Stefani makes a clean getaway at the ACC

May 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Ashante Infantry
Pop & Jazz Critic

Don't know why Paris Hilton acolytes are petitioning the Guvernator to spare her a jail term for probation violations when time in the clink seems to be the in thing.

No less than style-maker Gwen Stefani opened her show at the Air Canada Centre last night locked inside an albeit gilded cell clad in albeit fetching prison stripes.

The tie-in was a frenetic rendition of "The Sweet Escape," for which her recent album and tour are named. Accompanying her on the song was opening act Akon, the Senegalese rapper who credits his three-year stint in the pokey (for running a car theft ring) as the catalyst to pursue a music career.

Who'd figure that the capacity crowd of screaming tweens and teens (and chaperones) who adore Stefani's whimsical girl-power shtick would also lap up the shirt-baring, profanity-laced routine of the Atlanta hip-hopper, whose second album is called Konvicted (with a smash R.Kelly-esque paean to a stripper) and boasts a logo of crossed forearms with handcuffed/bejewelled wrists?

The tour recently lost U.S. cellphone provider Verizon as a sponsor after Akon was videotaped simulating sex with an underaged girl at a club show in Trinidad.

But Stefani hasn't given him the boot and the pair do have a few things in common: his nasal, sing-a-long hooks and her penchant for nonsense refrains – na na na na na na ("Rich Girl") – and their hardscrabble origins. Hers, of course, was the punk version in suburban Orange County.

But Stefani is definitely more accessible than, say Madonna, to whom she's most often compared. They have similar chameleonic images, but Stefani seems more playful and sexy, rather than deliberate and sexed-up.

Weary-eyed in the close-ups more than halfway through a North America tour, the 37-year-old pop songstress and mom to a year-old son admitted to having an off day.

"I was grumpy, like, 10 minutes ago, for no reason; just being a bitch, basically," she said in a confessional aside.

However, as she noted, it's hard not to have a good time when scrambling across stage in bat wings for a cops and robbers scenario, or doffing a checked coatdress to reveal red sequined shorts.

There were plenty of costume changes from the fashion label boss, but she was rarely off stage, since layering facilitated most of them.

The low point of the 90-minute set was the three consecutive ballads in the first half that resulted in a run to the restroom and refreshment stand. It's not that her voice couldn't carry the tunes, but the overwhelming six-piece band didn't give it a chance. Besides, she's a lot less fun in slo-mo.

Stefani is at her best skipping saucily across stage with her Harajuku Girls sidekicks and showcasing her theatrical flair on uptempo songs such as "Wind It Up" and "Hollaback Girl," when she most resembles a fantasy land escapee.

Her character is a mashup of Alice in Wonderland naivete, Barbie's glam, Miss Piggy's irreverence and Nancy Drew's resourcefulness – simply entertaining.

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