Dirty Honey @ Mercury Ballroom - Louisville
December 16th, 2023: Dirty Honey, Austin Meade @ Mercury Ballroom - Louisville, KY
Dirty Honey - Photos courtesy of: Emily May
Los Angeles rock band Dirty Honey brought their Can’t Find The Brakes Tour to Mercury Ballroom on December 16th, fresh off the heels of performing some support dates on the recent Guns n’ Roses tour! I remember seeing these guys perform in 2019, early in their career, opening for Red Sun Rising and being impressed with their fun energy and stage presence, convinced these guys would go on to be huge. If this evening’s crowd and enthusiasm was any indication, I’d say Dirty Honey is well on their way! Opening this evening was Texas rock musician Austin Meade, who told the crowd “Our last time here was for Louder Than Life Festival! It’s good to be back!”. He and his band proceeded to get the crowd dancing and singing in no time, ensuring everyone was having a good time. “This is our first time at Mercury Ballroom. Thanks to the staff and venue and to all of you who are going to get drunk with us in about 30 minutes when we finish playing (said with a laugh)! It’s time to get sexy. This song is called “Quicksand”. He later told the crowd how this was the second to last night of the tour and how they had been on the road with Dirty Honey for the past couple of months on a beautiful trip across the country. They then performed a track from their last album called “Take A Trip”. Ending the set with their latest single “BLACKOUT”, Austin Meade and his band thoroughly rocked the crowd and had everyone ready to keep the energy and momentum going!
As Dirty Honey walked out on stage this evening, the sounds of deafening cheers and applause filled the venue. Singer Marc LaBelle is a dynamic front man, with his long blonde hair, large brimmed hat, Rayban-esque sunglasses, and long flowy scarves, and was all smiles as the band started their set. The band just released their latest album Can’t Find The Brakes on November 3rd and started things off with the title track! It was clear from the start that the band loved their fans as much as their fans loved them, with LaBelle engaging with them throughout the set. Whether it was twirling his mic stand around and holding the mic out to the crowd to sing along or talking with them between songs, the crowd was having a great time and singing along to each song.
A few songs into the set, LaBelle said to the crowd “I’m not sure how everyone knows about us. Maybe from Louder Than Life Festival, or maybe from the Guns n’ Roses Tour, or maybe you just have good taste (said with a smile), but we are glad you are here!”. He also gave a shout-out to those in the crowd who were holding up the new album they had purchased this evening! The band performed plenty of songs from the new album, such as “Don’t Put Out The Fire”, “Dirty Mind”, and “Coming Home”, along with some older tracks such as “Scars”, “California Dreamin’”, and “Heartbreaker”. Towards the end of the set, the band performed “Another Last Time” from their 2021 self-titled album, with LaBelle jumping off the stage to stand at the barricade, singing amongst the fans, giving them fist-bumps, and taking cell phones to record him singing a bit and taking selfies with fans, all of whom looked ecstatic to be part of such a moment.
After singing the “last song”, “When I’m Gone”, the band left the stage and came back out for an encore! “Wanna hear more or are you ready to go home? What do ya’ll wanna hear? You guys like ballads, huh? We haven’t played this one in a while.” The band then performed “You Make It Alright”, after which LaBelle mentioned that they may need to add that one to the set from now on. “Ya’ll wanna hear more? Our lighting guy and TM are looking at me like “Let’s get outta here” but we’ll keep playing a bit longer. This one is called “Satisfied”. He then told a story about how when Dirty Honey opened recently for Guns n’ Roses, he was asking Axl one day about why they played such long sets. Axl told him that when he was younger he saved money to see his favorite band perform and they only played an hour set he was pissed and said that if his band ever became famous, he would play long sets and give fans their money’s worth. The band ended the evening with “Rolling 7s”, asking the crowd “Are ya’ll ready to sing nice and loud for us?”. The crowd obliged, ending what was an incredibly fun evening! I’m sure everyone can’t wait for Dirty Honey to come back soon to perform for us again!
Austin Meade
