Bonus Episode 5: No Doubt: An Unforgettable Reunion at Coachella 

Today on the podcast I am discussing the No Doubt performance at the 2024 Coachella Festival in Indio, California on April 13th, 2024

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Show Notes and Full Transcript

Plays a snippet of “Spiderwebs” from the show

Intro music: Welcome to the Eat Sleep Breathe Music Podcast. Where we talk all things music, I’m your host, Jeanette Kimszal, blogger and music enthusiast. Let’s get started with today’s episode. 

Hey everyone, welcome to the Eat Sleep Breathe music podcast. I’m your host, Jeanette Kimsel. For those of you just joining us, this is a podcast where I talk about different musicians and how their music affects me, and then I play a track of theirs for you to listen to. So you can check it out and form your own opinions as well.

However, today I’m doing something a little different. I’m back with another bonus episode. And if you’re so inclined to share your opinion, I’ll have details where you can leave your comments at the end of the show. 

Today I’m here to chat about the recent No Doubt reunion performance at Coachella. And even though I didn’t attend the show, thanks to technology, I was able to watch it at home.

And I just couldn’t contain my excitement, enthusiasm, and I wanted to share my thoughts about the performance here today. I just have to start by expressing my love for technology. When I learned that YouTube would be streaming the Coachella Festival, I was so excited. I was really disappointed I couldn’t make it to see No Doubt in person.

Originally, when we heard that they were playing the festival, I was all like, Yeah, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go! And then I just never got my stuff together in time. And then, next thing I knew, it was March and April, and the festival was this weekend, and basically dropped the ball on that one. But, I was really excited to see that it was live streaming on YouTube.

And, I just, I can’t help but think how incredible it is, if it was 1990, just out of luck, if we weren’t able to go to the show. So, it’s so cool that they’re doing live streams of festivals like Coachella. I’ve been a fan of No Doubt since 1997. I remember it was the second concert that I ever went to in my life.

The first being New Kids on the Block, and we drove all the way out to Nassau Coliseum, and I remember The Vandals were opening for them. And it was a really exciting show. I think it was like a Sunday night. I remember going to school the next day. I was in like ninth grade and telling everyone that I had seen them and the show was so great.

And just from that time on, we were always such a huge fan of all the albums that came out. And when it was announced earlier this year that they would be playing the festival, I was super pumped. It’s been almost a decade since the band performed together and it was such an exciting time. reunion announcement and it was also speculating, will they get together and tour again?

And this, the answer seems to be no at this point, but maybe something will change in the future. Who knows? I wanted to attend the festival, but living on the East Coast, it’s just a little bit of a logistical challenge. And unfortunately I couldn’t pull it off in time. When I first announced, I was like, Oh, I was really had this idea of, Oh, let me, you know, we can do this.

Take a long vacation. Go to California. And then, I don’t know what happened. The months just fly by. This always happens. Time just goes by too fast. And then, next thing you know, the festival is around the corner. And this light, this year’s lineup sounded interesting. Although I, I was, I saw on social media that some people were calling it for old people because of some of the artists that were performing.

But I, I think it was an interesting mix. It was the first time the festival actually didn’t sell out tickets as soon as they went on sale. So, I don’t know if It’s one of those things where people have been able to get to the festival and they’ve gone to the festival and they’re kind of like, well, I did it and now I don’t want to do it again.

Or maybe. The saturation of people going to concerts after the pandemic slowed down and people aren’t having that FOMO I thought the lineup was good. And I would have been happy to go and see all the artists that I was fans of and artists that I would be interested In seeing and new bands that I haven’t heard of that’s the thing.

That’s really cool about going to festivals is you can always find new music and I thought it was a cool lineup, just looking at the stuff that was streaming on YouTube over the weekend.

So, but again, I, I think it was a bummer not to be able to go there in person, but thanks to technology, it is really  a nice way to just be there without being there. So I’ve been a fan of No Doubt since 1997, but sometimes lose touch when you discover new music or if they haven’t put out music in a while.

It’s one of those things where you listen to it and you don’t listen to it for a little  I haven’t really listened to No Doubt in really, probably a good 10 years. 

