Watch: ELLEFSON-SOTO, Featuring DAVID ELLEFSON And JEFF SCOTT SOTO, Performs At Whisky A Go Go

ELLEFSON-SOTO, the project featuring former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson and acclaimed metal vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, performed on Thursday, April 9 at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.

ELLEFSON-SOTO lineup:

Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals
David Ellefson - Bass
Andy Martongelli - Guitars
Walter Cianciusi - Guitars
Paolo Caridi - Drums

ELLEFSON-SOTO will also play aboard the Monsters Of Rock cruise, sailing April 12–17.

Last month ELLEFSON-SOTO released two new cover songs, paying tribute to two legendary forces in music: the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley and Los Angeles punk rock icons FEAR. Both songs were recorded and filmed live during the Rogue Recording sessions inside the legendary Battery Studios in London, U.K. in July 2025.

ELLEFSON-SOTO has released two albums so far through Rat Pak Records: "Vacation In The Underworld" (2022) and "Unbreakable" (2025).

To officially launch the ELLEFSON-SOTO project, Ellefson and Soto played concerts in September 2022 in Italy where they performed some of the music as well as ran through various catalog highlights, including selections from MEGADETH and Yngwie Malmsteen. They were joined by Martongelli as the musical director, as well as Caridi on drums and Valerio De Rosa on rhythm guitar.

In March 2021 — two months before David was fired from MEGADETH — Ellefson and Soto announced that they had been collaborating on some new material under the moniker ELLEFSON-SOTO. The ELLEFSON-SOTO version of the RIOT classic "Swords & Tequila" was simultaneously released across all digital streaming outlets via Ellefson's Combat Records.

Regarding how Ellefson's collaboration with Soto came about, David told Screamer magazine in an 2025 interview: "It started with one 'lone wolf' song. It was called 'Writing On The Wall', and I really wanted to get a good vocal on it. Andy Martongelli had suggested calling Jeff and getting the process started, not only with that song, but with a bunch of other songs that he and I had written that were intended for a second ELLEFSON solo album. During the pandemic, we'd done the ELLEFSON 'No Cover' record. Prior to that, I had done the ELLEFSON 'Sleeping Giants' record. So, I was starting to have some titles under my name. But 'Writing On The Wall' started this whole thing moving forward, and then I sent Jeff a couple more songs and he liked them, liked the process, and wanted to lock arms and do the project together."

On the topic of his musical chemistry with Soto, Ellefson said: "I've known [Jeff] a long time, and I've always loved his energy. He's a very charismatic and likable guy, but to start at the beginning, I mean, his voice is just incredible.

"I've had this sort of mantra around me — it was somebody at Clear Channel Radio that said it once. He said, 'David, you make music that's heavy, but melodic.' And that's what radio likes, right? Heavy is cool, but it's gotta have some melody that a mainstream listener can get around. That's the kind of music I grew up with — the '70s hard rock, the '80s metal that I liked from IRON MAIDEN to BLACK SABBATH to DEF LEPPARD. That has carried through my thrash career and everything that I've done since then as well. And for me to fully realize the potential of the music I write, having a singer like Jeff just closes the deal."

David was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.