No Doubt opening for Neil Young

This was my very first No Doubt concert. And I must say that I was pretty exited. Just a couple of months before the gig, I had heard ”Just A Girl” on the radio, and was addicted right away, heading for the nearest shop to buy the single, followed by the album.

This time, No Doubt should be the opening act for ”Neil Young”, and it was their first appearance ever in Sweden. I guess most of the people there was only there for the headliner, as ND was pretty unknown by that time. I was there only for No Doubt of course.

The venue was called ”Naval Museum” and was an outdoor stage, located next to a museum naved ”The Naval Museum”. A place very close to the innercity of Stockholm, and still very wildish with its forests surronding making a very nice enviroment. Still only 5 minutes from Stockholm city with bus.

I guess there was approximately around 5-8000 attending there, with at least a couple of hundred sitting outside the venue, as you could hear the show almost as perfect outside. There was only a huge wall separating the venue from the entrance.

The show started off pretty well, and the Swedish audience could for the very first time see the wonderful appearance of Gwen Stefani. Boring old men was staring with their arms crossed, looking not to happy. And there was only action in the very first front rowes. The reason was as I mentioned earlier that ND was just a support band to ”Neil Young”.

But then something happend, as the first chords to the ”Just A Girl” song entered the hot and humid air. The crowd reacted, and everybody seemed to recognize this song from the radio. The athmosphere immidiataly became much better, and I guess that the band felt happier aswell.

Then they continued with the rest of their set, and I must say that the whole band became a bit wilder than on TV running all over the stage, and as they finished the set I guess they were kinda satisfied.

I had a great time, and started to look forward to the next gig with them. I actually only saw two songs with ”Neil Young” before leaving. He wasn’t really my kinda style of music, but man whatta evening!!!