According to the internet, the last time that they had played together was back in September 2015 at the Caboo Festival in Del Mar. And I can’t remember if they went on tour.

I don’t remember seeing them. But I do remember the last time I saw them was 2012. They were playing on Good Morning America. I was lucky enough to live right outside of New York. So I hopped on the train at like 5 o’clock in the morning and went to the park where they had all the summer concerts. 

It’s always funny when you go to watch something that’s being recorded for television because they have to play things a number of times.

And it was really, it was just, that was a really fun experience. That was when they were promoting their 2012 album, Push Shove. And they had that song settled down, out, and they played that song and they played some other songs. 

So, the reunion at Coachella caught a lot of fans by surprise because it’s been 12 years since their last album and about 9 years since they performed together.

People were stoked when they made the announcement and I was one of them too. The No Doubt 16-song performance at Coachella was nothing short of hell amazing. At least to me. 

They started with their energetic track, Hella Good, accompanied by this colorful video backdrop of this nostalgic introduction of each of the band members kind of, you know, you see their silhouettes one by one, and then they go into showing clips from the past and old videos of all the different members one by one, introducing each member, and it reminded me of like a TV show.

Throughout the hour and 20 minute set, the band radiated excitement and joy. Gwen Stefani. Has this infectious energy and charisma just shining through the crowd eerily awaiting each song and wanting more and more. 

The band was super pumped and excited smiles plastered across their faces and stefani kept making comments Like I can’t believe we’re here and having just so much love for the crowd I love you! I’m just gonna sit up here and watch my girls sing with me, okay? 

During “Just a Girl,” she also did that whole thing she used to do back in the day with the push ups before the song started, and I was definitely impressed. It was cool to see, but it seemed a little stretched out. It just seemed like it was taking a long time. 

I just felt like I was back in 1997 again and the magnetism of their music and Stefani’s performance as a frontwoman. She has this high energy, she sounded great, and nothing’s changed since the last time I saw them back in 2009. The setlist took you on a journey of no doubts.  including a slew of music from the late 90s to the early 2000s.

They played tracks off of Tragic Kingdom, including “Sunday Morning,” 

Plays a snippet of the track “Sunday Morning”

“Different People.”

Plays a snippet of the track “Different People”

“Bathwater.”

Plays a snippet of the track “Bathwater.” 

“Happy Now.”

Plays a snippet of the track 

“Don’t Speak.” 

Plays a snippet of the track “Don’t Speak”

2000’s Return to Saturn including

“Ex-Girlfriend”

Plays a snippet of the track “Ex-Girlfriend.”

“Bathwater”

Plays a snippet of the track “Bathwater.”

“Simple Kind of life,” which was dedicated to her ex husband Gavin Rossdale. 

Plays a snippet of the track “Simple Kind of Life.”

And songs from 2001’s Rock Steady album, “Underneath It All,”

Plays a snippet of the track “Underneath It All.”

and “Hey Baby.”

Plays a snippet of the track “Hey Baby”

The set also included two covers, Talk Talks, “It’s My Life,” and “One Step Beyond” by Madness. Those were nice additions too. They brought back that whole ska element. That everyone loves about No Doubt. 

Plays a snippet of the track “One Step Beyond”

The Prince Buster classic, “One Step Beyond,” in the vein of madness, was led by Stephen Bradley. And it was the fun little interlude in between the set of Gwen Stefani doing a costume change. Poignant moment in the performance came during Just a Girl as Stefani.

In the beginning, right before she started singing, she was remarking the continued relevance of the song. 

Stefani said, “Is this actually happening right now? Because we’re absolutely, we’re absolutely in the future right now with you guys. Okay? And I want to do this next song with I’m with the band here with No Doubt. We wrote this song back at the Beacon Street House in Anaheim, California. And I feel like, you tell me, but I feel like this song just possibly could be more relevant now than it’s ever been. But you tell me. You tell me.” 

This song was written back in the 90s when she was feeling she had no felt like she was just a girl and had no rights.

