White Lies

I discovered the White Lies last year with their great debut album "To lose my life" which is still on heavy rotation in my cd player. Reminds me of Joy Divison and Julian Cope. Tonight I was supposed to see them live in Munich, but they've just cancelled the show for the second time due to illness. First time last November they stood already on the stage and played four songs till Harry, the singer, lost his voice. It's a pity but I still can highly recommend their music.

I really don't know them and it's the first time I "heard" their name. Are they famous ?
Can you tell more or post a link to listen to one of their song for example please ?

Don't think they're really famous, but they already play in bigger venues than Expat.
Their music works a lot with synthesizer sounds and is really melodic and powerful, the lyrics are dark and most of the songs are about death.

Here are some links for you to get an impression:

Unfinished Business

To lose my life

From the stars

hey, I'm listening some of their songs on You tube and that's not so bad... Deserves a longer listening but the first impression is very good!

yeeeah, I'm gonna be the White Lies missionary!

I agree with expatriatelover, it's really not bad even if at the first listening it seems special but nice...

I also had tickets for the Munich show in November. Was standing front row, right in front of Harry (the lead singer). I couldn't make the rescheduled show anyway but friends of mine went to Vienna instead where they did 5 songs and then had to stop. Deja vu.

I saw them at Rock im Park festival last June and also supporting Coldplay at Wembley. They're scheduled to play Frequency festival in Austria in August (all being well healthwise ) so I'll get to see them again then. But it's not the same as their own headline show because it's obviously a much shorter set.

I've been a fan since To lose my life was getting the overkill treatment on the radio here back in January 2009. My favourites are Death, Unfinished Business and Taxidermy.

The guy who plays keyboards for them during their gigs (not an official band member) recently tweeted that he's been sent some demos for the second album already so they seem to be busy writing and recording new stuff which is good to hear. He also said it's some of the best music they've produced so I'm pretty excited.

Great news with the second album!
And "Taxidermy" is one of my favorites, too.

songbird wrote:

Great news with the second album!
And "Taxidermy" is one of my favorites, too.

They've been in the rehearsal studio this past week. Apparently, they've got 5 new songs "in the bag" and anyone who is going to be seeing them this summer at one of the festivals can probably expect to hear a couple of new songs

Now I'm really excited!
Would be great if they'll manage to come to Munich and play a whole set later on this or next year...

Btw, have you listened to their session they played for Daytrotter? It's a nice little acoustic set.

I just discoverd the white lies this summer, going to Musilac Festival (France) and that was probably the best surprise of the year ! they were really great in live, and even if i didn't know them at all i enjoyed the show so much !
and i quite agree with you the album 'to lose my life' is purely good :)

Can't wait for the second album. And I hope that they'll tour again soon.
Julie, it's great to discover new and not so new bands, right? I love that exciting feeling. //off-topic off

I love White Lies! They are great! I have seen them twice (in Poland) and I am going at another two concerts of them :) They are just great!

PaulineSusan, cool - another fan! Great that you have the chance to see them twice! Give us a little report then, will you? I only saw them once playing a very small set due to voice problems, but even that was very cool...

Yeah, no problem. I will write revision after concerts (about 28th of August). But, I hope you will see them second and third and fourth and again and again! :D

Hello! Just back from Frequency festival in Austria. The boys from White Lies were playing there too and they played three new songs. Bigger than us, which has already been played live a couple of times, Holy Ghost and Is Love. Wasn't overly impressed with Is Love on first hearing but Holy Ghost was pretty good. I already knew Bigger than us so was able to sing along - leading to very strange looks from those around me because Harry had introduced it as a new song!

They had to cut their set a bit short because things were running late so the didn't play Price of Love and another new song. A very good performance nonetheless, they really have improved since the first time I saw them live at Rock im Park 2009.

Tommy (their live keyboardist) tweeted that the new album will be out in January. I'm pretty excited about that!

Wow, new album in January? That would definitely cheer up one of the most depressing month of the year.
Ha ha, I can imagine the strange looks when you were singing along!

The album is due out on January 17th

That's brillant!! Just marked the day in my calendar.

Got tickets to see White Lies in London on 22nd November!!

Tour dates!

4th Feb - Cambridge Junction

6th Feb - Norwich UEA

7th Feb - Brighton Corn Exchange

9th Feb - Bristol O2 Academy

10th Feb - London Shepherds Bush Empire

11th Feb - London Shepherds Bush Empire

13th Feb - Leeds O2 Academy

14th Feb - Birmigham Institute

16th Feb - Glasgow Barrowland

17th Feb - Newcastle O2 Academy

18th Feb - Manchester Academy

23rd Feb - Lille Grand Mix

24th Feb - Amsterdam HMH

25th Feb - Hamburg Docks

27th Feb - Oslo Rockefeller

28th Feb - Stockholm Cirkus

1st Mar - Copenhagen KB Halle

3rd Mar - Berlin Columbiahalle

4th Mar - Poznan Eskalap

5th Mar - Warsaw Stodola

7th Mar - Prague Lucerna

8th Mar - Vienna Gasometer

9th Mar - Munich Tonhalle

11th Mar - Zurich Komplex

12th Mar - Bologna Estragon

14th Mar - Toulouse Bikini

15th Mar - Barcelona Apolo

16th Mar - Madrid Sala Heineken

18th Mar - Bordeaux Barbey

19th Mar - Rennes UBU

21st Mar - Cologne LMH

22nd Mar - Paris La Cigale

23rd Mar - Brussels AB

24th Mar - Luxembourg Den Atelier

15th Apr - Tampere Pakkahuone

16th Apr - Helsinki Cirkus

That's really great news! Tickets go on sale by tomorrow. Have to order some for Munich...

Did you get Munich tickets, Jana?

I went to see White Lies at York Hall in London on Monday. It was a terrific show. We were on the barrier between Harry (singer) and Tommy (keyboards) which is always a nice spot to have.

The new songs sounded great, especially Power & the glory which they debuted that evening.

Fantastic to hear Unfinished business again, I've missed that recently.

The guys seemed to be genuinely loving it up there.

Shame about the complete idiots behind us who were intent on propelling themselves against us, getting aggressive and generally trying to ruin it for us. At one point, we had pretty much all of the securities in front of us monitoring what was going on.

Setlist:
Is Love
Strangers
Bigger Than Us
To Lose My Life
Holy Ghost
Peace & Quiet
Streetlights
Unfinished Business
Bad Love
The Power And The Glory
Death

Encore:
A Place To Hide
Farewell To The Fairground

At the end of the gig, I was lucky enough to get the lyric sheet for Bad Love.



We also met the lads as they left the venue and I got a photo with Tommy and Charles (bass) and another one with Harry.

Yeah, I got tickets for Munich, hurray!
Soooo looking forward to the new album and the show!