The stage setup at the Toyota Center was very large, which allowed Stefani to roam from side to side as she sang for the crowd and thanked them personally for supporting her, and her new album. Stefani was accompanied by a group of 8 dancers on stage, which definitely kept up the energy on stage as Stefani took many short breaks to change costumes in between songs. I think Stefani’s costume changes made it tough to keep a good vibe going throughout the night since she spent a lot of time off stage changing.

I enjoy a true “performance” just as much as the next guy but the costume changes, etc left a lot of offstage time for Stefani, which really makes it tough to keep the crowd’s attention. In fact, I think she could have sang at least 2 No Doubt songs in the amount of time she spent off stage changing! That would have done a lot more for the crowd than trying to emulate Cher’s style of concerts when it comes to costumes changes and themes.

A highlight of the night was when Gwen introduced Houston’s own rap artist Slim Thug to accompany her on her song “Luxurious”. The surprise duet really went well and the crowd absolutely loved it. It was a good change of pace for the show and was definitely one of high points of her overall performance.

It was published that Gwen Stefani had stated that she would never tour to help promote this album, but as she explained tonight, it was the fans that drove her to touring this year. The fans definitely spoke in volumes by packing into The Toyota Center in order to be apart of tonight’s performance.

The Black Eyed Peas opened up for Gwen Stefani and their show was jam packed with energy, dancing, on stage interaction and great music. Their short opening act left a good impression on the crowd including myself. I was hopeful that Gwen’s show could live up to the standard that BEP set but unfortunately, it could not match the intensity of the BEP show. It is not very often that an opening act can out perform the main headliner, but in the case of Gwen Stefani’s concert, I feel that the Black Eyed Peas did just that.

When the house lights finally came on at the end of the concert and the crowd filed out, I had a couple of negative thoughts about the show. The first of which was the fact that Gwen didn’t perform any of her No Doubt songs. The concert left much to be desired in all other aspects of the performance and I feel that playing a No Doubt song or two would have really made the concert a success. In fact, as I made my way out of the venue I heard many other people mention the exact same thing. It was obvious that I was not the only one that shared this view on her performance.

I personally miss the grungy Gwen Stefani of old…