Review by Jordan West
Photos by Joe Schaeffer
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of their first LP, Everybody Wants, British rockers The Struts brought their high energy show to Los Angeles, along with home-town fellow rock and rollers Dirty Honey, for a rip-roaring, riff-filled, rock and roll extravaganza at The Wiltern, to a packed house of enthusiastic fans, who partied and shouted all night long and really seemed to be having the time of their lives. What a party it was!
The evening started as Los Angeles rockers Dirty Honey shot right out of the gates with bang. Drummer Jadon Bean seemed to be playing double-time with his locomotive beats on the opening song “Gypsy” when singer Marc LaBelle appeared from the wings and welcomed the crowd. As he leaned back to scream a verse, I noticed that he inadvertently dropped his vocal mic. I’m not a technical expert, but this may have provided the reason for an obvious sound issue that plagued their set.
Nonetheless, the band went on as if it was business as usual, with their always enjoyable quality rock show. “It’s good to be home. We are Dirty Honey from Los Angeles,” LaBelle enthusiastically announced as they rocked their riff–heavy songs like the terrific “California Dreaming” and “Heartbreaker,” which was dedicated to “All the beautiful California women,” which elicited plenty of healthy female screams amongst the crowd.
Dirty Honey offered up a new song, “Too Good At Being Bad,” which had a serious vintage Aerosmith Rocks period feel to it with its syncopated sound. It’s no secret that Dirty Honey are all huge Aerosmith fans and have covered their songs in the past. On this one, guitarist John Notto knows a good riff when he “borrows” one, that’s for sure. At any rate, it was great to hear the band play some new music. As a big fan of theirs, I look forward to more.
Notto is truly one of the great “riff-masters” on the rock scene today. I use the term “riff” a lot when I talk about this band, as it is a huge part of Dirty Honey’s sound. The combination of just the right one, combined with La Belle’s powerful pipes is what is initially recognizable about this band. Their live, enjoyable show is very popular, no matter who they are touring with. And they’ve been at it for a while, all over the world, nonstop.
Notto’s Hendrix-like intro to the soulful ballad “Another Last Time” slowed down the pace, if only temporarily, as LaBelle’s soaring vocals brought the song to new heights. It seemed as if, by now, the sound techs had done their job at fixing the volume issue, and the band sounded fantastic and were on a roll. Drummer Jadon Bean also sang harmony on the chorus, and you could hear him loud and clearly on top of the mix.
Bassist Justin Smolian’s solid bass lines laid down the foundation for “The Wire” as well as the funky “Don’t Put Out The Fire.” By now, the band members had ditched their shades and were getting sweaty and yes, funky. LaBelle’s voice seemed to get better as the show went on. He even grabbed a folding chair and hopped into the crowd to sing the song’s chorus, standing above them on the chair, to entice the surrounding crowd to help him out, which they did, enthusiastically.
Next it was John Notto’s time to shine in the spotlight. His Les Paul screamed and wailed. Leading into the song that made the band famous, the 2019 self-released “When I’m Gone.” This song still holds the distinction as being the only song by an unsigned band to hit #1 on the rock radio charts. Tonight, it kept their fans extremely happy, as they danced and sang the words like it was STILL the #1 song.
After another Aerosmith-like number, “Don’t Take Me Alive,” Dirty Honey concluded their outstanding set with their second single, the bluesy “Rolling 7’s” in which Labelle again went offstage into the orchestra pit to sing to the band’s adoring fans. Dirty Honey has headlined many shows, and this tour is special, because there really are not many bands that can follow them onstage admirably. Tonight, as well as every night on this tour, that band is The Struts.
As an air-raid siren wailed, white, flashing lights surrounded the stage, as a cowbell beat counted in, the Struts exploded onstage, opening with “Primadonna Like Me” from their 2018 Young And Dangerous release. This number raised the energy in the room and changed the atmosphere from the “down and dirty” rock n roll of Dirty Honey, to the extremely high-energy, hand-waving, jumping up and down excitement of this British act, who bring such a joy to their fans whenever and wherever they appear in concert.
