Dirty Honey gig review – The Bodega Nottingham 2023.

When do you get chance to be 4 inches away from a rock star without having to be invited back to the tour bus? I’ll tell you , it’s when your favourite rock band is playing The Bodega in Nottingham. Tonight on the small stage and headlining to a sell out audience are Dirty Honey, the LA rockers, who are currently on their UK leg of their European tour.

The Bodega lights went down and the band crept onto the stage through the back door of the venue to the cheers of the packed out crowd. Jaydon Bean started striking the drums to the opening beat of Gypsy the bands opening song. Jaydon was soon joined by the guitar of John Notto and the bass of Justin Smolian. The unmistakably voice of Marc Labelle unleashed into the first verse of the song. The crowd obediently nodded to the beat of the song and sang the words of the chorus in time with Marc.

Dirty Honey went straight into the next song Break You and as Marc screamed out the lyrics he was leaning out over the crowd. Halfway through the song Labelle introduced John Notto who then went into a great guitar solo making his guitar strings really sing. Marc held his note on one of the lines for what seemed like an eternity, his body bent double as he strained to keep going.

Dedicating Heartbreaker to all the women in the audience the band launched into the song. In the chorus Marc held his mic out to the crowd who didn’t miss the opportunity to join in with the words.

Sandwiched between a fantastic cover of Aerosmith’s Last Child and Prince Lets Go Crazy the band treated the audience to a new song Ride On. The crowds reaction suggesting it went down well and is sure to appear on the bands forthcoming album which, like the rest of the Bodega crowd, I’m really looking forward to!

Coming late on in the set was California Dreamin’ and during the song Labelle’s enthusiasm to put on a rock n roll show saw him leap on to the speaker stack at side of the stage. Now standing about 12 feet above the crowd he went on to sing the remainder of the song, thrusting the mic and stand into the crowd to get them to sing with him.

Dirty Honey continued with their big hits singing Another Last Time, When Im Gone and finishing on Rolling 7s. During these songs the crowd were treated to John Notto encouraging the crowd to shout ‘Hey’ to the sound of Notto’s playing, and something I’ve never seen at the Bodega before and that was Marc Labelle climbing on to the bar top, working his way along it to the rear of the venue to ensure those fans who couldn’t get close to the stage got the same chance to be as close to him as those who were at the front.

The success that Dirty Honey will undoubtably achieve in the future by playing stadium rock shows to tens of thousands of fans will hopefully make the crowd in Nottingham’s Bodega venue realise how lucky they have been tonight to witness a fantastic show by the rock stars of our futures. Great show guys wish I could make it to more. I highly recommend you check out the musical talent of Dirty Honey at a venue near you!

Dirty Honey gig review – Rock City 2022.

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Setlist
Gypsy
Break You
Heartbreaker
The Wire
Tied Up
Last Child
No Warning
Down the Road
Ride On
Let’s Go Crazy
California Dreaming
Another Last Time
When I’m Gone
Rolling 7s

Dirty Honey are
Marc LaBelle/vocals
John Notto/guitars
Justin Smolian/bass
Jaydon Bean/drums.

Neil

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