Vixen at the Rock and Blues Custom Show
Plenty of whistles and cheers greeted this band. Not surprising, given that this is one of the old-school, all-girl rock bands. For these new to this band, such as myself, I felt the band generally played some reasonable pop-rock; fairly melodical with the occasional "grunt" from the lead singer.
Their style would have benefited from some more "jumping", more "umph". The beat didn't change often enough and in general, the sound was rather flat. The band hardly moved and seemed to be going through the motions in places. The only member who seemed to move was the bassist who clearly enjoyed herself.
The 80's style synth that was added over the top of the instruments only furthered the "Miami Vice" feeling. I felt I should have been watching cheesy 80's telly at this point. The style (the hair!) was definitely stuck in the past, despite the band touting their ironically titled, new album: "Live and Learn". Clearly, Vixen have doggedly stuck with rolling rock songs about love, feelings and the American Way.
The vocalist was quite consistent throughout and hit the long notes well. At times, there were some nice harmonies. The guitar solos weren't too bad yet the guitarist didn't seem to have the passion behind them and remained rather stoic throughout the set. The lead singer's brief use of an Ibanez seemed to be pointless to me, considering she only played one or two chords per song. Despite this extra "grunt" the crowd began to mellow towards the end of the set. Vixen departed to a mediocre round of applause that reflected the rather flat performance.