Live Review : White Lightning + Electric Lady + Madhouse @ Sotto, Liverpool on June 28th 2024

Liverpool, despite its importance in the overall history of music, is not exactly renowned for a hard rock scene. In recent months though, there has been a rumble in the underground. Quite literally, as a lot of the little venues that are springing up and hosting some pretty decent rock and metal bands are in basements.  Tonight is no exception, but at least it’s not another dingy one. Quite the opposite really, as there are big windows to the street above the stage area which itself is surrounded by mirrors and lit by brightly-coloured LED strips. There is also decent Belgian beer on tap, places for the old and lazy to sit at the back, and some friendly bar staff. Unfortunately, tonight at least, there are also some Issues. 

For White Lightning’s first headlining show in their hometown there should have been a four-band bill with two Czech bands and one from Italy lined up to support. It seems however that the stage space is not up to the job, with both the size of it and the parameters of the PA meaning that both Warning Vision and Lady Kate are unable to perform. Undeterred, Madhouse Rockband try desperately not to trip over the myriad of wires and pedalboards and give us a bit of Latin sunshine. They are a 3-piece band, drums, guitars and vocals so bass and a couple of other sounds are tracked. The frontwoman has a decent enough voice although her stage presence is not quite there yet.  The lyrics are dark and kind of gothy, although the overall sound is surprisingly chirpy and cheerful. They are not about to set the world on fire any time soon, but at the same it made a nice change from the same old same old. They finish with a cover of Neil Young’s “Rocking In The Free World” which raises both arms and smiles in the audience. 

A short changeover ensues, with much muttering in a myriad of languages, and eventually another female-fronted band take to the stage. A little digging leads to the discovery that they are Electric Lady, another Czech outfit headed by the energetic Tereza Rays. They too are a three-piece, but consist of drums and bass, with Tereza taking on both guitar and vocal duties. As they are an ad-hoc addition they are not using their own gear, but despite that they run through an upbeat and kind of funky set of original songs. It’s also a very short set, with just four songs on offer, but what there is is intriguing. There are shades of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers in the sound, the stage presence is good and they offer a tantalising glimpse of something that could be well worth checking out in future.  

Headliners White Lightning are a new name on the scene, even if their look is very retro. They take the stage in a whirl of flying hair,  pointy boots and tassels, and rip through a stonking cover of Whitesnake’s ‘Bad Boys’, followed by an equally spirited version of Motley Crue’s ‘Looks That Kill’. This sets the tone for the whole performance, and considering their youth and the fact that they have only been together as a band for a short time (in fact it’s the drummer’s first gig tonight) I am very impressed. They have the mid-80s look down to a T, with various members sporting ripped t-shirts that are shed in favour of bare chests later in the proceedings, growing-out perms, bullet belts, the tightest of trousers and a whole lot of animal print just in case they hadn’t thrown in enough cliches. This is not a bad thing though. Their obvious love for a genre of music that dates back to well before they were born is palpable, and every synchronised guitar neck, every twirly drumstick, every shake of their carefully-coiffed heads raises a smile of approval over here.

Their own songs are maybe a little derivative but performed well – they throw out twin guitar riffs and solos like they were born to it, the vocals are clean and crisp with an occasional impressive scream and the whole thing melds together into a thing of beauty and, for us old-uns who remember the 80s, nostalgia. If ROCKFLESH favourites Tailgunner epitomise the early 80’s and the days of NWOBHM then White Lightning perfectly showcase the scene of 5 years later when everything became a little more glamorous, a little more party, but the big hair of the Sunset Strip bands was still only a germ of an idea in Nikki Sixx’s head.

There are niggles of course. The PA cuts out altogether during one song, and they could also do with some backing vocals although I suspect that this is another issue with the venue’s size and equipment as there isn’t any room for extra mikes in the stage space and there may not have been anything available to plug them in to. But despite this the band give it their all, and what they produce is a visual as well as an aural delight. They chuck in another Whitesnake cover, ‘Still Of The Night’, and it’s note perfect. The two guitarists are out on the floor, the singer is all over the room and it’s like a time machine has transported us back to the days when Coverdale could still sing and John Sykes’ stage moves were emulated in a million teenage bedrooms. Technical issues aside these lads managed to put on a hell of a show, and here at ROCKFLESH Towers we will be watching with interest as we expect them to be climbing out of the basement scene and into some bigger venues any time now.  

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
White Lightning + Electric Lady + Madhouse