DIRTY HONEY LIVE IS A CURE FOR THE MONDAY BLUES

Dec 8

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY STEPHEN BROWNLEE

The Belasco Theater was home for Dirty Honey on Monday, November 20, 2023, to an enthusiastic Los Angeles crowd as they made their stop in the city as part of their ‘Can’t Find the Breaks Tour’, the same name as their recently released second studio album.

Going six years strong since forming in this city, they have gone on tour with bands such as The Black Crowes, Alter Bridge, Guns N’ Roses, and Kiss. They also picked up a Best New Rock/Alternative Artist nomination at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2020. This was my second time shooting at The Belasco with the first being for Wolfmother a couple of months back. For this show, my main focus was at the pit and I pulled out my 24-70mm lens. I must have been one of half a dozen other photographers in the pit. It was crazy but we all managed. The show was also being live-streamed on Veeps so we had professional videographers in the mix too. Introducing the show was KLOS’ Matt Pinfield who I had just recently seen in the new movie “DOA' ' with X frontman John Doe which I recommend you rent when you get a chance. I’ve personally never heard of the band so I took a chance and did not regret the results.

The band was high energy and led by charismatic frontman Marc Labelle. Each of the members of the band were fun to shoot whether some members were in shots together or individually. My favorite track of the night was “When I’m Gone” from their EP album in 2019. There were not any moments where I struggled with adjusting my ISO’s or F-Stops. It was just shoot, shoot, shoot. A fellow photographer advised me that there would be an encore and we got approval to come back in the pit for just the first song in the encore because there was a special surprise which turned out to be Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes. My favorite color shot of the night was guitarist John Notto showing off his skills with his guitar pointed in an upright position and my favorite B&W shots of the night are a tie between one with both Chris Robinson and Labelle together and a solo shot of Labelle on the mic with his arm in the open and smoke in the background.