Three factors would help you a lot if you wanted to succeed as a Heavy Band in the 80’s: A handsome singer, a clever guitar player, and a killer ballad. White Lion was one of the bands that had all this …
White Lion were MTV heroes, and rotated heavily all day and night with songs like “Wait,” “Tell Me,” “Lady Of The Valley,” and last, but not least, “When The Children Cry.”
White Lion’s old bass player, James Lomenzo, plays now in Megadeth (after earlier spending time with Zakk Wylde in Pride & Glory and Black Label Society). Guitar hero Vito Bratta and drummer Greg D’Angelo have left the scene totally.
Today it’s only singer Mike Tramp who remains from the original line-up. The pin-up boy has now turned 46 years old. In the late 80’s, he and the likes of Joey Tempest, Jon Bon Jovi, and Sebastian Bach hung on a lot of girls’ bedroom walls. However, on November the 12, 2006, when Tramp and his new band played at Amplifier in Oslo, Norway, the audience was dominated by the male gender.
After the break-up of the 80’s line-up, Mike Tramp has toured and recorded under his own name, and as Mike Tramp’s White Lion. With his present band, he only uses the name White Lion — which seems to be totally fine for quite a few owners of the classic albums Pride, Big Game, and Main Attraction.
The set list is hard to criticize. During two hours on stage, Mike Tramp visited every corner of the band’s history. The fifteen years old “Lights And Thunder” opened the nostalgic trip, and “Little Fighter,” “Lonely Nights,” and “Broken Hearts” were played quite early to open the doors for a sing-along evening.
The band’s debut album, Fight To Survive, was really heavy and never earned the success it deserved. However, the diehard fans of the band know this material very well, and therefore the set list contained the heavy “El Salvador,” “Fight To Survive,” and “All The Fallen Men.”
The ballads did not fail to appear as well. Mike & Co. treated the audience with both “Till Death Do Us Apart,” “It’s Over,” and of course, “When The Children Cry.”
White Lion belongs to a genre that has been mocked quite a bit after the “Hair Metal Wave” declined in the early nineties. In his several speeches from the stage, Tramp made it clear that it is the music that matters, not the hair. Fair enough, during the show White Lion A.D. 2006 proved that songs like “Tell Me,” “Wait,” “Radar Love,” and “Hungry” are more than good enough for everyone who wants easy-going and energetic Rock on the menu. ”Tell your friends, White Lion is back and here to stay” … Mike Tramp happily addressed to his small Amplifier audience.
… by Odd Inge “Funky” Rand / Per Olav Heimstad
Setlist
Lights & Thunder
Living On The Edge
Little Fighter
Lonely Nights
El Salvador
Broken Heart
Fight To Survive
Hungry
Till Death Do Us Apart
You’re All I Need
It’s Over
All The Fallen Men
If My Mind Is Evil
Tell Me
Lady Of The Valley
The Road To Valhalla
When The Children Cry
Radar Love
Be the first to comment