Vixen – Zeche, Bochum; June 24th, 2018
Vixen is a band I only know because my best friend B. loved them when we were at university in the 90is. Back then, I listened to them too, but totally forgot about the band in the years since, until I came across an ad for their “only concert in Germany” this year. I’d had no idea they still existed, but it sounded like fun so I decided to go. Looking for a good time, some nostalgia and new memories I had come to the eactly right place. The concert turned out just the way I’d wanted it to be. 🙂
A bit over an hour before the doors opened, there were less than 20 people waiting, so there might be a chance for front row. Around 7, we were about 50 or so and getting in went quickly with me ending up front row on the right. Didn’t really feel communicative and followed my own thoughts, wondering if coming here had been the right decision – seeing bands I don’t know well always bears the risk of getting disappinted. However, I’d been looking forward to this one and despite feeling totally unprepared (hell, I could not even remember one song), I thought it could be fun.
Support act John Diva & The Rockets of Love (wait what – there’s a support act?) looked like a mixture of Pirates of the Caribbean and Guns ‘n’ Roses wannabes and played mostly cover songs. It was fun to watch them, but the sound was so shitty, I could hardly hear what was being sung. It was a bit better with the songs I knew and I even enjoyed singing along, but the spot I was in was less than ideal. Oh well, they were entertaining and surely the sound was going to be better for the main act, right?
Wrong! The break didn’t take all that long and the ladies took the stage. Before they walked out I had just snapped a picture of the stuffed animal sitting on the drums, then Roxy walked out and hung high heeled shoes over the cymbals. What a cool touch! First thing I noticed was that the all female band has a male keyboarder, who was almost hidden at the back on stage, off to the side. Second thing, sadly, was that the sound had not improved at all. I could hear Janet speak, but I could not make out any of the words she sang. Bummer! 🙁 I enjoyed watching the ladies from up close, especially their interaction with a little girl sitting on the stairs on my side of the stage and wondered whose daughter she might be. She smiled at them shyly and waved goodbye when she left after a few songs. Awww.
After three or four songs I decided to leave there as well, knowing that if I stayed I would go home disappointed. I’d come to hear them, not just to see. Thus, I made my way to the back. Zeche is a small venue and even from there I still had a good view of the stage. That and finally the sound was better so I could actually hear Janet sing. Best decision I made all night. From here on in I finally had fun and fully enjoyed the concert, even recognized a few of the songs. 🙂 The ladies looked like they were having fun too and the audience response was good overall, even though it took some of us a little bit to warm up. Share wanted to get us to scream and we were not loud enough for her liking when Janet asked about it. She joked that some of us were “So Hollywood”. Thus, Janet went over to Gina and asked her. The reply? “I’m the nice one ad even I think you could do better!” So we did. 🙂
For ‘I want you to rock me’ we got a pretty good sing along going though and later the audience broke into spontaneous chanting. The band loved that and told us it had been a long time since this had happened last. They even asked us for requests then, but decided to play what they had planned anyway instead. The rocked the house and they deserved a bigger audience than they got. It was a good show and a nice change to the usual men in rock music that I see on stage all the time.
At one point Janet reminded us of founding band member Jan whom they had lost to cancer and told us she wasn’t forgotten. Paying tribute to her was a nice touch. They paid tribute to artists they admire too and before ‘I don’t need no Doctor’ Share told us she had to speak German now, because she’d made a bet about it and announced “Ich brauche kein Arzt”. Well done, I certainly understood it and I don’t even know the song. 😀
“Only a fool believes It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” Janet spoke the first words to ‘Love is a Killer’ and they unexpectedly made me tear up. I have no idea where that came from, but the song moved me deeply. At that moment it just fit and I rolled with it, letting the tears run down my face until they dried. I knew this gig was going to make me smile, I never thought it might make me cry, but it felt right and it was beautiful to experience the music this way. <3
They played us a new song called ‘Big Brother’, which will be released on an upcoming live album and it fit right in with everything else they played. For said album hey also resurrected ‘Streets in Paradise’, saying they had not played that in a long time and we might not have heard it. Janet was wondering when they had last played in Germany and apparently that happend somewhere in the 90ies. i woud not know, but it might well be true. They seemed quite unknown even back then. Of course that could have been just my lack of knowledge regarding metal. 😛
When they left the stage everyone cheered and screamed for more. They did not make us wait, played a long instrumental intro and gave us ‘Edge of a Broken heart’ as the final song. It was the perfect ending to an entertaining show, at least for me. I left with a happy smile, still caught up in memories from the time I had first heard their music. I was really happy I’d taken the chance to see them. It was totally worth it!
Setlist
Rev It Up
How Much Love
One Night Alone
Bad Reputation
Cryin’
Cruisin’
I Want You to Rock Me / Perfect Strangers / Come Together
I Don’t Need No Doctor (Ray Charles cover)
Love Is a Killer
You Oughta Know By Now
Love Made Me
Big Brother
Streets in Paradise
Encore:
Instrumental intro (Keyboard, guitar and bass)
Edge of a Broken Heart