Enjoy my free mini-zine of the most emotional No Doubt show I’ve seen. And I’ve seen them all.
The Las Vegas Sphere show and No Doubt Experience at the Venetian, with the VIP experience hosted by Vibee, was just slightly better than the Rock Steady tour where Gwen ran up to me in the front and we got a blurry Olympus group photo together that I hope to relocate on my disk drive one day. I’ve never been to a No Doubt concert and NOT been in the pit where I can jump and cry and make eye contact with a band that literally sang my emotions just as I experienced them throughout my Just a Girl life.
I won my first No Doubt CD in 1992 by calling into my local radio station as a child; how my sister and I played it on repeat during our dance parties using none other than my dad’s 80s sound system and turntable setup that SHOOK the house. I wondered if I could ever find my voice as a lost youth while I screamed and listened to the Tragic Kingdom album on repeat. I cruised around blasting Staring Problem with my best friends in my yellow VW Beetle after school. I felt like my emotions were understood as I listened to Rock Steady under my Hurley hoodie during keyboard class after my boyfriend (and future ex-husband) left me again. Just in time to relate to how much I craved a partner that GOT ME. Because it really wasn’t all In My Head, but I still needed him to say the right words when he talked to me. I needed everyone to. Or maybe I needed none of the words on the days when I went mute.
I screamed Ex-Girlfriend as my high school sweetheart told me I wasn’t worth his time. I cried to Magic’s in the Makeup when I felt like an imposter. I won a singing competition by belting out The Climb as I pushed myself to sing in the general public for the first time.
I’ve also seen every Gwen concert, just not in the pit. Of course, her songs are not the same pop-punk-mosh vibe but still so dear to my heart. However, her divorce album happened aroound the time of my own divorce and she started dating her new partner a few years around when I started dating my own second husband. I also desperately wanted children. Her music was released as a sound track to my life. I wanted a Simple Kind of Life. I wanted all the things I didn’t have as a child. I took my daughters to see the Truth tour because I had shared so much of her music with them and finally had secured this beautiful, blended family that I dreamed of.
As I’ve aged, I’ve realized how much I’ve neglected telling and sharing all of the experiences that added spice and odd sentiments into the weirdo recipe that is me. I’m not ashamed, but I used to detest bragging. And I thought it was all bragging. All the social media posts. All the snapshots and obsessively-worded captions. All the selfies and vlogs. But it’s not bragging. It’s sharing. Real sharing. Not AI. And you’re still the peoople I love sharing with. Even if the blogisphere is done–zines are actually now in style again. Can you believe it? Maybe blogs will return, too. Old school websites are! But until then, I finally have my Adobe Creative Suite computer back and it’s all over for all of the blank canvases Miseducated holds.
Thank you Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont, Adrian Young, Eric Stefani, Gabriel McNair, and Stephen Bradley.
