No Doubt!

I've been a fan of No Doubt since I was a freshman in college when I heard "Just A Girl" on the radio. At one point during that school year my friends & I tried to get tickets to go see Bush & No Doubt in concert. Being as this was right before the internet really boomed, it didn't work out too well for us. I did eventually get to see Bush while I was still in Pittsburgh but never had the chance to see No Doubt. It somehow never happened until this year. Heather was good enough to buy us tickets the day they went on sale & we just got the cheapest lawn section tickets, but we were going to see them in Irvine, which is in Orange County, where they are from & where Tom Dumont is actually from. So no matter where we were sitting I knew that it would be a fantastic show.

Getting there of course, proved to be adventurous as this was the day I found out the hard way that my gas gage was broken & we ran out of gas on the way to the show. Thanks to Jeff for coming to rescue us & helping to figure out that my car wasn't broken, it was just actually out of gas. This is the first time that's ever happen to me, so news that my car was going to be fine made be incredibly happy & relieved. This set us back quite a bit & it still took us almost an hour to get to Irvine. After parking, which wound up being free (hooray!) & walking unbelievably far to get there, we had missed both opening bands, which I admittedly wanted to see - The Sounds & Paramore. Hey, I paid for the ticket & I doubt I'd ever go see them on their own, so I really wanted to check them out.

The Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, which apparently used to be Irvine Meadows, felt almost like you were going to the fair. There are booths everywhere for food, drink, band merch & there were meet & greet tents & people playing Guitar Hero, etc, etc. I think "Ex-Girlfriend" is being released on Guitar Hero 5 this fall so that explains that. Heather & I got a free picture taken at the State Farm red carpet. Kind of cheesy, but a free picture is always fun! I grabbed myself a pretzel & lemonade & we hiked all the way up to the very top of the hill where the lawn was. I don't think I would ever knowingly buy tickets for this area but it wasn't so horrible. We saw people walking down the hill & sneaking over the fence. The fence was about waist high, not so difficult to hop. And there were people packed in like crazy. We found a little place to sit which wound up being a decent view & on a hill. Once the concert got started though we didn't care. It was so much fun to see thousands of people jumping up & down. The show was a lot of fun. I was super giddy & happy that I was finally getting to see No Doubt after all these years! And of course, that means I was camera happy...






Gwen Stefani was as cute as ever. They were at one point introducing everyone from the band & she saved Tom Dumont for last & told everyone how he used to work at that venue flipping burgers, followed by saying - He got a raise!

She had 3 outfit changes & was a lot better live than I had heard she was. She's seriously someone I've always been jealous of, but I say that in a good way. I'd love to have a better sense of style & fashion. Not to mention I think she's gorgeous!

Here are a couple videos I took. I love "New" & for good measure, "Just A Girl". Gwen does push ups! I rarely if ever tape a whole song b/c I want to enjoy the concert. If you want to see the rest check out my YouTube site.





www.nodoubt.com
the-sounds.com
www.paramore.net