McMillon’s focus on homegrown talent and fostering community has never wavered since HoliDayton started 20 years ago at the now defunct Elbo’s on South Jefferson Street. The showcase moved to the Nite Owl on Fifth Street in 2006 and stayed at that location when it became Blind Bob’s in 2008. After a long run in the Oregon District and the virtual version in 2020, HoliDayton moved to The Brightside in 2021.
“This year, for the 20-year, we wanted to throw it back and have acoustic and electric,” McMillon said. “It was part of the reason of getting Hawthorne to play full-band acoustic and headline. Some of the other bands are playing full-band acoustic. It should be about half and half, which will be cool.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Dayton unplugged
Filling the venue this year should be no problem with Hawthorne Heights headlining with a nontraditional set.
“Hawthorne has done full-band acoustic shows, but it’s been a long time,” McMillon said. “We used to do a tour called Stripped Down to the Bone every couple of years, when we could squeeze it in, but we haven’t done one recently. Primarily, anything we’ve done acoustic over the last several years is when we have a small event, an in store, a VIP or something. I’m looking forward to playing full band. The arrangements we have are a lot of fun to play. When we play acoustic it’s always a good mix of classic songs our fans know and some deeper cuts we normally don’t get to play because the arrangements are a little softer. It’ll be fun. We’ve released a couple of new records since we’ve done full-band acoustic so it will be fun to play some of that.”
Rind and Knavery, following Hawthorne Heights’ lead, will also perform acoustically.
“I’m excited because when we started HoliDayton, we emphasized acoustic and live bands,” McMillon said. “It was always fun to have this weird mix but under the guise of a holiday show. We used to have Tod Weidner from Shrug playing acoustic but then Legbone would play and that was always fun. We’ve always kept some acoustic stuff in over the years, but it’s become more of a local music showcase and less about having both acoustic and electric.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Curating the acts
McMillon is also excited to be showcasing newer acts like Better Anyway, Life in Idle and Moontemple.
“There are so many great young artists,” he said. “We made a conscious effort a few years back to start including some of them and it’s been great to see how excited they are. (Moving) to The Brightside (allowed us) to pull from a bigger pool of people. It’s been fantastic.”
For McMillon, having enough bands to choose is never a challenge. The hard part is narrowing the lineup to a manageable number.
“It’s really hard to put it together every year,” he said. “We need 10 bands and that’s a lot to fill but, not only does it fill up very quickly but there’s always a list of 10 others I wanted too. There are so many good bands in the scene right now and we just can’t fit everyone. We always do two stages and 10 acts so we can fit in as many as possible. Coming into this, I’m always like, ‘How are we going to do this?’ Somehow, it always comes together really fast and everyone is excited to play HoliDayton. It’s going to be a great night.”
Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or e-mail at donthrasher100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: HoliDayton 20 with a full-band acoustic set from Hawthorne Heights plus the Story Changes, Lioness, Moira, Safe Money and others
Where: The Brightside, 905 E. Third St., Dayton
When: Saturday, Dec. 17; doors open at 6 p.m.
Cost: $21.99 in advance, VIP upgrade $100
More info: 937-410-0450 or www.thebrightsidedayton.com
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