Praise For Wallflower.com | Indie Music Blog

THE SKINNY: With an incredible live performance for a room of a handful of people, All the Day Holiday has forced me to add them to my favorite bands section on Facebook, of which just three bands reside.

MYSPACE: http://myspace.com/allthedayholiday
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/atdh
PURCHASE: Amazon MP3, iTunes

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All the Day Holiday, an ambient, indie pop/rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, performed at North Star Bar in Philadelphia, Pa. last weekend to a crowd of maybe 12. Among the sparse audience was at least two photographers, friends of the band, the sound engineer, myself, a friend, and only a handful of fans. The stage was close and the sound was loud. Vocalist Daniel Simmons' was absolutely beaming as guitarist Nathan Frisch began their opening song "La Voyage," before the band exploded into full spectrum sound, and bobbed around the stage.

I was immediately stunnded as Simmons' airy vocal tone sat perfectly into the mix. Whatever intensity the producer managed to capture on the band's debut LP The Things We've Grown to Love, is just a glimmer in comparison to the driving vocal performance Simmons offers live. Each note was perfect and captivating, while the excessively high notes were pleasantly strained into an awesome sort of yell. Supporting this pitch and melodic tonality with rhythm was Mark Ventura, boasting a mullet, a myriad of captivating beats, and an awesome silver drumset with just a floor tom for extremities. His ability to focus on the groove and supply a (clearly trained) pulse is unparalleled in the scene today. Like the other members of ATDH, Ventura is no hack. He knows his craft and is huge reason why the band is so successful.

Frisch spent the entirety of the short-lived show on the highest registers of the fretboard, displaying his prowess not for visual effect but to achieve a distinct and truly awesome tone. Delay is a major component to the guitar sound, for both guitarists, and though its used literally constantly, it's never to excess. Because of this very ambient guitar styling, bass was a forefront on the stage and bassist David Roller did it right. Along with his signature body bobbing came a really delicious fuzz and a fat, deep undertone that sat really well with Ventura's kick drum. The band was tight and spent every minute of the show hitting luscious chords above a rhythm section that puts others in the genre to shame.

The photographers, and handful of heavily dressed and bearded fellas in front of the stage stood in awe while the band blew us all away. Some of them mouthed words and all of us held our fingers around our arms because it was freezing. There was a feeling of art is being made here while photos were shot from underneath Ventura's snare, revealing his sweating face; the band's friends mouthed every word and the sound guy tweaked knobs making for the perfect mix and I looked around and still - there were less than a dozen of us. All the Day Holiday, a still expanding and evolving band, put on a show for 10 of us as if we were 1,000. This humble attitude and appreciation for the life they live came through clearly and breathed a breath of fresh air into the stagnant, drafty bar. ATDH put on one of the best live shows I've ever seen.