Gwen Stefani is awesome live!
Last night I saw Gwen Stefani at the ACC, and she is fraggin' awesome!!
The show kicked off with opening act Ciara...not a big fan of hers, so not much to say there.
Gwen took to the stage around 9:30, and she and the Harajuku girls were elevated to the stage on a throne like the one on the cover of her cd. She performed "Harajuku Girls", and then went into "What You Waiting For". "What the fuck are you waiting for, Toronto?!" she screamed.
Every note that came out of her mouth was 100% live. She changed costumes after nearly ever song, which was awesome and very reminiscent of early-90s Madonna, especially because of her beautiful blonde hair. Her stage stayed the same, and there weren't any distracting props or sets that detracted from the performance. I really liked that. She had some awesome background videos, like the magic mushrooms and spray-painting the white roses red.
Gwen interacted a whole lot with the audience. They're on a countdown: Toronto was #9 till the end of the tour. She thinks Canadian boys (like me!) are sexy. Ohhh yeah! :D The boys got to sing the "Back it up, Back it up" part of "Crash", and the girls got to sing the "You got it, you got it!" parts. Oh yeah, she also told us she wished she could have done the whole tour just in Canada. :P
Gwen did a couple of new songs: "Wind It Up", which samples "The Lonely Goatherd" from "The Sound of Music", and was performed like a sequence from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"...you know, where they wind up the lady and she sings like she's a mechanical doll. And then she did "Orange Country Girl", a mid-tempo song with a hip-hop beat. "I'm just an Orange Country girl living in an extra-ordinary world!"
The entire "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" album was performed. In addition to these songs, she did "Cool" and everyone sang along to the chorus. She also did "The Real Thing" and "Long Way to Go". Gwen rocked out on "Danger Zone", one of my big faves (and she crawled onto a special platform at the front of the stage", and also did "Luxurious". It wasn't one of my favourite songs on the album, but it's really, really good live. And she did "Rich Girl", and rapped Eve's part.
She and her band and dancers and Harajuku girls had a really good chemistry that came across nicely on stage. I especially loved when she introduced them all towards the end during an extended version of "Serious", my favourite Gwen song. That frickin' rocked too, and we got to sing the "S-E-R-I-O-U-S" part. She poked fun at herself and said the song had some really silly lyrics. But lyrics don't matter as long as you're having fun.
She closed the show with "Bubble Pop Electric", sending thousands of bubbles into the air. Good thinking Gwen, because not only does it go with the song, but it's more environmentally friendly than confetti! :D Then she, her band, the Harajuku girls, and the dancers (the dancers are 4 boys) took their bows.
They returned for an awesome encore of "Hollaback Girl" which got the entire crowd on its feet. Gwen was dressed up in her band leader gear, and the band (with the exception of the guitar player) all came out with their drums and performed the shit out of the song. At the end, they brought up a few little girls from the audience who sung along. And then when the song was over, Gwen gave them all hugs and departed the stage, waving and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
So hopefully in the new year Gwen will take a break and rest and relax and have a baby, and then hopefully release a new No Doubt album in 2007, the band's 20th anniversary.
Oh man, this might have been my favourite concert ever, even beating out Britney Spears! I wasn't as close as I was at Britney, but I was still in the first level and could see everything really well. Damn, I just had a really good, fun, entertaining time at the show. Gwen was right: Best Christmas present ever!
The show kicked off with opening act Ciara...not a big fan of hers, so not much to say there.
Gwen took to the stage around 9:30, and she and the Harajuku girls were elevated to the stage on a throne like the one on the cover of her cd. She performed "Harajuku Girls", and then went into "What You Waiting For". "What the fuck are you waiting for, Toronto?!" she screamed.
Every note that came out of her mouth was 100% live. She changed costumes after nearly ever song, which was awesome and very reminiscent of early-90s Madonna, especially because of her beautiful blonde hair. Her stage stayed the same, and there weren't any distracting props or sets that detracted from the performance. I really liked that. She had some awesome background videos, like the magic mushrooms and spray-painting the white roses red.
Gwen interacted a whole lot with the audience. They're on a countdown: Toronto was #9 till the end of the tour. She thinks Canadian boys (like me!) are sexy. Ohhh yeah! :D The boys got to sing the "Back it up, Back it up" part of "Crash", and the girls got to sing the "You got it, you got it!" parts. Oh yeah, she also told us she wished she could have done the whole tour just in Canada. :P
Gwen did a couple of new songs: "Wind It Up", which samples "The Lonely Goatherd" from "The Sound of Music", and was performed like a sequence from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"...you know, where they wind up the lady and she sings like she's a mechanical doll. And then she did "Orange Country Girl", a mid-tempo song with a hip-hop beat. "I'm just an Orange Country girl living in an extra-ordinary world!"
The entire "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" album was performed. In addition to these songs, she did "Cool" and everyone sang along to the chorus. She also did "The Real Thing" and "Long Way to Go". Gwen rocked out on "Danger Zone", one of my big faves (and she crawled onto a special platform at the front of the stage", and also did "Luxurious". It wasn't one of my favourite songs on the album, but it's really, really good live. And she did "Rich Girl", and rapped Eve's part.
She and her band and dancers and Harajuku girls had a really good chemistry that came across nicely on stage. I especially loved when she introduced them all towards the end during an extended version of "Serious", my favourite Gwen song. That frickin' rocked too, and we got to sing the "S-E-R-I-O-U-S" part. She poked fun at herself and said the song had some really silly lyrics. But lyrics don't matter as long as you're having fun.
She closed the show with "Bubble Pop Electric", sending thousands of bubbles into the air. Good thinking Gwen, because not only does it go with the song, but it's more environmentally friendly than confetti! :D Then she, her band, the Harajuku girls, and the dancers (the dancers are 4 boys) took their bows.
They returned for an awesome encore of "Hollaback Girl" which got the entire crowd on its feet. Gwen was dressed up in her band leader gear, and the band (with the exception of the guitar player) all came out with their drums and performed the shit out of the song. At the end, they brought up a few little girls from the audience who sung along. And then when the song was over, Gwen gave them all hugs and departed the stage, waving and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
So hopefully in the new year Gwen will take a break and rest and relax and have a baby, and then hopefully release a new No Doubt album in 2007, the band's 20th anniversary.
Oh man, this might have been my favourite concert ever, even beating out Britney Spears! I wasn't as close as I was at Britney, but I was still in the first level and could see everything really well. Damn, I just had a really good, fun, entertaining time at the show. Gwen was right: Best Christmas present ever!