30 Days Til Newport: Day 18 – The Milk Carton Kids on the Quad (2014)

There were 3 things that marked me from this performance. The first being that I had missed Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale’s performance the year before and for 365 days was kicking my own ass for doing so. Luckily: NPR has the set streaming on their site which I visited at least twice a week to listen to. Unluckily: NPR has the set streaming on their site, so I kept being reminded that I was a fool for missing such a beautiful and fantastic set of music.

The second thing that left a deep impression on me was something that always gets me about Newport. Now, I don’t typically get starstruck, but at one point I turned to my right and Jack White and John C. Reilly were standing there watching the set alongside me, looking as equally in awe and appreciative as I was in that moment. Jack White who I suppose I consider to be on this “other level” now as far as rockstardom is concerned, wandering around with his Polaroid camera and just taking in everything. It was a beautiful moment.

The last thing about this set was it just further cemented this duo as one of my all time favorite acts. The banter rivaling the beauty of their songs and the perfect execution and back and forth tennis match of quick fire comments from the two, its poetic really. Even with hundreds, maybe thousands, of people watching alongside me, the set from The Milk Carton Kids managed to keep a hold of its intimacy. Truly magnificent.