*** NO DOUBT, “Live in the Tragic Kingdom,” Interscope

No Doubt’s doubters may dismiss the commercially huge band as little more than a faddish gimmick, but credit these leaders of the bubbly ska-pop pack with having made a fairly gimmick-free concert video. Culled from a two-night hometown stand last spring at the Pond of Anaheim, “Live in the Tragic Kingdom” straightforwardly captures No Doubt’s band-on-the-run energy and Gwen Stefani’s marvelous features and hammy trouper’s ethic. It’s sparing with the cliched slow-motion effects and dizzying pan-the-house crowd shots, and resists the temptation to cut from the dazzling Stefani to close-ups of her legions of fashion followers.

If nothing else, “Live in the Tragic Kingdom” proves that while the Stefani navel makes for a good conversation piece and fashion hook, it’s her face that makes her a star--both for its beauty, and her ability to mug like Lucille Ball in comic moments, or to look like a tragically winsome old-time leading lady during her big heartbreak ballad, “Don’t Speak.” It also proves that No Doubt needs to write another album of hooky, fun songs, to avoid the dullness that sets in (especially during a very slow start) when the material falls off from the band’s brisk, catchy peak.

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