DIRTY HONEY SETLIST
Can't Find the Brakes Won't Take Me Alive FEEL SETLIST Find a Love
Shoal Creek Call It What You Will Here You Go Goodbye Virginia Brother Poem 59 In the Garden DIRTY HONEY TOUR DATES
JULY
23 The Hall Little Rock, AR
25 The Castle Theatre Bloomington, IL
SEPTEMBER
13 The Rust Belt, East Moline, IL
14 Q Casino, Dubuque, IA
15 Majestic Theatre, Madison, WI
17 The Forge, Joliet, IL
18 EPIC Event Center, Green Bay, WI
20 The Bluestone, Columbus, OH
21 Piere's, Ft. Wayne, IN
22 Bogart's, Cincinnati, OH
24 The Machine Shop, Flint, MI
25 Maxwell's, Waterloo, ON Canada
27 Aura, Portland, ME
28 Waterloo Casino, Del Lago, NY
OCTOBER
1 Big Night Live, Boston, MA
2 The Paramount, Huntington, NY
4 Sound Waves at Hard Rock, Atlantic City, NJ
5 Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, CT
6 The Sherman Theatre, Stroudsburg, PA
8 Wally's Hampton Beach, NH
9 Empire Live, Albany, NY
11 The Queen, Wilmington, DE
12 Hollywood Casino at Races, Charles Town, WVa
15 Iron City, Birmingham, AL
16 Minglewood Hall, Memphis, TN
18 Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall, Ft. Worth, TX
20 Scoot Inn, Austin, TX
22 Temple Live, Wichita, KS
23 The Admiral, Omaha, NE
25 Mesa Theater, Grand Junction, CO
26 Washington Foco, Fort Collins, CO
29 Virginia Street Brewhouse, Reno, NV
30 Ace of Spades, Sacramento, CA
31 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA
NOVEMBER
2 Yaamava Casino- Rock N Brews Concert Highland, CA
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With a dash of the old made into a sound that is new, Los Angeles band Dirty Honey returned to Kansas City, playing the Madrid Theater in Midtown, in support of their new full-length, “Can't Find the Brakes” (via their own Dirt Records) and proved there was no sophomore slump to their second album, playing songs from that, their debut, and initial EP.
The evening began with a thirty-five-minute set from another rock band that blends the old with the new, The Band Feel from St. Louis, who opens this Midwest leg and has done similar alongside the likes of Blackberry Smoke, Rival Sons, Cheap Trick and more.
The band is composed of guitarist Tyler Armstrong, Rodger Lenhardt on bass, T.J. Steinwart on drums and vocalist Garrett Barcus, from Sacramento, and has found a label home on Harbor Music, a relatively new imprint co-owned by guitarist Armstrong, and a good friend of the band Nick Bifano.
While maybe not the most internet-friendly search name (i.e. there is a Polish band named Feel), their sound and stage presence do make them more memorable- taking the blues, jazz, and rock & roll roots of the middle banks of the Mississippi River, the experimental revolution of the 1960s, and the array of the ‘70s sounds UK hard rock and that of the laid-back Laurel Canyon, all intertwining to become their own sound.
Their recent single is “Find A Love” which they began their set with, and also released their Live in St Petersburg EP and Live at Harbor Music video, both of which showcase their in-concert experience. The group strayed from their setlist for an impactful “With a Little Help from My Friends” that would have made Joe Cocker proud, and visibly made many new fans at the show, as evidenced by their racing to the merch booth after the set, to buy the music.
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We’ve been fans of Los Angeles blues rock band Dirty Honey from their beginnings leaving the coast to tour places in the Midwest. We caught them live pre-pandemic at the Riot Room (r.i.p.), as well as their return to our area, co-headlining with Mammoth WVH.
Their 2019 debut single, "When I'm Gone" topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock and Hard Rock charts, making them the first and only independent, unsigned artist to go #1.
Their self-titled, debut album would follow in April 2021, entering the Current Hard Rock Album chart at #2 (also without major label support) and their fan base and exposure grew as a result of tour stints with The Black Crowes, Rival Sons, KISS, and Guns n’ Roses as well as numerous sold-out headlining shows.
After all that and seeing them live when they return to the area, our only question is why isn’t the band (Marc LaBelle/vocals, John Notto/guitar, Justin Smolian/bass, and new drummer Jaydon Bean) massively famous and popular?! They kind of are, in circles that know newer bands, but still remain a bit of a secret, which gratefully means we don’t have to view them from the top row of some gigantic arena…yet. But there’s plenty more to come from the band...
The band has returned with new album, “Can't Find the Brakes” and its lead single, "Don't Put Out The Fire," which was the most added track at Active Rock Radio (Mediabase)on the week of its release, so the word is out, and the faithful have been rewarded with new music. Live, the band is as explosive as ever, opening their headlining set with the title track of the new record, and following that up with familiar radio hits, “California Dreamin'” and “Heartbreaker.”
LaBelle remains a mesmerizing front man with Notto blazing as always on guitar (in a humble way, rather than showboating, even when teasing a little “Achilles’ Last Stand” by Zeppelin) and the rhythm section of Smolian and Bean laying the beat foundation to every track.
The group veered from the setlist to work in a spirited vintage Aerosmith cover and during an acoustic mini-set, their stripped cover of a Rolling Stones classic retained the essentials of the original, but transformed the song enough, to make it feel like their own distinctive version- key to adapting any familiar song.
LaBelle proved on several occasions during the set, that he was more than capable of holding a solid extended vocal note, and each band member got some short solo time as part of song intros on the back end of the setlist.
Speaking of not finding the brakes, the set re-built its momentum following the acoustic portion, really taking off toward the end with “The Wire” and the main set-ending, “You Make It All Right.” All night, the audience was loudly vocal whenever LaBelle asked them to sing or put the mic stand into the audience, sounding like a crowd two to three times its actual size.
The encore and the night would end, as it traditionally does for the band, with the Aerosmith-influenced “Rolling 7’s” and LaBelle singing, “Take another toss of the dice, we’re rolling sevens again”, but it was the audience that seemed the lucky ones to get to see the band relatively up close again.
The ‘brakes are on’ after this week for this tour leg, but Dirty Honey hits the gas and the road again, for a final run of this successful tour, in September and October, and we suggest you make a one-way for the nearest venue, to catch the band live yourself.
(Click on any image to enlarge and see in full)
DIRTY HONEY at Madrid Theater, Kansas City MO (2024-07-21) |
DIRTY HONEY at Madrid Theater, Kansas City MO (2024-07-21) |
JohnC ♥ johnc@weheartmusic.com ♥ X / twitter.com |
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