by Nick Lyons ’22
I took my seat in Sadove thinking that this would be a low-key, casual show with a dozen people and a few good songs. However, as I witnessed at least fifty people come in after me, I quickly realized that these guys must have a good show to put on. They did not disappoint.
The new on-campus band, MILK, is a self-described indie group that hit the Hamilton campus this past weekend. The group consists of five members of the class of 2022: lead guitarist, Mitch Greene, drummer Joseph Reiner, bassist Matt Jankowski, keyboardist (and surprise trombonist!) Jackson Dusinberre, and front man Ben Leit.
The show opened with a stellar performance by Andrew Little ’22 that warmed the audience up with a few good laughs. When MILK took the stage, the audience kept up the same energy and enthusiasm. Leit introduced his fellow members — each time with a touch of humor — and immediately established a fun and lighthearted energy in the room. Covering jazz and funk pieces like Thundercat’s “Them Changes,” to contemporary hits like Post Malone’s “Stay,” these guys did it all, and they did it with a polish you would not expect from a young, emerging band. That polish, paired with their interactions with the audience and their performance energy, made MILK
an instant success.
Their chemistry as a group was palpable, and it translated to an enjoyable experience for everyone. I found myself disappointed when the performance was over, realizing that this band is something special. Fortunately, after the show, I had the chance to sit down and talk with the members of MILK about
their formation and the show.
The five of them met, according to Leit, through the College Musician’s Facebook group. Leit and Greene had known each other previously and decided to start a band. They put up a post on the page’s wall, and received responses from Reiner and Jankowski. Leit later approached Dusinberre, a fellow inhabitant of South residence hall, and MILK was born. From there, the obvious question arose: where did the name “MILK”come from?
“It’s actually a funny story,” Dusinberre says, “Sort of like
The Topical
, I keep notes of things I overhear in my phone, and one of them, in all caps, was
just, ‘MILK.’ So, in deciding between that and, ‘My Dad’s a Lawyer,’ we chose
MILK.”
When asked about how they were contributing to — or changing — the existing Hamilton identity, they had an interesting insight on the matter. “I think in emerging as a new group, we’re kind of the first of the new group of students entering the on-campus music scene,” says Jankowski, “It’s kind of showing people that it’s not some exclusive group […] we’re making it a more diverse community.”
Reiner adds, “Another big thing is that a lot of times, while people at Hamilton are a diverse group, individuals are often viewed as having one identity within themselves. We want to do away with that notion. I also play tennis, Jackson plays for the Ultimate Frisbee team, and Ben and Mitch are involved with theatre. We want to make a community of people that are as internally diverse as we are externally as a college.”
I also took the opportunity to give the group a platform to speak, and asked
if there was anything they wanted the students of Hamilton to know. “Well, we’re going to try and play as much as possible,” says Leit. “We’re planning two more shows before the end of the semester — one before Thanksgiving,
and one before exams — and we’re also interested in working with other groups on campus. If anyone wants us to open for them, or if they want to open for us, we’re totally cool with that.”
“We’re also looking for special guest performers for shows,” says Greene, “If
anybody plays a particular instrument that we could incorporate to a song somehow, we’d love to do that.”
