The Vivian Girls are a three piece all female trio from Brooklyn who are still riding high off the critical praise of their self titled 2008 debut album. The ladies brought their girl group meets punk act to town Tuesday night for a performance at the 7th Street Entry that found me leaving the show as indecisive, in terms of where I stand on the merits of the hype surrounding the young band, as I was going in.

When the Vivian Girls rambled on stage shortly after 11, they wasted little time bashing out their first number, the broken heart lament “All the Time” from their debut album. The band, Cassie Ramone on guitar/vocals, Kickball Katy on bass/vocals and Ali Koehler on drums, played a loose set highlighting their musical strengths (and weaknesses) over the course of 45 minutes. After barreling out of the gate and grabbing the attention of the crowd (which only amounted to about half of the small club), the band then seemed to go a stretch where they did little to distinguish one song from the next. Ramone seemed a little bored, and a couple times chastised the crowd for being a “wax museum,” which prompted an audience member to remind her she was in Minnesota. I had always thought it to be disingenuous to rip on a group of people who have not only paid to see you perform, but whom you will be shelling t-shirts and CD’s to within 30 minutes of putting them down, but that is just me.

While Ramone wasn’t happy with the response from the crowd for the first half of the set, in reality the band gave the crowd little to dance to. The songs plodded along and the only source of energy at some points seemed to be the consistently smiling Katy behind her Hofner viola bass. One strong point throughout the set was when the three girls sang their great harmonies, even if it was somewhat hidden under blanket of effects. Not surprising for anyone who has heard any of their studio output, all of their vocals were completely saturated in reverb (which they enthusiastically requested large volumes of from the soundman at the onset of their performance), but on a lot of the songs it added nicely to the rough around the edge aesthetic the band has cultivated.

For a period during the set, the band simply seemed to be going through the motions as they played most of the songs from their debut album and a few select numbers from their forthcoming sophomore release. They seemed to gain some momentum when they played one particular new song, which featured the chorus “will you sit around and miss me when I’m gone.” Like most of their songs, the guitars were fuzzed out and the drums and bass moved along at a quick pace, but the band seemed to come alive on stage during the song. Ramone played some solid buzz saw guitar and Katy was solid keeping the band charging forward, but the band was really held together live by the frantic, yet steady, drumming of Koehler.

The Vivian Girls kept this pace for the rest of the set and really started pummeling out their songs. Near the end of the set the band, in an impressive show of their collective dexterity, switched their instruments mid song. Not satisfied with just grabbing a new instrument (Ramone on bass, Koehler on guitar and Katy on drums), they showed their prowess by ending the set with a scoring instrumental finish that had the crowd finally jumping up and down.

While the girls ended the set with a bang, the set as a whole was more of a mixed bag. After the first song, they seemed to be a little bored with their two minute fuzz pop screamers, but something brought them back just in time to salvage the show. The last half of the set showed the strengths of the band, mainly their sugary pop songwriting wrapped in barbed wire fuzz and reverb. They clearly have talent and I look forward to hearing their new album and seeing if their next show will capture their lighting in a bottle for more than just a portion of the show, as was the case Tuesday night.

[Review by Josh Keller, photos by Adam Bubolz]

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