VAG HALEN at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Thursday, June 6. Rating: NNN
Vag Halen are endowed with a quality most contemporary rock bands lack: sex appeal. They have so much of it, in fact, that we enthusiastically overlook the fact that we’re falling in love with a cover band. Yes, the city’s buzziest band has a set list composed of the same classic rock hits that would make us roll our eyes or yawn when coming from a bunch of aging white dudes in a hole-in-the-wall tavern. But the message is completely different when delivered by queer women turning misogynist tunes on their head.
Aside from Wherever I May Roam by Metallica, a song they might want to reconsider (especially as the opener), they choose the sexiest of classics: Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song and Whole Lotta Love, AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds, Bowie’s Suffragette City. Vanessa Dunn is an overwhelmingly powerful frontwoman. In her micro shorts, thigh-high boots and cropped top (which she eventually stripped off), she gyrated and beckoned and asked us to loosen up and get nasty. Her rough-hewn voice can scale Geddy Lee-level summits, as it did during Closer To The Heart. She has mastered Axl’s feral yell in Welcome To The Jungle’s intro.
In matching jean vests, the all-female band chugged away in the background, struggling with Walker Court’s horrid acoustics, which undermined their power and clarity. They didn’t interact much, though they’re clearly in tune with each other. When Katie Sketch’s bass crapped out during the Stooges’ Now I Wanna Be Your Dog, Dunn, who is married to Sketch, used the moment to throw herself into the arms of the enthusiastic AGO crowd, who carried her on their palms. She was delivered back to the stage just as the bass sound returned. The couple exchanged a brief, secret smile.