Leading the charge is front-man Luke Spiller, who has been compared to a modern-day combination of Freddie Mercury and Mick Jagger. The singer is in constant motion throughout the set, jumping, clapping and enticing his audience and yes, strutting – all about the stage, eliciting a frenzied vibe that stays that way all show. It’s a fabulous site to see and experience. That is one reason why the Struts are so popular amongst their faithful fans.
Continuing with the campy “Body Talks” also from 2018, Spillar worked HIS body like a Vegas showgirl-punctuating guitarist Adam Slack’s crunchy power chords, and drummer Gethin Davies cymbal chokes with rhythmic hand motions and choreographed body moves that are straight out of the Toni Basil / Bob Fosse playbook. Naturally, their fans ate it up, and I noticed many in the sold-out crowd doing their best to duplicate, although with a lot less room to move around then Spiller was fortunate enough to have.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the 10-year anniversary of our album Everybody Wants!” Spiller said. “How about we do it from start to finish?” And they did just that, all the songs from that ground-breaking record were performed, although in the live setting it was so much more enjoyable. “Roll Up” on record, has a very processed sound, but performed onstage it breaks out of its studio barrier to come across as so much more, a tribute to the skills that the Struts have achieved from years of touring.
“I got a feeling that tonight is gonna be the best night of the tour” the singer teased to the adoring crowd, who naturally screamed and raised their hands. After “Put Your Money On Me,” in which Spiller pretended to “make it rain” to an imaginary exotic dancer, the band led the crowd in the singing of “Happy Birthday” to their stage tech Shane, who brought Spiller an acoustic guitar. During the power ballad “Mary Go Round,” he instructed the crowd to wave their cell phones during the chorus as he strummed the guitar, and the band joined in.
Extremely fun, sing-along numbers such as “Dirty Sexy Money” and “The Ol’ Switcheroo” bring the campy, British glam of 1970s bands like Slade to mind. It’s cool watching a new generation of fans enjoy themselves in this kind of atmosphere, and The Struts are at the top of the game in this department. “I’m having so much fun!” Spiller exclaimed. He was not alone.
He made his way to a piano that was perched center-stage and after a few warm-up chords, led the band into the very Queen-like “Young Stars,” a very semi-autobiographical number that showed off his very powerful vocal abilities. This guy can do it all onstage. The spotlight shined on guitarist Adam Slack. His guitar solo, which followed, displayed a variety of styles from his Sunburst Gibson Les Paul. It was nothing too flashy, just some heavy noodling.
“Black Swan” led into Spiller explaining that there actually were two versions of the Everybody Wants release. His tales of making their mark in France as well as opening for the Rolling Stones gave the band a buzz that brought them to the USA, where the record was re-recorded.
This story preceded a rollicking, drum-heavy romp through “These Times Are Changing” that had the crowd singing along to every word. Spiller was in full “cheerleader mode” shaking his hips, egging the crowd on and during the song’s breakdown, spoke to the audience as if they were one-on-one with him. Brilliantly, the band, all the while, slowly built the pace back up to a frantic pace. It was wonderful to witness the excitement and love that the band and audience displayed mutually.
Spiller then headed back to the piano and led the band into the lovely, “Only Just A Call Away” a song that builds and builds to a crescendo, bassist Jed Elliott and guitarist Slack adding to the anthem-like chorus. Before ending their set, Spiller thanked Dirty Honey as well as their crew, and sound and light persons and as drummer Gethin Davies pounded out a beat, he thanked the crowd and as the band jumped up and down, ended their set with the sing-along “Where Did She Go” that had their fans waving their arms and singing the “Woah-O- Oh” part in unison.
As the band stood at the front of the stage, and their fans cheered them, it struck me that THIS is exactly what we need more of. Two bands from different continents, with two different styles of performance and music, can connect with an audience and make them have the time of their lives in the few hours that they were together.
These are two of the best young bands on the current rock circuit bringing this kind of excitement and quality songs and performance to a new generation of rock fans, who are generally new to the game as well.
Both bands have only a few records released at this point but are on the road constantly. To hell with what jaded naysayers who bitch about rock music and its fans. With bands like The Struts and Dirty Honey on the scene, selling out shows everywhere they appear, the future of rock looks pretty good to me.
