Dirty Honey does not rehash tired old rock. Rather, their shows and their 2023 album Can’t Find the Brakes find the Southern California rock n’ roll band injecting propulsion, youthful energy, and a new spin on the sounds that are rooted in the ’60s.

“To have people say that they feel like what we’re doing is fresh, I think that’s a high honor, to be fresh in a world where we’ve already had psychedelic blues,” said guitarist John Notto. “We’ve had ’70s commercial rock. We had ’80s glam metal. We’ve had ’90s stoner rock. We’ve had rap rock in the late ’90s. We’ve had basically commercialized rock since 2000. It’s almost like what else is there? What has freed us up is we feel like we can be sort of the melting pot of all our influences. And that’s kind of our thing.”

That melting pot will be at Piere’s on Saturday, Sept. 21, with The Band Feel.

Top of the rock charts

Dirty Honey got their start in 2017 when Notto moved from Maine to Los Angeles. There he met Marc LaBelle and joined the singer’s band Ground Zero. After adding a couple members, the band changed their name to Dirty Honey and largely dropped covers from their set.

They broke through nationally in 2019 when they became the first unsigned band to top the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart with their debut single, “When I’m Gone.” 

That song and their 2021 self-titled debut album propelled Dirty Honey into co-headlining clubs with Mammoth WVH. They also toured Europe, opening for The Who, Guns N’ Roses, Kiss, and Rival Sons as the band members brought their Aerosmith-meets-AC/DC-meets- classic-rock assault and high-energy stage show to multi-generational audiences.

Influential bands

That wide appeal comes in part from the band’s knowledge and absorption of rock history.

Notto’s influences came from his mother’s record collection, discoveries he made at 8 or 9 years old, long before he picked up a guitar.

“There were all the Jimi Hendrix originals and only one Led Zeppelin record,” he said. “It was Led Zeppelin II, an amazing record to stumble upon. Those guys, the Jimmies, were massive. The Allman Brothers were in there. But the biggest of the big three is probably (Zeppelin guitarist) Jimmy Page.

“I really am a melting pot of influences. I have so much information because, you know, of the generation I’m part of it’s like, I love everyone: Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, Slash, Brian May, and the oddball is Trey Anastasio from Phish.”

Altering approach

Notto uses those influences as he comes up with the riffs that drive Dirty Honey’s songs, a process he calls tricky. 

“It’s sort of like trying to catch a bird I think,” he said. “You do it once. You do it twice. You think you know how to do it and as soon as you get cocky, you miss it.

“You get part of it showing up putting the work in and part of it is, for me, trying out fresh approaches. I think variety is the spice of life for me, and maybe it’s the ADHD, I don’t know.”

Getting those fresh approaches was a process.

“Five years ago, I was really analytical about what makes a riff great, what makes a riff engaging, from a musical standpoint,” Notto said. “I really dissected it down to every beat. Some riffs are for two bars, some register four bars, all riffs have the same basis, then variation, and the variation leads back to the base, and it’s a perfect loop. That applies to all instrumentals, from James Brown to ’80s synth pop. It’s got to have this sort of loop magic.

“Then, after a while, you know, the technical approach got stale, and so then ‘Won’t Take Me Alive’ (off Can’t Find the Brakes) came out. It was, ‘What if I really just want to go into the studio and make music that makes me happy tonight?’ ”

“Won’t Take Me Alive” hit the Billboard Rock Mainstream Top 10 singles chart when it was released last fall. Subsequent charting songs “Coming Home (Ballad of the Shire)” and “Don’t Put Out the Fire,” helped cement Dirty Honey’s broad audience.

Those shows, at least in 2024 outside of some festival dates, are headlining affairs in clubs and theaters rather than opening slots.

“I like playing packed headlining shows,” Notto said. “We can play music longer, and we play for fans who came for us. We’re sort of accepted as soon as we get up there. The result is I feel a little freer and put on a great show.

“On our headlining sets, I mean, we can already hear them screaming for us before we get on stage and it is spilling over. You can’t beat that.”