ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A favorite Lehigh Valley music group has become the latest Pennsylvania band to be scheduled to perform at Allentown's new Archer Music Hall.
Another Day Dawns, the only Lehigh Valley act in 55 years to hit any Billboard chart, will be direct support for Scranton metalcore group Motionless in White's two shows this week.
The shows will be at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 9, and Saturday, May 10.
"We're very, very excited."Another Day Dawns singer Dakota Sean
Tickets for the Friday show, at $32.20 for general admission standing, remain on sale at the Archer websiteand at the box office at 939 Hamilton St.
Saturday's show is sold out, but resale tickets are available on the website.
“We’re very honored," Another Day Dawns singer Dakota Sean said in a recent phone call.
"We heard about a new venue coming in and I didn’t want to get too excited until we finally saw like the huge production of it … it looks amazing, man.
“We’re very, very excited.”
The Motionless in White show kicks off Archer Music Hall's Pennsylvania’s Own concert series that will showcase Pennsylvania acts. Motionless in White is from Scranton.
The series "is designed to showcase and honor the rich musical heritage of the Keystone State across a variety of genres," the venue has said.
It "will feature an impressive lineup of homegrown artists, including arena headliners, classic legends, local heroes and emerging favorite bands."
Success, and new music coming
Another Day Dawns released its most recent disc, "Finding Peace Through All The Noise," in 2023, on the Century Media Records, a Sony Music Entertainment-owned label on which Buckcherry, Dream Theater and Queensryche also record.
Another Day Dawns released a deluxe edition of the disc in August.
“We’ve been working pretty hard and we’ve got some good stuff we’re sending back and forth with the label."Another Day Dawns singer Dakota Sean
The group became the first Lehigh Valley act in 50 years when its 2019 album “A Different Life" hit No. 10 on Billboard’s Heatseekers-Northeast Region chart.
It was the first Lehigh Valley band to have a song on that chart.
The disc was bolstered by Another Day Dawns's touring with rockers Hinder. The group also has toured with hard rock chart-toppers Issues, Breaking Benjamin and Bush, Buckcherry and Filter.
It also has played opening slots for Fuel, Sammy Hagar, Ted Nugent, Godsmack, Puddle of Mudd, Trapt, 5 Finger Death Punch and Daughtry. It also has played major music festivals.
Another Day Dawns's 2020 EP "Stranger,” included two songs the band wrote with Desmond Child, who wrote or produced hits with Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Katy Perry and others.
Sean said the group is working on new music.
“We’ve been working pretty hard and we’ve got some good stuff we’re sending back and forth with the label," he said.
"We’re going to be in the studio. We’re hoping for, if not for a full album, we’re at least going to put some singles out there for radio and for Spotify and stuff like that."
'It's a great feeling'
The band has been a Lehigh Valley favorite for years — starting in 2010 as a teen band called A.D.D. in its native Lehighton.
Its lineup also includes guitarist Tyler Ritter, drummer Nick McGeehan and bassist Josh Mercado. But Max Portnoy, son of Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, will fill in on bass at the Archer show.
“There have been some ups, some downs, as expected. We just genuinely love music and have a passion for it."Another Day Dawns singer Dakota Sean
The group also has played Musikfest’s main Steel Stage, Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Musikfest Cafe at the Lehigh Valley Music Awards, Stroudsburg’s Sherman Theater and Jim Thorpe’s Penn’s Peak.
It has won Lehigh Valley Music Awards and was a finalist in a national contest by Cumulus Media radio stations and Big Machine Records, for which singer Chris Motionless Motionless in White was a judge.
“There have been some ups, some downs, as expected," Sean said. "We just genuinely love music and have a passion for it.
"And it’s been great — we’ve met some people, we’ve worked with some people, we learned some lessons, unfortunately.
“But we’d rather have done them ourselves than told about them. That’s one thing — we’ve been more kind of hands-on recently and things have been going great.
“And we’re happy feeling loved being here at home. It’s a great feeling."
