DIRTY HONEY LIVE AT THE MARQUEE IN TEMPE, AZ – JUNE 3, 2021

June 5, 2021 LA Metal Media

DIRTY HONEY LIVE AT THE MARQUEE IN TEMPE, AZ – JUNE 3, 2021

Dirty Honey California Dreamin’ Tour 2021 Coming To A Venue Near YOU!

Dirty Honey has been itching to get out on the road again since their last official show at the EL Rey Theater in Los Angeles on February 28, 2020 just before the pandemic lockdown. Now that restrictions are starting to ease up across the USA, live music is finally coming back and Dirty Honey has hit the road without hesitation! The first show of their California Dreamin’ tour was at the Marquee Theater in Tempe AZ on June 3rd 2021 and the near capacity crowd was just as eager to get out and see some kick ass live music as the band was to be on tour. For our magazine, Arizona Rock and Metal Magazine, this was an especially sweet and meaningful show, considering that, the last show that we covered before the lockdown was Dirty Honey’s headline concert before a sold out crowd at the Los Angeles EL Rey Theater.

Dirty Honey’s music embodies all the great attributes of classic rock with brilliant songs, bad ass grooves, blazing guitars and dynamic vocals. So, it just seems perfect to have Dirty Honey close out the concert going experience — as well as having the band now, pull the sword from the stone so to speak, and get this music train back on track!

The Marquee Theater is a Great intimate theater for live rock music and Dirty Honey rocked the house, shook the walls and blew the roof off. The band came out of the gate with the full throttle rocker, Gypsy. Gypsy’s hard driving pace clearly said; we’re here to rock people, so get on board or get out of the way!

To introduce their next song Break You, singer Marc Labelle said, I can’t tell you how fucking good it feels to play live. This song is also one of the few songs that guitarist John Notto gets to rip it up on on slide guitar! The band continued with more new music including Take My Hand and The Wire, the latter of which had the first call and answer sing along between Labelle and the audience. Labelle then came out and said; let’s play some old shit! Drummer Corey Coverstone led the band into Fire Away; a song that has a heavy grinding groove and also had a great sing a long in the center section. The next two songs, Heartbreaker and Down The Road from their debut self titled EP are not only fan favorites but they’re sure to become classics in the annals of rock.

Bassist Justian Smolian kicked into a melodic bass solo that was a mix of strumming, lighting fast runs on the fret board and a sound that was a wash of some crazy effects. On the heels of Smolian’s bass solo, a mini band jam ensued that was followed by drummer Coverstone’s drum solo. Coverstone led off his solo with a succession of rapid fire single stroke bass drum attacks that were punctuated by combination of cymbal splashes and heavy cymbal accents. He then delivered an array of single stroke rolls across his snare drum (with snares off) and tom toms with bass drum accents mixed in. For his finale, Coverstone switched his “snares” on and began an aggressive all out attack on every drum and cymbal before leading the band into a final jam that segued into the next medley of The Morning, the fan favorite Tied UP and an Aerosmith cover of Last Child. For the last instrument solo of the night, singer Labelle introduced guitarist John Notto by saying; Ladies and Gentleman, Give it up for John Fucking Notto!!! Notto gave a shredding solo that was both mind bending and fret board melting. Notto ripped through a blistering solo that led into a burning blues jam with the band. For the last song of their regular set, they played Another Last Time from their last latest LP before leaping into a shredding encore that included “When I’m Gone”, the song that put them on the map, and was the song that clearly had the loudest sing a long of the night.

For the final song of the evening, the band got down and dirty with Rolling 7s. To kick things off, Labelle jumped into the pit area between the barricade and the stage to dance and sing with the audience. At one point Labelle gave his microphone to a fan to sing the (When You Need A Little Lovin’) part in the song which further ignited the already frenzied fans.

For the bands’ parting words Labelle said to the audience; Thanks so Fucking much for making our first show back in real life such a memorable experience….I hope it was as good for you as it was for us!

The set list was:

Gypsy

Break You

Take My hand

The Wire

Fire Away

Heartbreaker

Down the Road

The Morning

Tied Up

Last Child (Aerosmith Cover)

California Dreamin’