Easy Honey Brings The Plaid Tour to ATX
05.15.26 - Austin, TX
Easy Honey is an alternative indie rock/surf-rock group from Charleston, South Carolina; on their third headlining tour to debut their recent EP release, Plaid. Earlier this year, they had the opportunity to tour with The Runarounds, and throughout that tour, they met amazing people and saw cities they would visit again to headline.
Photo by DeAnna Garza - @shotbydeanna
On this run, they brought along Elijah Johnston, a solo act based out of Atlanta, to get the nights on stage started. He has visited Austin many times as an SXSW act, and despite the fact that the room wasn’t yet filled to capacity, he put on a phenomenal performance. Elijah was performing originals during his set and encouraged the audience to dance and sing along whether or not they knew the lyrics and just to have fun. Between each song, he interacted with the crowd, joked with them as they cheered or performed his ongoing bit of replacing the venue name with a chain-restaurant name. He continuously got the crowd to enjoy their time as he led up to Easy Honey taking the stage. Elijah also took the time to explain the story behind some of his songs before playing them, mentioning and thanking his collaborators that weren’t in the room. Once his set was complete, the room started to fill; he thanked the crowd one last time before getting off stage to make room for the headliners.
When Easy Honey jumped on stage to start their set, the crowd immediately moved closer, cheered, and pulled out their phones and video cameras to capture the night. Easy Honey’s energy was loud and contagious, which they quickly blamed on the coffee they drank beforehand (an ongoing bit on their bassist, Webster Austin's, TikTok platform). As their set continued, the two frontmen/guitarists, Selby Austin and Darby McGlone, kept the crowd hyped by announcing fan favorites like “Pink Lady” and “Homesick," pulling at their own hair with dramatics for their music; Darby even performed barefoot and was not letting it inhibit his stage presence. Multiple times throughout their set, an instrumental break came through, and the crowd erupted each time in cheers and exclamations.
Photo by DeAnna Garza - @shotbydeanna
The group made sure to recognize their tour crew and venue staff as the night carried on, thanking their tour manager and opening act, as well as thanking the venue for hosting. They brought Elijah Johnston back on stage in their set to perform an alternative cover of “Heart of Gold” by Neil Young; that got the older fans deeper into the show as they sang along loudly. Easy Honey also did well in bringing their tour manager, Drew Storey, on stage to recognize his work and promote his own music project and let him perform a song or two. With the band as well.
A few fans danced along with the band at the back of the crowd; girls in the front row brought harmonicas to play along, and even one girl brought honey for the band, to which Darby took a “shot” to end the show. All in all, the night was full of high energy, great music, and new memories. Catch them in your city for their upcoming Surf Tour and at their Lollapalooza set this year!
