Foxy Shazam at the Aruba Hotel, Las Vegas, Monday June 25, 2012

After seeing Foxy Shazam open for the Darkness and being knocked out by their maniacal stage presence we knew we'd have to see them again whenever we could, but we never would have imagined that it would be at such an intimate atmosphere as the Aruba, which can't hold more than a couple hundred people. So, even though it was a Monday night, we took the next day off of work and headed out.

Amazingly enough, this was actually an early show, with 7 pm doors (!) which meant that the first band, a local entity whose name I didn't catch, went on at about 8:00. Unfortunately, their incredibly unstylish (2 out of the three were only wearing cut-off denim shorts and shoes and nothing else) image, terrible mix (not their fault, I'm sure) and lackluster ska-punk tunes did nothing for me. They definitely had some folks on their side in the audience, but maybe it was just a generation gap, as evidenced by one of their songs being about an "old lady" that the singer works with who is my age!

Up next was Stars in Stereo who were the polar opposite of the openers - this band was so ultra-slick, with near-matching outfits, backing tracks, in-ear monitors and an almost child-like female lead singer who tried far too hard to be sexy. Not bad, but basically bland all around - we assumed they were major label product-fodder.

But then we got the Foxy boys! We were standing right at the stage with Sky's keyboard directly in our face so we had a great view of the mayhem! Blasting out of the gate with "Church of Rock'n'Roll" and "Holy Touch", they had the crowd banging with them right from the start. But for some reason, singer Eric was in a bit of an odd mood (which he admitted) and went into even more long, rambling monologues than usual. This was still quite entertaining but it did cut into the momentum to the point that even the band members were feigning boredom. Eric said that we will never see them like this again, so we can say that we were there when! Of course, they went through a wild set despite Eric's moodiness and remain one of the best live bands around! Their Sparks-with-a-modern-twist sound and incredible antics blow away just about anyone else - big or small - playing today. Everyone walked away with a smile on their face!

Once again, we can whole-heartedly recommend seeing these cats any chance you get for a wild ride on a crazy rock'n'roll roller coaster!