LIKE a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart, feminist art rock band Vag Halen brought Bournemouth’s Old Firestation to life last night.

It seemed like a strange place to start their first UK tour, and the too-thin crowd was potentially a reflection of that.

But the group performed as if they were headlining at a sold-out stadium, devoting their all to the audience.

The bedrock of their incendiary performance was front woman Vanessa Dunn, who is a truly formidable stage presence.

Writhing on the stage, spraying her beer across the crowd, and even crawling her way across the floor of the venue, she was almost impossible to stop watching.

But she was well supported by musicians playing drum-tight versions of well-known songs, from I Wanna Be Your Dog by The Stooges to David Bowie’s Queen Bitch.

Vag Halen set out to reclaim hard-rock classics from macho posturing, and there is no doubt they achieved that.

The evening ended with a howling, euphoric rendition of Motorhead’s Ace of Spades that left the crowd baying for an encore that never came.

They are a one-off, and I left feeling as if I had seen something different and very special.