Gwen Stefani - MEN Arena - 22/9/07 by James Ellaby

There can't have been many side projects as successful as Gwen Stefani's self-described solo 'dance phase', but with the rest of No Doubt currently working away on a new album in the studio and waiting for her to join up with them, The Sweet Escape Tour certainly signals the end of it in the short-term. With a sold-out show at the massive MEN Arena, she's certainly going out with a bang, and genuinely seemed overwhelmed at times, no doubt (pun only slightly intended) fully aware that her day-job band would probably have struggled to fill such a venue - at least before her solo albums. But those kind of thoughts can wait for now, because Stefani's decision to end this phase of her career by releasing a second 'dance' album has definitely paid off, and the crowd eagerly awaiting her, after a typically colourful, sparkly and energetic performance from Lovefoxx and CSS, is very different from a No Doubt crowd. There's lots of young girls, all of whom are later incited from the stage to chant 'this shit is bananas', but apart from that, it is of course a very different kind of show, with Stefani having slipped comfortably into the role of pop queen, backing dancers, costumes changes et al. Having been performing on stage for over 20 years (No Doubt started out in 1986), Stefani is a very confident and easy-going live performer, and she engages with the crowd throughout, whether strolling to the side of the stage for a chat, popping up on a little stage near the back of the arena, or quite literally going for a walkabout through the stands during Cool. Ironically the last person your reviewer saw doing this at the Arena was actually Stefani's tour guitarist Warren Fitzgerald, back when The Vandals were supporting Pearl Jam in 2000. Of course, there was one slight difference. He was naked. Moving on, the show gets off to a flying start, with the band appearing on a raised platform on stage - featuring Fitzgerald and a couple of long-time No Doubt tour personnel Gabe McNair and Stephen Bradley - playing the opening notes of doo-wop-inspired The Sweet Escape, while the Harajuku Girls race around the crowd in convict suits trying to evade some policemen. The band's platform meanwhile splits in two with a cage being pushed forward in between them and a prison-striped Stefani bouncing out to start the song. Unsurprisingly, the crowd go crazy. Gimmicks like that continue throughout, with the prison cage becoming a bank vault for Rich Girl and some green steps with plastic sheep representing the Austrian mountains for The Sound Of Music-sampling Wind It Up, while Stefani and the male and female backing dancers must have about five or six different costume changes at least. But while there's always a lot going on up on the stage, all eyes are always on the star, who dashes round the stage like she'd explode if she stood still for more than a couple of seconds. No wonder a towel keeps being thrown to her in between songs... And the songs are very good too, which is, after all, why she is able to fill the Arena. With just two albums to work from, there is surprisingly little filler and no hint of throwing in a Don't Speak or Hey Baby to ramp up the hit-factor. Whether it's ballads like Early Winter or 4 In The Morning or edgier dance tracks like Yummy or the aforementioned - and very critically divisive - yodelling in Wind It Up, it all goes down well and is performed pretty perfectly, as you'd expect from a singer and a band with so many years experience of playing 'proper' rock shows. That's the difference really between a Gwen Stefani show and something someone like Madonna (who Stefani has borrowed so much from throughout her career) would put on. While it's all very pre-planned and methodical - as it has to be with so much going on - she still manages to make it feel quite natural and unmechanical, and a lot of has to come from her background in No Doubt. It will be very interesting to see how they fare with this new album when she joins up with them again, because this little diversion for her has pretty much overshadowed them entirely, and if the reunion is less successful, the temptation has to be there for her to make this a permanent move. If not, she's certainly finishing it on a high.
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