Gwen Stefani – Sweet Escape In Toronto.

Gwen dropped by the ACC last night along with Lady Sovereign and Akon as opening acts.

The whole show got under way at 7:30 sharpish and even though the place was only half seated at that point (lots of people were still milling about outside) the pint sized Ms. Sovereign put forth a really fired up set. At one point she was rapping so fast that she sounded like a professional auctioneer. Well done indeed, will be keeping my eyes on this one. I especially liked the song "Love Me or Hate Me". She comes across as an anti-Avril Lavigne peppered with the attitude of the Clash. Very refreshing and cool.

Next up was uber-popular Senegalese reggae-rapper Akon. Now with more people seated, he and his DJ really got the place hoppin. He went through his current hits in a set, which lasted about 30 min. Sometimes it was hard to hear the words because all the girls were screaming so loudly, especially when he doffed his shirt for them.

Then came Gwen.
She put on an excellent show for 90 minutes with multiple costume changes and let me just say she’s even better looking in person. This girl is fit fit fit with killer abs. I must say though, she was looking a little tired but she didn’t let that get her down. It’s understandable, she’s half way through a tour and she did admit that she was in a bitchy mood before the concert. One nice move was when she went right by me on the way down to the back of the house where she promptly jumped up into the audience at three locations while she sang the song “Cool”.
Funny thing, people in other cities that have seen this concert all say that Gwen can’t sing her ballads properly and that they are the weak point of the show. Not the case last night, she handled all of them perfectly and the only thing I noticed was that half the audience sat down. But hey, not my fault half the people can’t stand up for more than 15 minutes at a time. I guess that concerts are all measured these days on their ability to make you leave your seat, which is complete shite anyway. The concert and Gwen were excellent. End of story.

Gwen also confessed that her next album would be with No Doubt. All in all it was a great evening. Set list is included below.

"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"

"Cool"

"Wonderful Life"

"Orange County Girl"

Encore:"The Real Thing"

"What You Waiting For?"