“Just a Girl” was always such a popular song and that was the song that also catapulted them into mainstream. And it’s a song that I haven’t listened to in so long and I think the last time I heard it where there was a resurgence of it coming back was when it was I watched Captain Marvel.

I remember Thinking the beginning of Captain Marvel was kind of slow moving, but then once they got into that whole part of the movie where it went into the 90s, and it was just all this nostalgia, and “Just a Girl” was actually in that soundtrack. 

I think that was the first time that I actually had heard it in a really long time, and so it was just something that was put on the shelf for a while, but it really piqued my interest again, and I think that That was pure nostalgia for fans as well.

I was really curious about the crowd in general and how many people know who they were because when they panned the crowd, it definitely seemed like only half of the people were singing. There were a lot of people who were really into it and really excited. And then there were other people who didn’t really look like they knew the music.

And I wonder if a lot of people did actually surprisingly know that “Just a Girl” lyrics. It looked like more people were singing that song. And I wonder if it had anything to do with the crowd. Being in the Captain Marvel soundtrack, because a lot of people like Marvel, and it was also a resurgence of the song.

Another highlight for me was the fact that they did infuse a lot of Ska into the set. It was nice that they went back to 1994 and they did the song “Total Hate 95.” 

Plays a snippet of the track “Total Hate 1995.”

And that song was actually off their Beacon Street Collection album. The song originally featured a duet with Brad Noel, the singer from Sublime, who was also a friend and often performed with the band a lot. This song was also on Sublime’s 1994 album, Robbin the Hood, which also is a really good album if you’re looking for any new albums to listen to.

Adding the song “Total Hate” was a nice touch because not only was it a nice throwback to all the ska music, but it was also a nod to remembering Brad Noel and his anniversary because in 1996 he had passed away, and actually this year marks the 28th anniversary of that in May, on May 25th. It’s those two bands, Sublime and No Doubt, were a big, uh, part of the 90s.

And I just get goosebumps thinking about Sublime and No Doubt. And it’s also interesting to see Noel’s son is back playing with the original members of the group, Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson. And they were at Coachella this weekend. I saw some of their performances on YouTube and it was a really nice tribute to his dad.

And it’s cool that he’s picking up where his dad left off. It would have been, it would have been really cool if they had Noel’s son, if they had Jakob come on stage and sing. The part brad used to sing on the original song another high point of the evening was when Olivia Rodrigo came out and sang “Bathwater” with Stefani.

Her vocals just melted so beautifully with the song, and it was a really cool combo of the two of them duetting on this. I was surprised to know that Rodrigo was actually a really big fan of Gwen Stefani and No Doubt. She had recently declared that “No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani is the prime example of a true artist.”

She told Nylon that she’s been influenced by No Doubt and Gwen Stefani since buying their Return to Saturn album back in 2000 when she was 15, which, wow, makes me feel so old.  Another thing that was cool about the special guest appearance by Olivia Rodrigo was that she was dressed in the whole old school Gwen Stefani outfit.

She had these baggy jeans on with sneakers and she had this little tiny crop top tank top that said I heart ND. But it was just very, So Gwen Stefani, 1997. It was so cute, and they were so cute together, singing, and she looks so excited and happy to be on stage. It must be so awesome to be able to get to sing with someone who’s your musical influence.

They ended the show on a high note with the infectious energy of spiderwebs, leaving fans buzzing with nostalgia and screaming their name. They were so excited. 

For me, personal highlights of the show included “Sunday Morning,”  

Plays a snippet of the track “Sunday Morning.”

“Ex-Girlfriend”

Plays a snippet of the track “Ex-Girlfriend.”

I think it’s just because these songs evoke such fond memories for me. It’s funny, all three of the songs are actually off of the Return to Saturn album, and I almost like that album a little bit better. Not that I don’t love Tragic Kingdom, but I think because, I don’t know, I have this just memories from that album.

There was also that, the song, “New,” was actually on the Go soundtrack, which starred Sarah Polley and Katie Holmes. 

I remember the video for that was so cool. You see Gwen Stefani driving to a rave, and it was just so quintessential late 90s, early 2000s. I don’t know, there’s something about those songs that really just resonate with me and make me so excited.

