The Honolulu Advertiser (Aug. 7th 2009)
No Doubt
Calling No Doubt's return to music a comeback isn't exactly accurate. But after five years of silence from the California-based pop-ska outfit, it sure feels like a comeback.
Maybe it was just our cynical disposition, or maybe we were still wounded from the Smashing Pumpkins' breakup, but truth be told: We weren't buying the whole hiatus spiel.
When the announcement came in 2004 that No Doubt would be taking a break, but that the band would be back together in a few years, the collective "yeah, right" from fans and music critics was all but audible.
Bands say that all the time, and then one of two things happens: They break up, or they get back together and make bad music.
No one likes to be wrong, but guess what? We were wrong. Not only did No Doubt return to music as promised, word on the street is that the foursome -- lead singer Gwen Stefani, drummer Adrian Young and guitarists Tom Dumont and Tony Kanal -- are as good as ever.
"We never really broke up. And we never wanted to be the kind of band that breaks up," said Dumont on the phone from Milwaukee, one of the stops on the current reunion tour.
"What most people don't know is that we've been together for 20 years now. We've grown up together. We know each other really well, and we're very close friends. I think to the world, it seemed like, of course they've broken up, the singer's gone solo. But it's not the way it was between us. We always knew we would play together again. It would be silly not to."
No Doubt went out on the road in June, and did so with little regard for the write-record-tour formula that's become the norm for touring music makers. Instead of touring in support of a new album, No Doubt is doing the touring first, then will make the album later.
"We started getting together at the beginning of last year to write an album, and we spent a lot of time together with the objective of writing songs," Dumont said. "We've actually come up with a great deal of music, but for various reasons, we couldn't pull it together into an album. Toward the end of last year, Gwen came up with the idea of just playing some shows, getting back to being a band again and using the tour to figure out what she wants to say in an album, and what kind of music we want to make."
No Doubt will play two shows at Blaisdell Arena next week, which makes the band three for three: Three national tours, three Honolulu appearances. That's sort of a big deal for us. While most bands ignore us altogether, a few come once or twice in their careers. Few, if any, make the Islands a regular tour stop.
We could almost convince ourselves that No Doubt likes us. And maybe that's not too hard to imagine, considering how much we like them -- the band's 1998 and 2002 Honolulu concerts were sold out (Gwen Stefani's 2007 solo show was also a sellout). This time around, the Aug. 11 show sold out, prompting promoter Tom Moffatt to book a second show for the following night.
Whatever reason they keep coming back, we'll take it.
"It's very much by design that we're visiting Hawai'i at the end of the tour," Dumont said. "It's our little reward. That's what we did on the Rock Steady tour, and it worked really well. It's turning into a tradition."