Stefani;Gwen Harajuku Lovers L

Okay, a lot of the reviews posted already review the tour. It's theatrical, it's high in energy and pop, it was good. As for the DVD, it's pretty good. Instead of just straight live footage, the DVD is filmed like an actual film. Great quality, the sound is good.

The tour draws its strength from Gwen's energy and ability to move around and keep the concert going. Not just that but she actually sings live (which seems rare for a lot of artists these days). The costumes, they're okay. Nothing breath taking. I thought the lighting was a bit dark during the entire concert, but that may be a personal complaint. It's fast paced, there isn't any time wasted in the usual speeches in between numbers and long waits for costume changes. The stand out numbers are "What You Waiting For?", "Orange County Girl" (which has a rock-mix to it instead of the straight R&B mix on her new album), and the encore "Hollaback Girl." The dancing and choreography is pretty good as well.

The box boasts of having bonus features. The mini tour documentary is okay but nothing spectacular. It simply shows the behind-the-scenes actions of Gwen contemplating touring with the album and all that it took to put the tour together. The "meet the band" feature is pointless in my opinion. In the tour she acknowledges the band members and dancers, and this is just a still screen with the person's image and a mini bio with small text that could have been left off. The "Real Thing Camera Remix" is okay. It simply shows more shots from the video that plays behind her during the concert. There was news that there would be a release of the "Serious" video that was filmed ... but it didn't make the DVD release. Unfortunate, it would have made the bonus features a bit stronger and more interesting.

In all, it was a nice tour that featured the songs from Gwen's "Love, Angel, Music, Baby" tour. It was nice to hear her sing live and really have and bring all the energy to the stage and into her performance. The two 'new' songs 'Wind it Up' and 'Orange County Girl' were also nice additions to the DVD. It would have been nice to see a few other unreleased songs that she performed while on tour included, but it's nice we got the tour on DVD, period. Check it out.

I saw Gwen at Madison Square Garden with Ciara and she put on one of the best visual displays I have ever seen at a concert! The whole place literally shook when she played Hollaback Girl (the highlight of the performance) and the energy that she and her dancers gave was unreal. She had some really great things to say about New York and I remember her saying something along the lines of "Since you keep buying so many of my records I have to keep making them."

I was also amazed at how fast between numbers she was able to change costumes and the show kept screaming for more. The only downside to the performance was I was hoping she would have thrown in one or two of her No Doubt numbers (Don't Speak especially) but she only performed her numbers from the Love Angel Baby CD.

Not having recognized that it was Gwen Stefani from the occasional radio plays of the song Don't Speak by No Doubt in Britain in the Nineties, I was intrigued by the latest single The Sweet Escape and thought she was a new artist. But I was totally stunned when I saw this new DVD of the Harajuku Lovers tour captured at Anaheim in late 2005. It excels on so many levels - the vitality of the music and the unique choreography to the high end technical excellence of the video production and sound quality. The pacing is perfect. Every number is brilliantly done and the phenomenal energy of the star of the show herself never falters once. And she is capable of such a range of styles in both music and costume.

The singing is all live - even including some double voicing from the backing artists - and Stefani herself puts other better known pop stars (at least from UK) to shame with the consistency and sincerity of her delivery. This is marred only by the occasional expletive which I believe are deleted on some versions of the DVD and from audio CDs.

This DVD will remain a top favourite in my collection for a very long time and was worth every cent.

Peter Stock, London, England

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