On the forthcoming No Doubt album, “Return of Saturn,” Gwen Stefani strikes a new, more mature pose at odds with her aggressively assertive past. Now she would have us believe she’s become a deeply traditional romantic who yearns for “a simple life . . . a simple man, so I could be a wife.”
Sure she does.
At the Riviera on Friday, the opening date of a national tour, Stefani made it all into a tease. Vamping like a cross between Betty boop-boop-de-Boop and Blondie femme fatale Deborah Harry, Stefani shimmied her girl-next-door bellybutton, tossed her neon-pink hair and cooed in a come-hither voice only to apply the brakes before things got too intimate. In a new song, “Marry Me,” she turned from seductress yto stalker and flirted with the crowd the same way, waving a fake-fur boa tantalizingly just out of reach of dozens of grasping arms.
Though her voice is thinner than tissue paper, tinged by a Lydia Lunch warble and a wheezy texture that makes it sound like she’s singing from the neck up instead of the chest, Stefani acted like she was first in line when they passed out the personality pills. Whirling and skipping in the opening five-song burst, she stayed on top of the vocals even as the frantic maneuvers robbed her of oxygen; by contrast, a similar aerobics routine reduced teen pop-star Britney Spears to lip-synching only a few nights earlier at the Allstate Arena.
Stefani played the crowd’s enthusiasm like her personal yo-yo, soliciting one fan’s T-shirt, accepting a stuffed animal from another, and generally acting like everyone’s cool big sister–compassionate yet mischievous as she demanded the boys sing, “I’m just a girl in the world,” and they complied. Even when a gym shoe hurled from the audience bomped her on the back of the head, Stefani playfully rolled on her back and purred “ouch” before arising. She gave the impression that she’d weathered far worse, and exuded a control and charisma that suggested she could sell stuff far less palatable than No Doubt songs if called upon.
The quartet will need all her cold-calling skills if it hopes to replicate the success of its previous album, “Magic Kingdom,” which cracked 11 million sales. No Doubt has expanded beyond its ska roots in the Southern California bar circuit to include a wider range of pop influences without sacrificing that bouncing beat. Though its signature hit, “Don’t Speak,” performed as an encore, is a ballad that owes more than a little to Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” No Doubt primarily punches out a zesty update of early ’80s new wave, drawing on the Twin-Tone ska of the English Beat and Blondie’s sassy melodicism.
It’s as lightweight as pop gets, but the frothy personality is underpinned by craftsmanlike melodies and topped by that fizzy, flirting voice. In the flesh, Stefani takes her modest attributes and her band’s workmanlike songs and perfumes them in self-confidence. She may be just a girl in the world, but she still has a job to do–and she does it well.
