Los Angeles’ biggest and baddest rockers in decades Can’t Find The Brakes tour finds the four-piece Dirty Honey roaring across 27 states and Canada. With no end in sight, the band has also expanded the tour dates well into 2024. A European leg follows soon. Fortunately for us, Dirty Honey truly can’t find the brakes.
Dirty Honey
Castle Theater, Bloomington, Illinois – 5 December 2023
Words and Photography: Ben Tschetter
On the final lap and nearing the finish line of their North American tour, the quartet consisting of vocalist Marc Labelle, guitarist John Notto, bassist Justin Smolian, and drummer Jaydon Bean made a stop at the packed Castle Theater in Bloomington, Illinois.
Fans waited for hours in the cold before doors opened to secure the best spots in front of the 3-foot tall stage. Elated fans funnelled into the venue to pack the room. By showtime, the club, with a capacity of 700, was nearly full.
Since their inception and rise to fame in 2019, Dirty Honey has aged like fine wine, getting better every show. The band tore into the title track from their latest electric album, hitting the stage hard with Can’t Find The Brakes.
Labelle, who has sung and performed with legends (including members of Guns N’ Roses, ZZ Top, Cheap Trick, The Black Crowes, and more), dominated and commanded the room and stage with his powerful, gritty vocals and grandiose stage presence. In over four years of fame, his voice has only improved with age, sounding true to (if not better than) studio versions of his songs.
Dirty Honey guitarist John Notto, easily one of the best guitarists to rise to greatness in countless years, holds his own against even legends from decades past. Notto blasted out incredible riff after riff throughout the evening, which had the entire room banging their heads, dancing, and completely captivated by the music.
Notto’s roaring riffs paired with Labelle’s dynamic vocals prove to be an untouchable and deadly combination, killing off any idea that there’s another modern band with more talent, ferocity, and energy than Dirty Honey.
Justin Smolian’s bass was thick and heavy in the mix, perfect in capturing a huge sound that exploded to the edges of the two-story club. Arguably the most social of the band members, the big-haired Smolian constantly interacted with the crowd from whom he stood just inches, soloing, headbanging, and not missing a beat the whole night.
The other piece of the precise and ultra-tight rhythm section is new drummer Jaydon Bean. Bean joined the band shortly before the band’s UK Headline Tour in January 2023. No official announcement was given as to the departure of former drummer Corey Coverstone, who contributed greatly to the rise of the band’s career. With sceptic fans defending the band’s original drummer on this side of the pond, this tour has been Bean’s proving ground. And proved it he has.
Not missing a beat throughout the evening, Bean performed with rockin’ grooves and a great rhythm that had the whole band and the crowd jumping, dancing, and moving. Each song from the band’s older catalogue Bean played with proper justice, and each new song he was a part of sounded just as great as the album cuts.
In early incarnations of the band, Bean played alongside Smolian and Notto, so his official entry into the band proved natural with fantastic chemistry, onstage and off.
Dirty Honey’s stops on the tour are raucous, high-energy, textbook rock shows – what every rock show should be. No longer part of the summer festival circuit alongside rock legends such as Guns N’ Roses, KISS, and more, Dirty Honey have written their own path. They can fill rock clubs from coast to coast with their own buzzing fans. Some travel hours, stoked to see the rockers, only to leave with ringing ears and raving reviews.
The shows rock hard (with a few gentler ballads mixed in) from start to finish, and Bloomington was certainly no exception. The room is packed with folks who can spot greatness early and recognise where Dirty Honey is headed.
The band continues to show appreciation to the fans by interacting on stage throughout the night. With the Castle Theater’s stage only a small step off the ground, fans were immersed with the band. This helped create an incredible and unforgettable energy throughout the room.
Showing no signs of slowing down, and rightfully so, Dirty Honey proved themselves to be the rising kings of rock with every show, and their live performances and expert musicianship solidified their greatness.
The band continues their trek across the United States for two more weeks before crossing the Atlantic and rocking Europe in 2024. These are must-see shows before Dirty Honey are on top of the world!
Austin Meade
The show was led off by Austin Meade and his backing band. A rocker hailing from Texas, Meade and his band brought an 11-song set of mostly originals that fit right in with the sound of Dirty Honey.
Meade’s original songs feature lots of hard-rocking, headbanging riffs but also include solos and segments that venture into southern and psychedelic sounds.
Meade warmed up – quite literally – the crowd just right, as the anticipation was high for the young guns of Dirty Honey to take the stage.
