The Filthy Heathens head south to Brewsky's on Feb. 27

The hard-touring Dayton, Ohio rock band, which mixes Southern grit with alt-rock edge, books a late-February Saturday in Hattiesburg.

The Filthy Heathens built their name the old way: a van, a lot of miles and a set loud enough to make a bar crowd turn around. At the end of February, that road runs through Hattiesburg.

The Dayton, Ohio rock band plays Brewsky's on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2027, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $24.90 through TicketWeb. The show was announced Oct. 30, and Brewsky's holds about 500, which is a good size for a band like this: full enough to feel like an event, close enough to see the guitar work.

If the name is new to you, here is the short version. The Filthy Heathens came together in Dayton during the pandemic, according to the Dayton Daily News, which profiled the band as it hit its stride. The core was Bronson Hetzer, Ryan Palcic and "Captain" Craig Bishop. Guitarists Cody Doench and Dawson Stepp joined later and made it a five-piece, as the Fans With Bands newsletter tells it, and that's when things took off.

The sound is hard to pin to one shelf, and that is part of the pitch. The band pulls from Southern rock, alt-rock, country and hard rock. Its own promotional copy, used on venue pages like Reggies in Chicago, describes a range from Southern grit to alt-edge and from classic country to hard rock. Live, the Dayton Daily News says, they lean theatrical when it suits the moment and pull it back when it doesn't.

On record, the Heathens' debut EP is *Etheridge*, and the single "Cyril" followed a few weeks later. Those two releases were the subject of the Dayton paper's piece. The band has also said it would go back into the studio in 2026, so a Hattiesburg crowd in February may well hear songs that haven't been widely heard yet.

Southern grit to alt-edge, classic country to hard rock.

Touring has mostly kept them in the Midwest, which is what makes a Mississippi date worth noting. A band that plays hundreds of bar and club rooms gets good at reading them, and a first impression in a new town is the kind of night these bands play hardest. The Heathens even have their own beer: The Filthy Pilsner, made with Devil Wind Brewing in Xenia, Ohio, per Fans With Bands. That tells you something about the kind of night they aim for.

For Hattiesburg rock fans, this is a chance to catch a road band on the way up, in a room where the floor is the best seat, for the price of a couple of rounds. Late February is a slow stretch on most calendars, and a loud Saturday helps.

Grab a ticket and bring someone who likes their rock with some country dirt on it. Saturday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m., Brewsky's.

Sources: Dayton's The Filthy Heathens hit stride with 'Etheridge' and 'Cyril' — Dayton Daily News (daytondailynews.com); The Filthy Heathens — Fans With Bands (fanswithbands.substack.com); The Filthy Heathens — Reggies (reggieslive.com); The Filthy Heathens at Brewsky's — TicketWeb (ticketmaster.evyy.net)