Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

White Little Lies at the Music Room in Liverpool. December 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Some meetings appear pre-destined, it is just a wonder that strikes us all who find such things fascinating, on what kept the magic from happening earlier. It is a magic that is young in its infancy and yet one that seems boldly to go beyond its formative binding with fans, an enchanting experience that Daniel Saleh and Vanessa Murray have both grabbed with eager thought and spirit and found in a world hell bent on the big fib and the posturing falsehood, that the best avenue in which to reside is in the truth of White Little Lies.

Inside barely a year White Little Lies have made an enormous impact, of course it helps that both members of the band have been a staple of Liverpool’s acoustic scene for many years, but that doesn’t prepare the attendee of one of their gigs for what lays in store for them.

It is perhaps understating the possibility and love for the duo when their first song of the evening for Liverpool Acoustic’s It Takes Two evening is titled Everything Is Gonna Be Alright, as by the end of the tune selected as their opener, you cannot be but help feel proud of they way they naturally feel at home together on stage; be alright? it is arguably going to be extraordinary!

An opening act has to achieve something more than just warm up the audience, it has to set a resonance for the evening, it is the moral signpost to which all others are treated with either favour and sparkling anticipation, or in which the fall of the crowd is taken for granted, in which the night air and the prospect of homely fire feels a finer option to look forward to.

Across songs such as the aforementioned Everything Is Gonna Be Alright, Second Chance, Young Love, If These Walls Could Talk, Hurricane, Parallel and the set closer of Lifeline, the selection of the band who have been together the shortest time was seen to be exemplary, bold, imaginative and absolutely spot on.

If time is measured by the impact you make, then for White Little Lies, time is crater in which the largest meteorite has created, one that brings with it, life, a living, breathing and full of energy entity which for those in attendance at the Music Rooms will surely implore others to investigate fully. A glorious debut at the venue for the duo, one in which can only be hoped to be witnessed again soon.

Ian D. Hall