No Doubt Greets O.C. Faithful

Where the Beatles used a 1969 rooftop concert in London to bid fans goodbye, “Hello, hello” was the message to the faithful from Orange County Fab Four No Doubt during a free show Thursday atop a Costa Mesa shopping center.

“It’s really nice that they appreciate the fans,” said 17-year-old Huntington Beach resident Becky Ford, her blond hair streaked the shade of pink No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani recently added to her own platinum locks. “I’m sure they could be doing something bigger and better right now if they wanted to.”

On behalf of her bandmates--guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal and drummer Adrian Young--Stefani thanked those fans, many of whom had spent most of Monday waiting outside the Virgin Megastore in Triangle Square to buy their new “Return of Saturn” album when it went on sale at midnight. The first 1,000 customers also got wristbands admitting them to Thursday’s performance.

That made the show the smallest--and the only free performance--the multimillion-selling band from Anaheim is giving on a tour that started three weeks ago in Chicago, and which returns to Orange County on Aug. 5 for a much larger outing at the 15,000-capacity Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. The tour ends a two-year performing hiatus while they were at work on the follow-up to their breakthrough 1995 album, “Tragic Kingdom.”

If the band lost any momentum during the two-year recording process or Stefani any of her status as a pop fashion plate, it wasn’t apparent Thursday as the sea of fans--many of them sporting Stefani-esque hairstyles and togs--tested the endurance of the food-court floor as they bounced to the music on Triangle Square’s top deck.

Stefani also retains her place as a pop idol for very young female fans, judging from the number of 6- to 11-year-old girls riding on the shoulders of their mothers, fathers, brothers or sisters.

“I like the way she sings and I like the way she dyed her hair pink,” said Nicole Schrift, 10, of Newport Beach, her natural brown hair untouched by the neon pink, blue, purple and other colors that dotted the heads of many fans.

Nicole, who was accompanied by her sister, 28-year-old Alex, said she’s been a No Doubt fan for “a long time--since I was 7,” and that she thinks “It would be fun being in front of all those people and singing and making a lot of people happy.”

The crowd squealed as the band took the stage a few minutes after 7, opening with the current hit “Ex-Girlfriend” in the ebbing daylight. Fronds of palm trees swaying in the breeze behind the stage provided a distinctly Southern California setting for the music, which included “Tragic Kingdom” hits “Just a Girl” and “Don’t Speak” as well as several songs from the new album.

Stefani alternately taunted and indulged fans, at one point graciously accepting a couple of satin pillows passed up to the stage, later dousing those in the front rows with water from a plastic bottle. Several in the crowd held up cell phones carrying the music to unseen friends who hadn’t scored wristbands.

The band members took a group bow and exited at the end of the 10-song set.

“I’m a Gwen-a-be,” said pink-haired 19-year-old Ally Rogers of Anaheim, who said she also had tickets to the band’s sold-out show Friday night at Universal Amphitheatre. “I think the new album is really good. You can tell how much they’ve changed--they’re more mature now.”