Forget Madonna: Gwen’s the blond with ambition
By Jed Gottlieb
Thursday, May 24, 2007 - Updated: 12:12 PM EST
The material girl wowed the crowd with a glittering pop spectacle at the packed Tweeter Center last night. No, Madonna wasn’t in town - she hasn’t been the material girl since she (relatively) shunned materialism for kabbalah. Gwen Stefani’s the girl with most blond ambition these days.
Unlike the majority of pop stars today, Gwen wasn’t manufactured by a creatively bankrupt Disney or “American Idol.” Like Madonna, she came from the streets (the suburban streets anyway). She developed her style rocking dirty little Southern California punk clubs with No Doubt.
At last night’s show she combined her punk energy with her growing penchant for the theatrical. As the stage split in two, a giant gold prison cell popped out with a jailed Gwen - all legs, lipstick and platinum hair - singing “The Sweet Escape.” Around her the four Harajuku girls and four male dancers in convict uniforms spun, popped, stepped and flipped. Not quite an extravaganza of “Confessions on the Dance Floor” proportions, but pound for pound as elaborate.
While Gwen doesn’t have Madge’s hits, her two solo albums had enough hooks to fill 100 minutes. “Rich Girl,” “Wind It Up” and “Yummy” got the crowd of mostly teens, tweens and moms squealing with costume changes, choreography and revolving, evolving stage show. Like a true pop diva, Gwen dropped “Hollaback Girl” - her can’t-fail-to-thrill anthem - in after a few filler songs to reignite the set.
Madonna and Gwen part ways when it comes to persona. Madonna’s all about affectation, Gwen’s genuine. For “Cool” she climbed into the center of the crowd with a guitarist and keyboardist in tow to sing surrounded by a paparazzi of camera phones.
Opener Akon smartly avoided incurring the wrath of the soccer moms by skipping his Trinidad shenanigans - Akon’s now infamous for simulating sex with a minor at a show in Trinidad a few weeks ago.
His hits thrilled a fair amount of the crowd - most notably “Don’t Matter” and “I Wanna Love You” - but they were flat and thin, even with some painfully obvious backing tracks filling in the sound. Nobody is advocating he go the illegal and immoral route, but surely he can figure out some way to make his music seem dangerous, or at least more fun.
Gwen Stefani with AKON and LADY SOVEREIGN At the Tweeter Center, Mansfield, last night.
Thursday, May 24, 2007 - Updated: 12:12 PM EST
The material girl wowed the crowd with a glittering pop spectacle at the packed Tweeter Center last night. No, Madonna wasn’t in town - she hasn’t been the material girl since she (relatively) shunned materialism for kabbalah. Gwen Stefani’s the girl with most blond ambition these days.
Unlike the majority of pop stars today, Gwen wasn’t manufactured by a creatively bankrupt Disney or “American Idol.” Like Madonna, she came from the streets (the suburban streets anyway). She developed her style rocking dirty little Southern California punk clubs with No Doubt.
At last night’s show she combined her punk energy with her growing penchant for the theatrical. As the stage split in two, a giant gold prison cell popped out with a jailed Gwen - all legs, lipstick and platinum hair - singing “The Sweet Escape.” Around her the four Harajuku girls and four male dancers in convict uniforms spun, popped, stepped and flipped. Not quite an extravaganza of “Confessions on the Dance Floor” proportions, but pound for pound as elaborate.
While Gwen doesn’t have Madge’s hits, her two solo albums had enough hooks to fill 100 minutes. “Rich Girl,” “Wind It Up” and “Yummy” got the crowd of mostly teens, tweens and moms squealing with costume changes, choreography and revolving, evolving stage show. Like a true pop diva, Gwen dropped “Hollaback Girl” - her can’t-fail-to-thrill anthem - in after a few filler songs to reignite the set.
Madonna and Gwen part ways when it comes to persona. Madonna’s all about affectation, Gwen’s genuine. For “Cool” she climbed into the center of the crowd with a guitarist and keyboardist in tow to sing surrounded by a paparazzi of camera phones.
Opener Akon smartly avoided incurring the wrath of the soccer moms by skipping his Trinidad shenanigans - Akon’s now infamous for simulating sex with a minor at a show in Trinidad a few weeks ago.
His hits thrilled a fair amount of the crowd - most notably “Don’t Matter” and “I Wanna Love You” - but they were flat and thin, even with some painfully obvious backing tracks filling in the sound. Nobody is advocating he go the illegal and immoral route, but surely he can figure out some way to make his music seem dangerous, or at least more fun.
Gwen Stefani with AKON and LADY SOVEREIGN At the Tweeter Center, Mansfield, last night.
(Matt Stone photos)
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