On Saturday night my buddy RCD and I went to the The Venue at River Cree Casino to catch the Ladies Of Rock show which featured Femme Fatale, Vixen and Lita Ford, talk about a all 80's ladies glam rock show. The nice thing about this show was that I had never seen any of these bands before and tickets were only 30 dollars. Hard to believe I had never seen them before, but from what I can recall none of them had ever played in Edmonton before. It wasn't the greatest turn out, my estimate would be about 400 people. Maybe if there had been more advertising for this show there would have been a better crowd. I saw no posters for this show and very little print advertising, and for radio, I have no idea if there was any ads on the stations. Posters are the way to go to get the word out. Certainly was none on the station I listen to, which is no surprise. But nowadays, who listens to radio anyways.
The first band of the evening was Femme Fatale, they were an all female band out of Los Angeles that put one album out in 1988. While I remember seeing a video for them back in the day ("Fallin' In And Out Of Love"), I never did own their one and only album, but I did think they looked pretty damn hot. Hey, I was a teenager in the 80's all the above mentioned bands members were hot too me back then. Oh, too have seen them back then. Anyways, this version of Femme Fatale only had one original member, that being lead singer Lorraine Lewis. Like I say, I didn't really know their music, other then the one they did a video for. And I remember back then I thought they weren't very good. Well, seeing them live was a bit better. The drummer Athena was quite good. Lorraine looks a little rough around the edges, but she could still sing which is the main thing. All and all not bad for an opener.
Femme Fatale.
Next up was the band Vixen who got their start in St. Paul, Minneapolis in the early 80's before moving to California in the mid 80's getting in on the glam metal scene of Los Angeles. This version of the band is led by original members or more like the classic line up of Janet Gardner on guitar and vocals and drummer Roxy Petrucci who also played drums for the band Madam X back in the day ("We Reserve The Right"good album too I must say). One of the original members Jan Kuehnemund passed away in 2013 after a battle with cancer.
I remember buying their first album hoping for the best after seeing pictures of them in the metal magazines of the day and thinking they looked good, hopefully the music would be good too. Well, can't say I much cared for the album, it was fluff music, way over produced and polished. Have listened to it again recently and still can't say much for it. But much too my surprise they rocked it really good on this night. Way better live then on record. Lead singer Janet Gardner sounded good and was easy on the eyes too. The crowd seemed to be into the band as well.
Vixen setlist.
Vixen.
Next up was headliner Lita Ford, yet another musician/band that I had never seen in concert before. Lita Ford got her start in the 70's with the band The Runaways. So she has been around for quite sometime, yet had never played in Edmonton before either. So I was happy to finally get the chance to see her perform live.
Lita and her band hit the stage opening with the song Gotta Let Go from her second album Dancin' On The Edge, which is what I think was her last good album, but then again, I really haven't been buying her stuff since then. And that album came out in 1984. I'm not sure who all else were in her band on this night, but they all seemed to do a good job. The drummer I believe was a guy by the name of Bob Rock, not the producer Bob Rock. And of course he had to do a drum solo which was boring as fuck, as most solos are.
The third song of her set was the Elton John song The Bitch Is Back which suited the show good. She and the band did a damn good job of it too. Other songs she did were Cherry Bomb which was a hit for her first band The Runaways, the crowd was singing along to this one. She also did the song Can't Catch Me which was song co-written with the late great Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead. She and the band cranked this one out almost Motörhead style, lots of spirit in this song, sounded great. She also did the song Close My Eyes Forever which was wrote with the help of Ozzy Osbourne and was a big hit for her in 1988, probably her biggest song I think. A song I really can't stand though, just my opinion. Lita closed out the show with Kiss Me Deadly which went over really well too. For a lady that is 57 years old, she still looks good and sounds great too. All and all this was a fun night out seeing some lady glam metal bands that I never got to see in their hey days. All the bands sounded much better then I was expecting and all played heavier then I was expecting. For thirty dollars for this show, it was a good price for a great show. Good times!!!
Lita Ford setlist.
Lita Ford.
Ticket autographed by Vixen as the band came out after their set and signed autographs.
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