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No Doubt ended their nine-year hiatus with a spirited Coachella set on the main stage on Saturday night. Fronted by punk rocker Gwen Stefani, the iconic ska group harkened back to the ’90s and 2000s with hits like ‘Just a Girl’, ‘Don’t Speak’ and ‘Ex-Girlfriend’. They served as the final act on the main stage before Tyler, the Creator headlined later on Saturday night.
Backed by a powerful brass ensemble, the Orange County heroes kicked off promptly at 9:25pm with their 2001 electro-rock hit ‘Hella Good’. Stefani – who is enjoying a “simpler kind of life” following her marriage to country music star Blake Shelton – appeared glamorous Tank girl in tattered plaid, ready to rock with the same group of guys she first played with in 1986. (And some of the same instruments, too: founding guitarist Tom Dumont held a guitar during their performance of “Hey Baby. “)
No Doubt made sure to treat die-hard fans to deeper cuts in their catalog, including ‘Happy Now?’ and ‘Different People’. They even played “Total Hate 95,” a song the band recorded with the late Sublime singer Bradley Nowell — whose band resurfaced earlier in the day with Nowell’s son, Jakob, at the helm. (If this ska-punk double feature doesn’t inspire a revival of the genre on the radio this year, it’s hard to say what will.)
Olivia Rodrigo broke away from his ongoing Gut world tour to join No Doubt for a spirited rendition of their 2000 ska-pop hit, “Bathwater,” from their album Saturn Return. Rodrigo cites the record as a major influence on her songwriting.
“Gwen was singing about being a woman moving through this world with details I’d never heard put to music before,” Rodrigo recently said of Stefani in an interview with Nylon. “There’s so much heart in every word she says, and every song feels like it’s ripped from the diary of the coolest girl you know.”
The pop-rock princess arrived wearing a circa-1996 Stefani uniform: Converse sneakers, navy blue comfy pants, and a white No Doubt muscle shirt with red bra straps peeking through. After the song ended, the two divas giggled and skipped backstage hand-in-hand, leaving the band to entertain the crowd with a reggae-rock interlude.
“Hey Tony, I thought we should dust off some old shit!” Stefani told founding bassist Tony Kanal upon his return. Anaheim’s players burned even more A tragic kingdom tracks, including the 1995 anthem, “Just a Girl” — which has seen a resurgence this past year on TikTok, bringing the music to a younger Gen-Z audience. Stephanie showed off her hard-earned fitness by doing 10 push-ups on stage before leading the crowd in a roaring sing-along. In keeping with a tradition she’s maintained since the 1990s, Stefani reserved a special call-and-response to the chorus — “I’m just a girl!” — from the men in the audience.
While Stefani enjoyed a prolific solo career after her No Doubt days—and the remaining members formed the supergroup Dreamcar with AFI’s Davey Havok—the band kept the set to strictly No Doubt material. After cooling down with crowd-pleasing ballads like “Don’t Speak” and “Underneath It All,” No Doubt finished their high-octane set with “Spiderwebs,” before holding hands to share a sentimental final bow. “I owe you a big, fat thank you!” Stephanie told the crowd.
No Doubt’s return was perhaps the most surprising entry on this year’s Coachella bill, considering how long it’s been since their last appearance. They haven’t released a new album since 2012 Pushing and shoving, the reunion effort that ended their first hiatus, and they haven’t staged a full tour in even longer. (Their last live performances before that were a few dates in 2014 and 2015.)
It remains unclear if the Coachella reunion is another one-off or if they plan to perform more concerts in 2024. As Stefani said people back in January: “We haven’t really figured out the next steps of how we’re going to do this, but we’re all so excited.”