Even though they played an hour and a half, it still didn’t seem like enough. When they closed with “Spiderwebs,” it was, there was still so much energy going, you in the crowd and in my house. I’m like just dancing around my living room. It was just such a fun performance that I got all this energy in a second wind.

Then I wound up staying up super late, diving into all these old No Doubt performances dating back to early 90s. It was such a nostalgic trip. Another thing I found was this concert from the Continental Airline Arena, which is a place in New Jersey that I remember I saw, no doubt, back in 2002. And I vividly remember attending this show and even getting, we even got to meet the band.

So my, my one friend’s dad’s friend was a photographer and he hooked us up with meet and greet passes. And I remember it was so, it was so awkward. Because, you know, whenever you go into these things, you have two seconds for them to sign something and take a photo. And then you always feel like you have to say something really important and really poignant.

I feel like I never, ever know what to say to anyone. And it’s always so embarrassing. I remember me and my friend, we had just done a hair show. Because we were like, We used to do hair shows back when we were in college to make extra money and we had like a hair color and cut and I remember we were like, Oh, maybe Gwen will notice our hair and say something, but she didn’t say anything.

And I just remember feeling so awkward taking a photo with them and it was just it was really awesome and exciting because I got them to sign the Rolling Stone cover magazine that I had. So I have that at home and I have the photo and it was just one of those silly things. 

We’re silly 20 year olds just thinking that She’s gonna say something about her hair, but, you know, she’s got other things going on. 

It was still a memorable experience and really fun and watching this performance just brought back all these memories.

Yeah, it’s just, oh, it was just such a fun experience and not even being there and it’s, it’s cool that you, we have the capability to watch these things and enjoy these things and I hope other people enjoyed watching the, the event too. 

Even though I know the The question about them going on tour now has been shot down because Gwen Stefani has her own music to promote, but it would be really so awesome if they hit the road again, and I would be so excited to see them live if, if there’s any, if there’s any opportunity for that in the future. I am so there to see No Doubt live. 

Another thing that added to the whole ambience of the performance was that throughout the set during different songs they had all these old home videos of them from on the road in the 90s and they had played that during “A Simple Kind of Life,” which is just adding more depth to it.

To the whole experience, watching them play. And I remember they did that also during their 2009 tour. It was just so emotional watching them play that song and then watching to see all the old videos in the background. This performance was just another thing to remind me about how powerful music is, and I just can’t believe it still evokes all these memories.

And I haven’t listened to any of these songs in probably 10 years. And as soon as they came on, I remembered all the lyrics and it’s just It’s just such a wonderful experience to see a band that you haven’t seen in a while, and it was just so much fun. 

And I just want to thank you for joining me on this journey through No Doubt’s epic Coachella performance, and I’d love to know your favorite No Doubt memories or moments. If you want to share your thoughts, head over to our podcast web page and leave a comment on the post, or you can leave an audio comment at the link on our Spotify page.

No Doubt Coachella Setlist:

  • “Hella Good”
  • “Sunday Morning”
  • “Ex-Girlfriend”
  • “It’s My Life”
  • “Different People”
  • “Hey Baby”
  • “Total Hate ’95”
  • “Bathwater” featuring Olivia Rodrigo
  • “Simple Kind of Life”
  • “Underneath It All”
  • “Happy Now?”
  • “New”
  • “Just a Girl”
  • “Don’t Speak”
  • “Spiderwebs”

More information on the band

For more information on NO DOUBT, you can check out their official website No Doubt dot com.

That is N-O-D-O-U-B-T dot com.

You can also like and follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) at the handle NoDoubt.

That is That is N-O-D-O-U-B-T 

If you’re looking for more new music, subscribe to our podcast so you will get the latest updates on our artist features. 

You can also find more music features on our website at www.EatSleepBreatheMusic.com. That is E-a-t-S-l-e-e-p-B-r-e-a-t-h-e-M-u-s-i-c dot com.

And if you like watching your podcasts you can see these video episodes on our YouTube page.

Thanks for listening and see you in the next episode!

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