I Ain't No Hollaback Girl, But....

Ok, so. I need to start this blog by saying I love Gwen Stefani. She’s been one of the people I’ve looked up to since I was a kid, and she always will be. I must also preface this blog with this : I understand, as an artist myself, that people evolve as artists and you can’t ask them not to or their art becomes stagnant and unoriginal. I understand this.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way I’d like to point out that the more I hear it the more The Sweet Escape is growing on me. But I’m ready for the return of No Doubt. I miss them and I miss the Gwen that’s a part of a band and not a pop diva. I watched part of the Harajuku Lovers Live concert tonight on MHD….
(*Sidenote* MHD is pretty much the greatest channel ever. All day long it’s music videos, live performances and episodes of Storytellers basically, and I think it’s my favorite channel ever. Because on top of all of, this it’s all in HD!)
Anyway, so I had always accepted as a fan that Gwen wasn’t the strongest of live singers, because for what she lacked in live vocal stamina she made up for as an overall entertainer. I remember when she’d do push-ups on stage and had the crowd yell things like “Fuck you I’m a girl!” and it was great. She interacts so well on stage with the men that she’s been making music with for so long. But the Gwen that’s a solo artist is weak. She prances around on stage in heels and just doesn’t have the same ooompf that she carried with her on No Doubt tours. I prefer the athletic Gwen. I know that she was pregnant with Kingston when that DVD was made and that changes things, but in all of the televised performances of her on her own that I’ve seen she wasn’t pregnant and I’ve never been able to get into it.

The production of that tour was phenomenal and I would’ve given my left arm to be able to document it, I was glad to see that Gabe McNair was on that tour with her. The costumes were fantastic, the LD should get an award, and her dancers were good. But she just wasn’t the Gwen that I loved live with her band.

When she’s not busy having a popstar nervous breakdown and doing crazy things like shaving her head, Britney Spears is a great solo pop entertainer live. But that is because that’s what Britney is, she’s a pop star, it’s the kind of entertainment she was meant for. Gwen wasn’t meant for this forum. She was meant for the blood and sweat that comes with a rock show.

For a while I was drinking some serious Gwen haterade, because I was disappointed in this woman that I’ve grown up holding up on a pedestal, but at the end of the day the opportunity to basically take over the world was there and she jumped on it. And lately I’ve been thinking “Get you some girl!” I love the L.A.M.B. clothes and bags, I think that she’s a fashion icon and will remain one forever. She’s cemented a well earned position in the fashion world. And she didn’t do a line of velour track suits like the rest of the singer turned designers out there. She took her love of fashion seriously and I respect that. She’s on her way to creating a well respected fashion house. And I’ll be damned if she can’t put on a runway show. The initial one was nothing short of absolute genius.

I have fun with the solo stuff and it has it’s place for me as a fan of her and her music. But I’m ready for the return of one of my favorite bands.

I took that photo up there in October of 2002 when I shot No Doubt opening for the Rolling Stones at Turner Field in Atlanta, GA.