Live Review: The Milk Carton Kids, Melody Pool

The endearing Melody Pool goes down a hit with this seated audience, which seems accustomed to gigs complemented with dinners, large round tables and décor that suggests better, older times. Pool accompanies her strong, clear voice with soft guitar, demonstrating her remarkable range in each of her songs. The theme of heartbreak receives a high representation amongst her repertoire with her tune Henry particularly well received. She especially wins the crowd over by exclaiming at the end of the number: “What a dick! You were all thinking it.”

Singer/guitarists Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan make up indie-folk duo, The Milk Carton Kids. Ryan makes an early mistake of requesting that the audience “give a hand” to Pool and manages to elicit applause louder perhaps than what he had been expecting. Nevertheless, the duo remain unperturbed and launch into their set, quickly affirming that they are not about to be upstaged. After the first number, Ryan thanks the audience for clapping and remarks, “Everyone should find a job where they get applauded every three-and-a-half minutes”. This is the first instance of the most enjoyable and surprising elements of this show: Ryan is genuinely hilarious, keeping the crowd entertained with absurd banter that seems to focus mainly on made-up histories of English and Latin grammar.

While Ryan is the eye-candy, Pattengale is definitely the talent, demonstrating bristling-fast solos and stimulating riffs all the while managing to perfectly harmonise (and sing when it is his turn) with Ryan's vocals. Their numbers Charlie and Girls, Gather Round are two stellar examples of many songs that create one of the most intimate and delightful gig atmospheres experienced since what this scribe imagines young Dylan's audiences were treated to. 

After a quick plug to promote the physical albums that you can pay for, and the free downloads of the exact same albums available on their website (themilkcartonkids.com), the boys send the audience off into fuzzy oblivion with their slow ballad Memphis. They end the show to thunderous applause and a standing ovation. While it cannot be denied that the average audience-member's age is about 65 (Ryan's own observation is: “Some of you look like you've been parents for a long time”), The Milk Carton Kids provide one of those rare examples where you realise that your parents are actually going to better gigs than you.