No Doubt Takes Over Opium Den for Backyard Anniversary Concert

About 7 million albums ago, a little known Orange County band was generally found performing its heart out in local clubs. The band was No Doubt, but that was before “Tragic Kingdom” was snatched up by every kid with a few bucks and the 10-year-old pop group was sought out by bigger venues. The band returned to its roots on Monday night, when it performed an unannounced midnight show at the Opium Den in Hollywood, in tribute to the first anniversary of the popular local Monday night live music club Zeke’s Backyard (promoted by Zeke Piestrup, the KROQ deejay who was the first to play No Doubt’s “Just a Girl” single).

The sold-out, less-than-standing-room-only affair was viewed by an interesting mix of rock’s working stiffs, including the Wallflowers’ Jakob Dylan, Poe, Rage Against the Machine, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and 311--a band that also performed a secret show at Zeke’s last year--plus Tori Spelling, Alyssa Milano and Natasha Henstridge.

No Doubt’s set highlights included a cover of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” and a tribute to Sublime, which lost its lead singer Bradley Nowell in ’96. Of course, our reportage wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention what lead singer and fashion icon Gwen Stefani was wearing: Sporting a pair of white Adidas, black khakis, a blue-striped flannel with her blond locks twisted up in bobby pins, she was every inch the home-girl pinup. . . .

Across town at the Viper Room, the original members of the Knack were tearing it up on stage for a crowd that included a grinning Ashley Hamilton (the once Mr. Shannen Doherty), Fawn Hall and the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones. After 18 years, the old hits sounded good but what was up with lead singer Doug Figer’s puffy shirt? . . .

Ska is all over the Southland map right now, so put these dates on your planner: Friday at the Whisky: Isaac Green & the Skalars, Monkey, Mobtown and Los Hooligans; Saturday at the Claremont Youth Center: Germany’s Loaded and Las Vegas’ Ovaltine. Also, the Allentons and Phist of Phurious are scheduled to play on April 19 at the Sacred Grounds coffee house in San Pedro and the Opium Den on April 24.