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Las Vegas Sands (LVS) has picked up the pace of hiring around the Dallas region. The company has newly posted new job openings that include architects, data engineers, and technical support specialists. Notably, one listing highlights the design and implementation of a casino management
LAS VEGAS — “You know, I was thinking,” Gwen Stefani said, looking out at the crowd before her on Wednesday night at Sphere. The singer was maybe an hour and a half into the first show of No Doubt’s monthlong residency at the dome-shaped venue just off the Las Vegas Strip, and now the moment had come for the hit that changed everything for this once-scrappy ska-punk band from Orange County.
“I was thinking about this next song, and I was thinking about Anaheim,” she continued. “Do you know where Anaheim is?”
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The song, of course, was “Just a Girl,” which Stefani said she wrote “out of pure innocence in a time where I was just becoming aware of myself and my surroundings.” She added that she’d always assumed she’d outgrow the song — that someday it would feel disconnected from the life of a woman who went on to become a pop star with a clothing line and a gig on TV. Here she was, though, about to do “Just a Girl” for 20,000 or so fans eager to sing along.
“You tell me if you think it’s still relevant,” she said.
In a built-to-please town where old hits are welcome on any stage — not least Sphere’s, which these days also hosts the Eagles and the Backstreet Boys — the crowd’s verdict was no surprise. Yet this was a more committed look back than might have been expected, with a loose narrative arc tracing No Doubt’s ascent (rather than its peak) and a set list filled with deep cuts well beyond the catchy singles that once blanketed KROQ and MTV.
Beneath a massive wraparound screen that flickered with vintage camcorder-style footage from the early 1990s, the group played “Excuse Me Mr.” and “New” and “Total Hate ’95”; Stefani and her bandmates — guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal and drummer Adrian Young — did “Trapped in a Box,” “End It on This” and “The Climb,” which No Doubt heads on the internet say they hadn’t performed live in nearly three decades.
Then again, for one of those decades, No Doubt wasn’t performing at all. The band made its ballyhooed comeback in 2024 at Coachella, where it delivered a punchy, compact set of hits and brought out Olivia Rodrigo for a guest spot that demonstrated Stefani’s influence — musical, attitudinal, sartorial — on the generation of female pop stars that came after her. (At Sphere, Stefani’s taste in plaids and animal prints was clearly still casting a spell among her admirers.)
No Doubt’s Sphere residency is scheduled to run through mid-June.
(John Shearer)
The takeaway from Coachella was that the band had worked itself back into fighting shape; Stefani, in particular, seemed eager to prove that her years doling out niceties on “The Voice” and dabbling in country music with her husband, Blake Shelton, hadn’t dulled her edge. Here, the band went further, using Sphere’s state-of-the-art environs to imagine itself back in a dingy club or student union.
There were big visual moments, including a simulated trip through a crumbling amusement park — the “Tragic Kingdom” of the group’s breakout 1995 LP — and a bit with a stories-tall cartoon Stefani towering over the room in her fishnets and combat boots. And even with all of the obscurities, it’s not as though No Doubt skipped its best-known songs: “Bathwater” and “Spiderwebs” were bouncy yet propulsive, while “Underneath It All” and “Hella Good” showcased the players’ nimble rhythmic interplay. Stefani’s voice was at its pleading best in “Don’t Speak,” one of the great pop ballads of the last 30 years, and “Simple Kind of Life,” which was accompanied by a video starring Stefani and Kanal acting out some episode from their ancient romance.
Before “Ex-Girlfriend,” which Stefani wrote amid her doomed marriage to Gavin Rossdale of Bush, the singer said, “It gives me — what is it? The PTSD. But because I absolutely adore you guys, I’m gonna suffer.”
Yet this was the chapter of No Doubt’s story — basically the apex of its popularity — that the band seemed least interested in exploring on Wednesday. The impression you got was that Stefani and her pals hadn’t come to Vegas to cruise or to gloat or even to soak up the easy adulation that’s always on offer here; weirdly, they’d come to remember the struggle.
Spotify wants to give historic venues such as the Troubadour and the Paramount — and the independent musicians who play there — a boost.
The steaming giant on Wednesday said it is partnering with the National Independent Venue Assn. (NIVA) to promote local music nationwide, including at dozens of clubs in L.A.
In the yearlong partnership, the company said it aims to boost visibility for independent music venues through its live events feed that will feature links to music from local artists and their performances at clubs in the Los Angeles area.
As part of the initiative, NIVA will choose someone who books the acts for these indie venues to work with Spotify’s editorial team and create a playlist featuring artists.
Spotify is launching the playlist this summer to celebrate and highlight the people shaping independent live music from behind the scenes.
The Regent Theater, Gold Diggers, the Teragram Ballroom and the United Theater on Broadway will be included in the program, Spotify said in its statement.
“Independent venues are the heartbeat of live music,” said Rene Volker, Spotify’s senior director of live music. “They’re where artists take risks, build devoted communities, and where fans discover what they’ll love for the rest of their lives.”
Spotify’s history in the music industry is complex, and it has previously faced some criticism over how it compensates artists whose songs stream on its platform.
Bill Werde, the director of Syracuse’s recording and entertainment industries program, said Spotify’s support for indie musicians could help them during a difficult time.
“It costs money to market, to collect good data and to do most of the things required to break through in today’s attention economy,” Werde said in a statement. “This creates a disadvantage for smaller music companies and smaller artists, who may not have the resources of larger acts and larger venues.”
ACTRESS Zendaya goes against the grain — with a bizarre sand-like outfit.
The US star, 29, dressed the part to promote upcoming flick, Dune: Part Three.
She was joined at CinemaCon by her co-star Timothée Chalamet, 30, and director Denis Villeneuve, 58, for a first look at the sci-fi sequel, which is out in December.
Last month the US actress, wore abridal-style gown at the Los Angeles premiere of her film The Drama.
The movie is about a couple unravelling on their wedding week.
Zendaya has been dating her Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland, 29, since 2021.
She also stars in the recently released third season of TV series Entourage alongside Sydney Sweeney.
Nicole Kidman, 58, and Sandra Bullock, 61, were also at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to promote their new film Practical Magic 2.
Sandra also joined Instagram for the first time — gaining over three million followers in under an hour.
She took a step back from acting in 2022 to spend more time with her family, and has now returned to Hollywood.
