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Dirty Honey | Bogart's

November 12th 2023 | Bogart's | Cincinnati, OH


Photos of Dirty Honey by Nikki Forte


Some musicians take a while to build an audience and connect with fans.  For the Los Angeles-based quartet Dirty Honey, success came right out of the gate.


In September 2019, Dirty Honey made history as the only unsigned artist in Billboard’s near four decades to go all the way to #1 on the magazine’s Mainstream and Hard Rock Charts with its debut single, “When I’m Gone.”  Since that weighty debut, Dirty Honey opened for The Who, Guns N’ Roses, Slash with Alter Bridge, and The Black Crowes (when the band received glowing press reviews and a standing ovation at the majority of the tour’s concerts — unprecedented for a support act, and co-headlined the 2022 "Young Guns Tour" with Mammoth WVH.  Dirty Honey’s self-titled album - without being signed to a major label - debuted at #2 on the Current Hard Rock Chart, Rolling Stone featured them as “An Artist You Need To Know,” they were tagged as the “do-not-miss-band” at more than a dozen major North American summer festivals, and played sold-out shows on their first two North American headline tours.

In May 2022 the band released its international EP/LP debut and headed to the U.K. and Europe for their first tour there, playing headline shows, festival slots and support dates with Guns N’ Roses, KISS, and Rival Sons.  Both legs of the band’s 2023 UK/European headline tours sold out, with most of the venues having to upscale due to ticket demand.

 

In April 2023, Dirty Honey - Marc LaBelle/vocals, John Notto/guitar, Justin Smolian/bass, and newest member, Jaydon Bean/drums) - headed to Australia to record their new album, Can’t Find The Brakes, with a release date of November 3.


The album’s first single, “Won’t Take Me Alive" - released on July 7, 2023 - is a literal, take-no-prisoners-balls-out rocker., and a Top 10 track at Active Rock Radio.  The band's follow-up single, "Coming Home," is a deeply personal, shatter-your-heart-into-a-million-pieces ballad and a song that illustrates what Dirty Honey is capable of.  

 

Dirty Honey launched their 2023-24 North American world tour on October 18, preceded by a handful of U.S. dates supporting Guns N’ Roses, and is currently playing headline shows through to mid-December. Dirty Honey continues to take the world by storm.


Opening the show was none other than the amazing Austin Meade.

Photos of Austin Meade by Nikki Forte


Thanks to his metal- and classic-rock loving dad, Meade got to see bands like Judas Priest and worshipped Whitesnake. In junior high he related to the intense emo-rock of Paramore and Fall Out Boy, and the power of songwriters like John Mayer. Yet, thanks to plainspoken but deep heartland songwriters like Tom Petty, and cutting his teeth touring in the Texas and Oklahoma Red Dirt scene, Meade’s music overflows with wide-open soulfulness. He was a drummer for years, even teaching to pay the bills, but Meade found his true voice when he began playing guitar as a teen in his pastor-father’s church. Those experiences lend both a gravitas and rebelliousness to Meade’s songs and self. 
 Now the frontman of his own band slinging guitar licks with expert precision, his music rolled out with two releases in 2014, his first EP “Long Ways To Go” followed by his first full-length album “Chief Of The Sinners.” His next EP “Heartbreak Coming” came in 2016 with a couple of singles to announce his commencement on the Texas Music Chart, followed by his second full-length album “Waves” in 2019. In 2021, Meade introduced his third LP 'Black Sheep' including the hit tracks "Happier Alone," "Cave In,"'Dopamine Drop," and "Deja Vu." Meade released his fourth LP 'Abstract Art Of An Unstable Mind' fall of 2022, further showcasing his ability to seamlessly blend genres into a groovy yet piercingly fresh sound of rock 'n' roll. Now comes a new era ushering in Meade's latest single "Blackout."



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