Vixen - M3 Fest 2025

Vixen brought their classic glam-metal sound to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, on May 4, 2025, as part of the third and final day of M3 Rock Festival. The band played at 2:10 p.m., kicking off a Sunday lineup that also included Lita Ford, Great White, Warrant, Ace Frehley, and Stephen Pearcy with Warren DeMartini.

For Vixen, M3 was a perfect environment. The festival has become one of the major annual gatherings for fans of 1980s hard rock, and the band's catalog fits that audience perfectly. Vixen's combination of melodic guitar work, big hooks, and hard-rock energy remains particularly effective in a festival setting.

The set opened with “Rev It Up,” followed by “Charmed Life,” “How Much Love,” and “Cruisin'.” That opening run immediately established the band's approach: plenty of guitar, strong vocals, and a set focused on songs that sound just as comfortable on a large outdoor stage as they did on classic-rock radio.

“Cryin'” and “Hard 16” continued the performance before Vixen launched into an unusual medley combining “Runnin' With the Devil,” “I Want You to Rock Me,” “Perfect Strangers,” “War Pigs,” and “Still of the Night.” The sequence gave the relatively short festival set an extra burst of hard-rock intensity.

The closing stretch was built around some of Vixen's most recognizable material. “Streets in Paradise” and “You Oughta Know By Now” led into “Edge of a Broken Heart,” the band's biggest commercial hit and the obvious centerpiece of the performance.

The 2025 M3 appearance also placed Vixen in excellent company. Lita Ford followed them, while Great White, Warrant, Ace Frehley, and Stephen Pearcy and Warren DeMartini filled out the rest of the day's classic hard-rock lineup. It was essentially an entire afternoon devoted to the music that defined the American hard-rock scene of the 1980s.

The biggest limitation was the festival time slot. With a scheduled 2:10 p.m. start, Vixen didn't have the opportunity to stretch out the performance into a full headline set. Still, the band made the most of the available time, packing twelve songs and the extended medley into a concise performance.

For M3 fans, Vixen's set was exactly what the festival was designed to deliver: melodic hard rock, memorable songs, plenty of guitar, and a direct connection to the era that produced some of the genre's most enduring bands. Ending with “Edge of a Broken Heart” gave the performance the perfect payoff, sending the Sunday crowd into the rest of the M3 lineup with one of Vixen's biggest songs ringing through Merriweather Post Pavilion.