NO BRAKES FOR DIRTY HONEY!
Words by William K. Images by Kevin Graft
Fresh from opening for Guns n Roses, for the second night of Dirty Honey’s Can’t Find the Brakes tour stop at Ace of Spades in Sacramento they rocked a full house of dirty rockers! Celebrating the release of their second full album “Can’t Find the Brakes” Dirty Honey embark on a national tour taking them across the country. The album is chock full of stompin’ rockers and and groovy grooves further proving they are the latest addition to the American classic rock roster ala Aerosmith and Black Crowes.
Opening the show was Austin Meade. Austin and his band rollicked through a set of tunes that kept the crowd guessing in his 70’s time warped style. He featured songs from his fourth release, Waves. Rich guitar-driven melodies are his signature that harkin back to when guitar ruled the airwaves.
Dirty Honey hit the stage on fire with more vigor than I’ve witnessed before from them. This was my fifth time seeing them since 2019 at the now defunct Holy Diver club, and they have really grown into themselves with Marc LaBelle controlling the stage like never before and at times channeling his best Steven Tyler poses. Bass Player Justin Smolian and guitarist John Notto are really comfortable now as they begin their accent to rock royalty.
They opened the show with “Can’t Find the Brakes” and played a great mix of new and older songs with a surprise mix of covers. The wildest surprise of the night was when new drummer Jaydon Bean came out with a shaker and the boys swayed through a rousing version of “Could this be Magic” by Van Halen. Half the younger crowd probably had no idea what they were singing but for the rest of us this was a pure delight. Big thumbs up for this classic! Later throwing in Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy leading into Aerosmith’s Last Child. Their first encore was their first single off the new album “Won’t Take Me Alive” and they ended the night with a stretched out version of “Rolling 7’s”
Dirty Honey is a bright star leading the rock revolution and I’ll catch them every chance I get.
