White Lion – Louisville, KY Concert Review
White Lion played in Louisville, Kentucky’s Expo Five last Sunday night. This was a free show that neither I, or friend JT from Hard Rock Nights could pass up.
I knew coming into this show that this wasn’t going to be the original White Lion lineup, but that didn’t really matter me. The issues between singer Mike Tramp, and guitarist Vito Bratta are well documented across the internet. It is highly doubtful that the original band will ever reunite. I was hopeful that Tramp’s
current band was at least as good as his old one. I was quite curious to see how current White Lion guitarist Jamie Law would handle those awesome Vito Bratta guitar licks.
MIke Tramp has revamped White Lion, and has had different variations of the band together since 1999. The current lineup of Jamie Law, Henning Wanner, Claus Langeskov, and Troy Patrick Farrell has been together since 2005. Bassist EJ Curse (who looks like he could be a sibling of George Lynch) from Silent Rage was filling in on bass for this show.
The set list in no particular order was “Little Fighter“, “Lady of the Valley“, “Lonely Nights“, “El Salvador“, “Broken Heart“, “Wait“, “Hungry“, “When the Children Cry“, the show closer “Radar Love“, “Living on the Edge“, and two new cuts off of White Lion’s new album “Return of the Pride”, “Set Me Free“, and “Dream“.
It has been 25 years since White Lion started as a band, and Mike Tramp’s voice has maybe lost a step or two. He still sounds really good, and songs sound almost exactly the same as they did in the 80’s. Tramp does have a little bit of help in the singing department. Keyboardist Henning Wanner and guitarist Jamie Law sing a lot of the back up vocals, and do a fine job of it.
I am not sure how Mike Tramp found Australian guitarist Jamie Law, but he has managed to attract another very good guitarist to White Lion. Law is a very good technical guitar player, who seemingly handled Bratta’s guitar licks with ease. As a whole, White Lion sounded great. I would definitely go see them again. Hopefully, the dust can settle between Tramp and Bratta so the band can latch onto some summer tours.
Louisville, Kentucky must have been sleeping on Sunday. There was only about 50 people or so in attendance and this show was FREE. Not only that but, there three or four other bands that opened up for White Lion. The venue that the show was held at was EXPO Five. This has to be one of the best new rock clubs in Kentucky. It has a big stage, an awesome sound system, and room for a lot of people. It is a shame that the turn out for this show was so poor.
After the concert Mike Tramp came out and autographed everything that was put in front of him, shook a lot of hands, and took photos with anyone that wanted one. He was extremely cool to all of his fans, and if anything very grateful. He is definitely a class act.
White Lion is very much still a great band, and worth catching live if you can.
The clips below are from the Sunday night show. Enjoy!!
Hungry
When the Children Cry
Wait
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was a great show. I took some pics of the show but lost my cam was wondering if anyone might have any pics of the show they could hook me up with
It`s a shame that people don`t get out of the sofa when Mike Tramp is in town!!!
Maybe it`s not the original White Lion, but they sound great from where I`m at the concerts.. IN FRONT !!! Vito Bratta doesn`t wanna go on tour, I respect that.. But Mike wants,so I respect that too!!
White Lion will always be a good memory from my youth and if I want to hear them live,Mike`s the man !!!
Sweet Charvel!
I agree it’s sad there was only 50 people, but it’s no surprise, is it? -ONE- original member hardly qualifies as ‘White Lion’.
BTW, while Mike Tramp always had a great voice and could the high notes, it sounds like they’re tuned down about 3 steps off of the originals. That’s the other thing that sucks about seeing these bands live. It sounds lousy when they lower the pitch to accommodate an aging voice…..