Concert Review: No Doubt

All right, y’all. I need to stay up to get my second chance at securing Céline Dion tickets for May 2027 in Paris. They go on sale at 10:00 a.m. … in Paris, which is 1:00 a.m. here. So I have time to write about my experience seeing No Doubt a week ago at the Sphere in Las Vegas! Apologies in advance: this page will take a long time to load because there is a lot of media on it.

As far as venues go, the Sphere gets a 9.5 out of 10. The traffic flow was flawless, concessions and merch were easily available with several locations available for each, bathrooms were nearby and had the live music being played in them, and, most importantly, the audio-visual presentation was spectacular. I would say that the visuals were so impressive that they take away from the audio experience. Which is why the Sphere has almost exclusively hosted bands that are well past their prime, in greatest-hits residencies. I will say, the reason for it not being a 10/10 is that because of the shape of the venue, sound has to travel an awful long way before it reaches the upper part of the arena. It led to quite a bit of distortion.

Why No Doubt? They were my absolute favorite band in middle school and early in high school. They headlined my very first concert (opened by Garbage and the Distillers!) when I was 14, in 2002. I saw them again in 2004 with Blink 182. I had 19, nineteen, No Doubt posters in my bedroom. Gwen Stefani was the perfect cover for little closeted Alexis. As my friend Ryan put it, I didn’t go to this show for modern-day Alexis, I went for a past version of myself. And that’s okay! And even cathartic.

Gwen’s descent into potential MAGA-dom and Christian rebrand has been a major source of strife in my life. I’m well over my fandom of a band who hasn’t released a studio album in 24 years (we don’t speak of the atrocities committed on their 2012 album Push and Shove, which wrongfully received some positive reviews), but to have a figure I devoted so much time and energy in my youth to turn into someone I don’t really like anymore is sad. It felt a little vindicating that Gwen’s voice and performance was far and away the worst part of the show last week. The three men—Tom, Tony, and Adrian—all look and sound fantastic. I really dug Adrian’s whole Boy George aesthetic. 

That being said, I still love their songs, and I have no issue with the rest of the band. So I paid way too much money to go see them at the Sphere, a venue I’ve really wanted to see since it opened. I could never get tickets for the Backstreet Boys, who played a similar role in my life that No Doubt did, just earlier on. 

Okay, on to the actual show. I’m going to post a lot of videos and photos because the visual component of the Sphere really needs to be seen to be believed. I can’t even describe it. I’ve been to several shows with very impressive visual components—Björk, Tool, and Nine Inch Nails come to mind—but never anything even close to this. It was so impressive that they ran a disclaimer saying “This is not AI” to hedge the disbelief. 

The setlist, notably, was almost identical to the last time I saw No Doubt, in 2004. It really was a greatest hits setlist, which isn’t surprising for a band with no new music. It just so happens that their greatest hits are very good. I am strongly of the belief that No Doubt’s album The Singles 1992-2003 is a great stand-in for listening to all five of their canon studio albums, the first two of which were released independently. 

The sheer size of the visual space made for some very creative showpieces. There was art of many different kinds, from yearbook-style photo montages, to archival video, to geometric blasts, to modern video art. Unlike some other pop and rock shows I’ve seen, where they show pre-recorded content on the video screens in between acts, the Sphere has the technology to do live compositing, combined with video art and effects. It’s amazing. 

I also really loved the audience participation portion of the evening, which actually happened twice, in which Gwen called several audience members on stage for hugs, photo opportunities, and various other light fan service. It made a greatest hits residency by a long-dormant band feel personal and special. They also, in a way I’m still not certain about, dropped foam oranges from the ceiling. Apparently, there were not nearly enough of these for everyone in the venue, and I saw some woman trying to sell hers for $100 after the show. One fell right on my head, and it was way cheaper than a $75 t-shirt. 

I’m not going to post all of my videos. There are just too many of them. But I’ve picked and chosen several of them, along with my favorite still photos. 

I’ll first post the two intro videos that started out the show, to showcase the video capabilities of the venue. 

The performance for “Just A Girl,” from 1995 album Tragic Kingdom, was a favorite, for sure. You can hear me singing along to both the “guys” and “girls” portion, a privilege of being nonbinary. It’s been 30 years and it’s still a great song. And the visual accompaniment is super impressive and fun.

At the beginning of “Underneath It All,” from 2002’s Rock Steady, you can hear me say “oh, shit!” on video because the visual element was so intense and vivid. 

“Ex-Girlfriend,” from 2000’s Return of Saturn, is also still a great song. I recorded a clip of the song, and then took a second video because the visual appearance of the lyrics was so cool-looking.

The finale was “Sunday Morning.” I swear that everyone in the venue thought that gigantic orange was about to pop out and engulf us all. And later, we all spun around in the tunnel with the orange slices getting us all sticky. Almost. 

It’s easier to watch this show than for me to describe it, so enjoy many photos below, and their 2003 singles album. It was a fascinating show. I felt wistful throughout, remembering the good times spent enjoying No Doubt, and the rest of the times around that time that were pretty much all bad. They were a focus for me, something that I could enjoy, everything and everyone else be damned. But in the 22 years since I last saw them, I’ve changed and grown quite a bit. I do not ever feel the need to see No Doubt again. I’ve grown up. It was an extremely lovely experience to get to relive this portion of my youth a little bit, especially at such an amazing venue.