Gwen Stefani still a powerhouse

By Melissa Arseniuk

Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009 | 3:11 p.m.

There’s more to No Doubt than singer Gwen Stefani, but it sure is hard to imagine the band without her.

The frontwoman has gone through a considerable evolution since the group started gaining attention in 1995. She's gone from a brunette to a bleached blonde; she’s moved from dating her bassist, Tony Kanal, to marring Bush rocker Gavin Rossdale. She’s launched a clothing line, a solo career, and a family.

Yet as the chiseled star prepares to turn 40 this year, she returned to her band, to the recording studio, to the road and to her roots.

No Doubt also returned to Vegas, first to headline Tiger Jam at Mandalay Bay in May and more recently to The Joint for a full-length, full-production show at the Hard Rock Hotel this past weekend.

When the curtain dropped at 10:15 p.m. on Friday it revealed an ultra modern, spaceship-like stage but the music that followed was undeniably, classic No Doubt.

Looking futuristic in their mostly black-and-white attire, the band began with one of their earliest hits, 1996’s "Spiderwebs," then moved on to 2002’s “Hella Good.”

The combination of modern appearances with well-worn songs was somewhat ironic but totally welcome.

Though the band’s most recent album dates to 2001, No Doubt continued to release singles from “Rock Steady” through 2005.

The show proved to be a super-stylized walk down the road that is No Doubt’s memory lane.

The gig at The Joint was stop number 55 for the band, a fact that Stefani stated nearly 55 times, over and over again. The 58-show tour will come to a close tonight in Honolulu.

The stage was a stark white wash, splashes of color punctuated the landscape: Kanal’s hot-pink bass; drummer Adrian Young’s ruby-red snare; Stefani’s red bra straps.

Like the rest of the band, however, Stefani’s opening outfit was, aside from those conspicuous bra straps, a mostly white, strictly black-and-white ensemble.

The handkerchiefs that hung from her black and white tuxedo pants were black and white, too, but were given the kind of shimmering upgrade a star of Stefani’s caliber would require. While colors hanging from pockets can be used to show affiliations in urban culture, Stefani’s bedazzled, rhinestone-encrusted kerchiefs indicated she is loyal to all things nothing short of fabulous.

The iconic singer lent her versatile image to a 1950s-inspired, black-and-white-meets-technicolor video montage to accompany "It's My Life." The montage featured the always-stylish star in a Marilyn Monroe-like vestige and once again provided stark contrast between screen and stage.

While Stefani has had hits on her own since then, the band stuck to its stuff and their leading lady kept close to her roots. Though it may have been tempting, none of Stefani's solo material was included in the set.

Though she may now be a pop and fashion superstar, Stefani has somehow managed to keep a firm grasp on where she came from. Meanwhile, many in the audience had been with the band from the start, or close to it.

“I know everybody in the front row, it's crazy!” Stefani remarked at one point, after reading a banner that proclaimed, on brightly colored cardstock, that its creator had been to 21 live shows over the years.

During an earlier break between songs, Stefani graciously accepted a No Doubt scrapbook a fan had made for her, joking that she had been meaning to make one herself but had been busy.

The seemingly humble frontwoman further connected with a few very lucky members of the audience whom she pulled up onto the stage.

One of the chosen few was a young woman wearing one of the singer’s L.A.M.B.-brand tanktops. Her hair was twisted up in a series of similar-to-Stefani-style buns and she had a No Doubt tattoo on her shoulder.

Stefani lauded the ink, then used the fan’s digital camera to take a photo of the tat as she posed close by.

Though Stefani may have been a sweetheart between songs, she was a force to be reckoned with during most of the performance. Despite a pop-filled five-year hiatus from her band, she showed the sold-out crowed that still knows how to rock and her abs are rock-hard, too; she's still Gwen Stefani, still a powerhouse.

As if she needed to evidence her strength and already-obvious ability to kick ass, she dropped and gave the Hard Rock 10 before launching into "Just a Girl."

Combined with everything that came before and everything that followed, the pushups proved that Stefani is more that just a girl; she’s a force of nature.

Melissa Arseniuk writes about Las Vegas entertainment and celebrity events. She can be reached at 702-948-7823 or by e-mail at [email protected].