ndifc

No Doubt Int. Fan Club

Gwen Stefani The Sweet Escape Tour diary 2007

U.S.A

Today was the opening night of Gwen’s The Sweet Escape Tour. To start the day off, my sister and I arrived at the Palms Resort and Casino where we saw Stephen Bradley walking through the casino area. As we walked by we casually exchanged hellos. Approximately 2 hours later we saw Tony/Erin and Adrian/Nina enter the venue. At 5:00pm we were allowed to stand in line for general admission. The doors opened at 8:00pm; however, my sister and I had a ticket scare due to the fact that our ticket broker didn’t deliver our tickets until 7:55pm. People were entering the venue when we finally received our tickets. We still managed to get in front of the stage, but it was to the right side.

Prior to the show we saw several celebrities present for the concert. Tony and Adrian were the first to arrive and sat in an open section with fans. They both were cool about signing autographs and posing for pictures. I was lucky and got a picture with each of them. The next celebrity to arrive was Tommy Lee followed by Paris Hilton and her entourage. Paris posed for pictures with male fans and the owner of the Palms casino. Another celebrity that we saw was Nicolette Sheraton.

The show was scheduled to start at 9:00pm, but didn’t kickoff until 9:30. The show started with “The Sweet Escape“, where the dancers entered from the back of the venue and worked their way towards the stage. The set list included:

The Sweet Escape

Rich Girl

Yummy

4 in the Morning

Luxurious

Early Winter

Wind It Up

Danger Zone

Hollaback Girl

Now That You Got It

Don’t Get It Twisted

Breakin’ Up

Cool

Wonderful Life

Orange County Girl

The stage set up was small due to the size of the venue. For “Rich Girl” the dancers kept the same costumes except the theme changed from prisoner/guard to bank robbers. During “Yummy” Gwen wore a baker’s hat and apron. Before singing “4 in the Morning“, Gwen briefly spoke to the crowd. Other highlights of the show included the transformation of “Hollaback Girl” from the previous tour. The beats and music compilation were mixed differently as well as changes in costume design. Instead of the Harajuku Girls wearing the cheerleading outfits, they wore white wife beaters with their respective HL name. On top of that they wore black cutoff jerseys with their name on it and gray gauchos. Next, Gwen sang “Don’t Get It Twisted”, where she immediately transitioned into a shorter version of “Breakin’ Up”. The last song of the set was “Orange County Girl“. When they returned to do the encore the stage was set up differently. The instruments were moved to the front of the stage for a more closer intimate setting. Gwen began the encore with “The Real Thing”. Gail Ann Dorsey (bass and background vocals) accompanied Gwen with this number. The final song was “What You Waiting For” where the song was more relaxed, and the dancers did their own freestyle dancing opposed to the traditional choreographed routines.

After the show we purchased our merchandise. Before leaving we had the opportunity to get our picture taken with Stephen. He also autographed my ticket stub. There was an after party at the Blue Moon nightclub. However, we didn’t go because we had to drive 5 hours to the next show.

Overall it was a good show. The crowd was really into Gwen and there was a lot of energy both on stage and in the audience.