No Doubt’s set list:
Hella Good
Spiderwebs
It’s My Life (Talk Talk cover)
Looking Hot
Don’t Speak
Just A Girl (with P!nk)
Thanks to my good friend Mika, I was fortunate enough to end up with a ticket to day one of the IHeartRadio Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena last week. I should say that for the most part, I don’t feel qualified to review most of these performances. While I am a fan of pop music I have only a cursory (at best) knowledge of artists like Lil’ Wayne and Usher (the latter of which put on an amazing live show, by the way) and no one wants to hear me complain about Bon Jovi for three paragraphs. However, two performances that I do want to talk about, and the main reasons I decided to take up the offer to attend this event, are No Doubt and Green Day.
Going back in time a little here to 1996, my musical tastes consisted entirely of Weird Al parodies and movie soundtracks. That all changed when I was exposed to the burgeoning pop punk and ska bands that had taken over radio and MTV airwarves, chief among them No Doubt and Green Day. Of all the bands I loved back then, somehow No Doubt is the one that has always evaded me live. Sometimes the cost was too high, sometimes their tours didn’t come here, and sometimes they were opening for U2, so it’s just never happened. I was incredibly excited to finally cross the Anaheim, CA ska-punks-gone-new-wavers off my concert list.
The band kicked things off with “Hella Good,” bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and vocalist Gwen Stefani entering the venue through the surprisingly well-behaved crowd to join drummer Adrian Young on stage. From there they moved into “Spiderwebs” from their breakthrough album Tragic Kingdom and the young part of me that had a Gwen Stefani poster above his bed couldn’t help but sing along. Being a radio festival, the band’s short set included mostly their biggest radio hits along with the new track “Looking Hot” which is on their first album in 11 years Push and Shove. While I understand the need to keep their set to the biggest hits in order to entertain the highly diverse crowd, I do wish they could’ve slipped an older song in there (“Trapped in a Box” would be my pick) as I am a much bigger fan of their ska and ska-influenced period.
The band ended their set with the song that introduced them to the mainstream – “Just a Girl” from Tragic Kingdom. Stefani brought out special guest P!nk, who was scheduled to perform on the second night of the festival, to help out with vocal duties. After coming out on stage and doing some pushups – mirroring Stefani’s moves from the “Just a Girl” video, and showing a little respect by bowing at Stefani’s feat, P!nk grabbed a mic and the two women traded off verses, ending up together at the end of the stage’s long runway into the crowd. P!nk referred to Stefani as “the raddest fucking girl in the world” in music at the song’s bridge, and that night she definitely was.
Part two of my IHeartRadio Festival review, covering Green Day’s performance, can be seen here.
-Emily Matview
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