mates ignited the venue as if their multiyear hiatus from music never was.

The dynamic, uber-stylish Stefani, now a 39-year-old mom with her own clothing line, could have passed for a 23-year-old fitness instructor as she sprinted across the stage, danced, pranced – and leading into “Just a Girl” – launched into a push-up session, all without compromising her vocals.

The band, now at work on their next project, hasn’t released a studio album since 2001’s “Rock Steady,” but apparently it’s only a matter of getting back into the ska-pop groove rather than trying to find it, as the show was a marriage of superb audio and visual detail.

A futuristic white set matched the band’s white get-ups, including the midriff-baring tank top that served as a window to Stefani’s chiseled abs. Bassist Tony Kanal and guitarist Tom Dumont played subtle, faux-hawked counterpoint to Stefani’s punk-feminine style while drummer Adrian Young performed in knee socks and underwear, later appearing in a tutu.

Yes, the look is as much a part of No Doubt’s cheeky, carefree appeal as their sound.

From the feisty opener “Spiderwebs,” the band – which included dreadlocked horn and keyboard players Stephen Bradley and Gabriel McNair – never faltered while Stefani cooed and worked the stage.

On the sinewy bass of “Hella Good,” the frenetic “Ex-Girlfriend” and the rap-infused “Hey Baby,” Stefani was all boundless energy. On mellow tracks “Don’t Let It Go Away,” “Simple Kind of Life” and the reggae-laced “Underneath It All,” she scaled it back and let swagger take a backseat to singing.

Stefani has had a successful solo career while the band took a break, but none of her hits surfaced Saturday; it was all about bringing No Doubt in all its facets back to the masses, from monster smash “Don’t Speak” to the synth-heavy cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life.”

Judging by the capacity crowd’s thunderous demand for an encore, which included “Rock Steady” and “Sunday Morning,” the masses have missed them.

Opening act Paramore is a band modeled after No Doubt: melodic, punk-infused power pop featuring a dynamic frontwoman in Hayley Williams and an all-male band. The fivesome delivered a brilliant set that included the buoyant “Where the Lines Overlap” and their track from the vampire flick “Twilight,” “Decode.”

Tags: Boston, Concert Reviews, Live, Tour