Any of the touchstones you might associate with No Doubt — their Orange County upbringing, their Tragic Kingdom breakthrough, their skater-influenced style, their intraband-romance-fueled lyrics, their Jamaica-inspired recordings — were put on supersize display during the first show of their Las Vegas Sphere residency on Wednesday night (May 6). And at the front of it all was Gwen Stefani, who is officially the first female headliner of the state-of-the-art venue, following a string of classic rockers, dance producers, country stars and boy banders taking the stage since Sphere’s September 2023 opening.
With her powerful live vocals and command of the stage, Stefani — along with longtime bandmates bassist Tony Kanal, drummer Adrian Young and guitarist Tom Dumont — succeeded in remaining a focal point of the night, despite stiff competition from the floor-to-ceiling screens. But when you have generational hits like “Just a Girl” and “Don’t Speak” at the ready, you can always hold your own.
No Doubt leaned into that Tragic Kingdom era in the setlist — performing 10 of the 1995 album’s 14 tracks, which accounted for nearly half of the two-hour, 21-song concert — but they also deployed four songs apiece from their turn-of-the-millennium albums Return of Saturn (2000) and Rock Steady (2001). The setlist featured an unexpected string of ballads as well, starting with Tragic Kingdom‘s “The Climb” — which the band played for the first time since 1997 — bringing the tempo back a couple of songs later with their hit 2003 Talk Talk cover “It’s My Life.”
As the “ANAHEIM CALIFORNIA 1987” sign that greets concertgoers once they get inside the Sphere promises, this is a band nearly 40 years in the making that has an arsenal of hits — and now they have the mind-blowing visuals to match. Below, find Billboard‘s seven favorite moments from night 1 of No Doubt’s Sphere residency.
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The Anaheim References
This band clearly has not forgotten where they come from, with references to their hometown running throughout the night – starting with that “ANAHEIM CALIFORNIA 1987” sign surrounded by wooden crates of oranges, as well as posters and ticket stubs from local pre-fame concerts.
The O.C. references ramp up with the opening number, the title track from Tragic Kingdom (whose title is a play on “The Magic Kingdom,” a nickname for Anaheim’s main attraction of Disneyland). As Gwen narrates before the song, “Once upon a time, in a land 254 miles away, where oranges grow on every tree, some kids found each other and started making some music in the shadow of the Tragic Kingdom. This is our story.” The Sphere visuals then go spiraling inside the flesh of an orange, before we emerge in an amusement park, on a roller coaster ride into madness.
Oh, and speaking of oranges…
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It’s Raining Oranges
Taking a page from the mega-popular Wizard of Oz screenings at Sphere, instead of the foam apples that rain down on moviegoers during the film’s orchard scene, during a trip to the orange grove for “Don’t Speak,” foam oranges fall from the sky instead. The branded citrus boasted the message “No Doubt Live at Sphere!” and have a fly sitting on them, as a nod to the tragic part of this kingdom.
Another fun callback for “Don’t Speak”: Gwen’s updated navy-and-white polka-dot shirt dress from the music video, this time dressed up with some Sin City sequins.
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Flipping the Gwen & Tony Script
One of the most successful visuals of the show is during “Simple Kind of Life,” when we see notorious intraband exes Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal on a dinner date, in a simpler time. Suddenly, the roof starts peeling up, as a giant version of Gwen looks wistfully on at the way they were.
But just when you think this is another chapter of the Gwen and Tony saga (see: “Don’t Speak,” or the opening verse of this very song), we cut to Gwen climbing into bed with guitarist Tom Dumont and giving him a kiss, followed by Gwen greeting drummer Adrian Young at the door as he returns to their home. All the while, Giant Gwen looks longingly at these domestic scenes, and we realize this isn’t about Tony; it’s about Gwen’s life as a famous rock star being at odds with her dreams of family life.
Of course, we know how the real-life story turned out. When Stefani sang the 2000 lyric “I always thought I’d be a mom,” the Sphere crowd cheered, knowing that she now has three children and was able to have both.
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Nostalgia Grounded in the Present
For both “Spiderwebs” and “Just a Girl,” instead of simply projecting scenes from the songs’ iconic music videos, No Doubt filmed brand-new visuals as their modern-day selves (ranging in age from 55-58) wearing the same styles they sported in those MTV favorites. It created a nostalgia, but also an appreciation for where the quartet is now and how hard they’re still rocking nearly 40 years later. Plus, since the visuals showed the band in the present, they created the illusion that they were just capturing the live performance on the stage below, as opposed to being pre-taped.
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Gwen’s “Just a Girl” Girl Group
For the second-to-last song of the night, the band played “Just a Girl,” the hit that put them on the map. And after Stefani first had the men in the crowd shout the famous “I’m just a girl” refrain, she enlisted a group of women to do the same, ranging from Gwen’s tween twin to adult fans dressed up as multiple eras of the frontwoman. After a call-and-response with the group, Stefani wrapped things up by declaring: “I’m just a girl in Vegas!”
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“Hella Good” Dance Party
“Since we’re in Vegas, can we dance together?” Stefani asked the crowd before kicking off “Hella Good.” The answer was a resounding yes, as the band got fans on every level of the Sphere out of their seats and on their feet for the 2002 Rock Steady single. “Sunday Morning,” the final song of the night, might have been the sing-along of the night, but “Hella Good” was the dance-along winner.
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The Undeniable Visual Motifs
Beyond the oranges throughout the night, this residency proves just how strong the band’s visual branding is and always has been. Without being told to, the audience knew to wear the skater-favorite black-and-white checkerboard pattern, yellow and red plaids, houndstooth, and any other patterns associated with No Doubt to the first night, and all of these motifs were also deployed in the Sphere visuals. At one point, during “New,” videos of the group were projected from within patches on a series of fabrics. Another time, for “Total Hate ’95,” tiny band buttons covered the screen like they pepper a jean jacket, hyping up No Doubt’s own logo alongside some of their heroes including The Police, Pet Shop Boys, UB40, Squeeze, Madness, The Clash, Adam and the Ants, Elvis Costello and the Attractions and Blondie. And the most prominent example: the stage blanketed in the black-and-white checker pattern that covered everything from the souvenir cups to the Vibee No Doubt Experience VIP lanyards to the Sphere itself — albeit in an orange-and-white alternative.
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No Doubt Sphere Dates
May: 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16, 21, 23, 24, 27, 29, 30
June: 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13
