No Doubt Reunites for Teen Choice Awards…and "Virtual Karaoke" Video Game Trial

Gwen Stefani and band are stepping back into the limelight for the first time in two years with a high-profile performance and an upcoming court battle against Activision

By Josh Grossberg May 29, 2012 10:45 PMTags
No Doubt, Tony Kanal, Gwen Stefani, Adrian Young, Tom DumontFrederick M. Brown/Getty Images

No Doubt is gearing up for their comeback all right—onstage and in court.

On the same day a Los Angeles judge gave their lawsuit against video game maker Activision permission to go to trial, the ska-punk rockers announced plans to reunite onstage for the first time in two-and-a-half years with a performance at the upcoming Teen Choice Awards. 

That's "Hella Good" timing for No Doubt fans.

READ: Gwen Stefani Got Milk With Kingston and Zuma

"I can't believe this is actually happening. The idea of playing our new music live is heaven on earth," singer Gwen Stefani said in a statement regarding their return to live performing. "Can't wait to share it!!"

Added bassist Tony Kanal: "We're so stoked to finally start performing these new songs live. And to be doing the first performance of our first single in Los Angeles makes it even more awesome."

The 2012 Teen Choice Awards is slated to air live on July 22 on Fox and it'll be No Doubt's first concert since they played Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit in October 2009. It's also part of a big publicity push as the group prepares to drop their as-yet-untitled sixth studio album—the first since the band's 2001 multi-platinum-selling Rock Steady—on Sept. 25.

The kudocast isn't the only hometown gig the SoCal's band's looking forward to.

No Doubt was also happy to hear that their complaint against Activision for allegedly exceeding group members' contractual likenesses in the music video game Band Hero is finally going to go before a jury of their peers.

In her decision today, L.A. Superior Court Judge Ramona See denied the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company's petition to toss the suit, effectively sending it to trial later this year. 

No Doubt sued the game maker in 2009, accusing Activision of allowing players to manipulate the quartet's individual avatars in ways they would never have acted in real life, thus violating their publicity rights and, according to the suit, turning them into a "virtual karaoke circus act."

Such manipulations include "unlocking" mechanisms that gave gamers the ability to have Stefani's CGI alter ego sing in a male voice and also allowed her male bandmates to sing in female voices—it also enabled the virtual No Doubt to perform solo and cover hit songs by other artists that the foursome would normally never have chosen, such as Gwen crooning the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Woman."

"Now that the judge removed the last procedural hurdle Activision erected, No Doubt looks forward to a Los Angeles jury hearing how Activision treated the band," No Doubt's attorney, Bert Deixler, told E! News.

An Activision rep said the ruling wasn't entirely unexpected noting that "it simply means that there are disputed facts and we look forward to trying the case in the courtroom."

—Reporting by Katie Rhames