Milk Carton Kids to bring folk sound, humor to ECC
Submitted by ECC
Los Angeles-based duo, Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, known as The Milk Carton Kids, will bring their intricate vocals, inventive guitar, and achingly beautiful songs to Elgin on Saturday, Nov. 9. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Elgin Community College Arts Center’s Blizzard Theatre, in Building H, 1700 Spartan Drive.
The Milk Carton Kids’ most obvious influence is the classic folk sound of acoustic guitars and close harmonies. The band both expands and contradicts that rich legacy with sweet, bluegrass-inflected simplicity joined with sinuous modal guitar lines that sound like a jazzified Bert Jansch dropped in to jam with the Everly Brothers. Their harmonies, too, while recalling classic duos from the Louvins to the Everlys to Simon and Garfunkel, achieve a richness that blends into a vivid singularity.
Formed in 2011, The Milk Carton Kids quickly built a devoted following with the simple purity of their music and their celebrated deadpan stage humor. They have toured with the Punch Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Over the Rhine, and K.D. Lang. Performances by The Milk Carton Kids have been featured on Conan, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, and A Prairie Home Companion, which they will be appearing on for a third time this October.
They also performed at the 2013 Newport Folk Festival and as part of the recent “Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating The Music Of ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’” a benefit concert organized by The Coen Brothers and T-Bone Burnett. The concert also featured performances by The Avett Brothers, Marcus Mumford, Gillian Welch, and Jack White with music inspired by the Coen Brothers’ new film “Inside Llewyn Davis.”
Tickets are $33. Tickets for all performances in the ECC Arts Center are available online at tickets.elgin.edu or at the ECC box office located in the Arts Center. Box office hours are noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. To purchase tickets by phone, call 847-622-0300. All major credit cards are accepted.
Visit elgin.edu/arts for more information about the ECC Arts Center, including video clips of upcoming artists and events.