Foxy Ladies
Veteran female rockers Vixen get the advantage of playing after all the other arenas have finished for the day, which makes for a big crowd in the main arena.
Having formed in the mid 80s their experience shines through tonight and they deliver a really tight performance. After the other bands that have played today though they sound a little weak by comparison and although they get a decent reaction it's hardly ecstatic. Vixen play very much middle of the road rock and still sound just like they did in their 80s heyday. There are plenty of power ballads with nice harmonies and accomplished musicianship but they have no edge to them at all. The addition of someone on the edge of the stage that sends showers of sparks over everything courtesy of an angle grinder fails to charge the performance as it just doesn't really fit with their lightweight rock.
On the rare occasions that they do get a little harder they are all the better for it but it's all too infrequent. They do their thing well however and there is some excellent lead guitar work from Jan Kuehnemund, it's just that most of the other bands here today are louder, harder and faster and that seems to be what the crowd want. Vixen's longevity (despite a ten year hiatus) has earned them the right to be here but they were always going to struggle against this crowd and so it proves.