Dirty Women

Friday night, I was at the first of two sold-out shows by cover band Vag Halen. This all-female, queer-positive band usually does "cock rock" to reclaim the space for women. But these shows will be tributes to the women artists in rock.

A very young punk band called Hex opened the show. The female power trio, graduates of the Girls Rock Camp program, liked to mix things up with tempo and volume changes. Their original material was a bit rough compared to the classics they covered: Le Tigre's Deceptacon and Pattie Smith's Gloria. But the covers showed they had some chops.

Vag Halen came out groovy with White Rabbit but proceeded to destroy the crowd with numbers like Edge of 17, Happy House, New Radio, and Rock Star. The evening ended with a raging call for women empowerment with Yoko Ono's Women Power. Though it was loud and raucous for the bulk of their set, bassist Katie Richie entranced the crowd with the quiet Song for the Siren. But most of the night belonged to singer Vanessa Dunn. She put all male rockers to shame with her high-energy presence, all the while being 8-months pregnant, and letting it all hang out with a metal t-shirt rolled up above her swollen belly, and rocking black undies and pantyhose.