My family had just moved to Brazil, and I had to beg my parents to let me go to a music festival with all of my new high school friends. It was going to be the first time I’d be going to a show without them supervising me.
They were reluctant, but after chatting with other parents, they all agreed that it was time for my group of 13-year-old girlfriends to experience some independence. So they dropped us off at the stadium’s door and told us to be back by midnight.
I was thrilled. I was seeing my favorite band, No Doubt. My friends were thrilled about the main act, David Bowie.
Almost 30 years later, I saw No Doubt again at The Sphere.
I took a solo trip
When I saw that No Doubt was coming back with a residency at The Sphere, I was thrilled. Not only had I been wanting to go to The Sphere for a show, but having No Doubt play felt like a full circle.
I left my three kids and my husband at home and decided to make it a girls’ trip with one of my best friends. That alone made me feel like I was a teenager again.
We planned fancy meals and pool hangs to catch up around the main event. It was refreshing not to have to think about snacks, carry water bottles, or deal with meltdowns for a couple of days. It really made me feel like myself again, and not just a mom.
The anticipation had me on edge
On days leading up to the show, my nerves were at an all-time high. I prepped outfits (with checkered Vans included, of course) and looked at prices of merch online to see what I wanted to get.
I also saw online that people were complaining about the set list, but after finding it on Apple Music, I was confused about what the criticism was. This show was OG No Doubt. The same No Doubt I saw back in the 90s.
Of course, some things had changed, though. Gwen Stefani’s religious statements disappointed some longtime fans, who felt she was choking on her contradictions. Tom Dumont shared he was diagnosed with parkinson’s shortly after the band announced the residency.
There was no doubt (pun intended) that we weren’t young anymore.
The show was the first one to make me cry
The Venetian hotel, which connects to The Sphere, was packed with women around my age in their best 90s punk outfits. There were tons of plaid, space buns, checkered Vans left and right, and so much excitement.
The Sphere is a wild experience on its own. Walking into the general admission area took my breath away. It’s huge, a little overwhelming, but totally impressive. The screens projected images of the band from decades earlier, along with posters and mementos from their earlier shows.
When the band came on, right on time, and the first chords of the guitars blasted (it is very loud in there), my entire body turned into a giant goosebump. It was happening, all the anticipation, and all these decades had passed; I was experiencing them again, live.
It was the first time ever that I’ve cried at a show. All the memories of what the band has gotten me through, the heartbreaks, the indecisions, the feeling like I never really fit in, in the expectation that people had of me.
But here I was, married, with kids, with a job, in a country that I never imagined in a million years would give me citizenship, and for a second, I felt like I made it. After all these years, despite going to the beat of my own drum, I became who I was meant to be.
I left the venue with no voice, exhausted legs, but ready to do it all over again the next day. Turns out that 13-year-old me and 43-year-old me are so different, yet so the same.
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