After getting a code and anxiously waiting in a queue in September 2023, a Peabody woman finally scored coveted tickets to the Noah Kahan concert at Fenway Park in July.
A month later, she found out she was pregnant — her due date two days before the concert.
“I feel like most people hope they go into labor early, but I was like, ‘you know what? I hope I’m a little bit late so I can go to this concert,’” Chloe Stanko said.
Kahan, a Vermont native, returned to New England for two sold-out shows at Fenway Park in Boston on Thursday, July 18, and Friday, July 19.
Stanko’s due date came and went. She scheduled her induction a week later — hoping her son would wait until then.
“I said, ‘OK, I’m going to this concert if I’m not in labor,’” she said.
Chloe Stanko attended the Noah Kahan concert with her husband at Fenway Park in July. She then went into labor.Chloe Stanko
On July 19, Stanko said she felt OK, so she and her husband, Ben Longo, went to the concert. But while there, Stanko began having back pain and having to sit down.
She was in labor.
The couple stayed at the concert, even riding the MBTA home. When 2 a.m. hit, she knew it was time to go to the hospital.
It wasn’t long until the world welcomed another Noah — Noah Longo.
“We actually decided early on. We both just really liked the name,” Chloe Stanko said. “And then it worked out.”
Noah isn’t officially named after the “Stick Season” pop star but Kahan certainly gave the couple, who also went to see him in concert in Saratoga Springs, the idea.
Chloe Stanko attended the Noah Kahan concert with her husband at Fenway Park in July. She then went into labor.Chloe Stanko
The new parents didn’t share their baby’s name with friends or family before he arrived. But it was too fitting and people figured it out, she said.
“We didn’t tell anybody the name, but a lot of people kept saying, ‘Oh, imagine you go into labor at the concert and you name your baby Noah,’” she recalled. “And I was just laughing, because I was like, ‘well, that is the plan.’”
Stanko posted on TikTok for the first time to share her story after she was encouraged by her sister.
“We met a boy in the heat of July,” she wrote, playing off of a Noah Kahan lyric. “Welcome to the world Noah.”
The video has more than 1.2 million views as of Monday, including being seen by Kahan.
“My bad dawg,” Kahan wrote as he duetted her TikTok using his account, apologizing for sending her into labor during his concert. He also commented that he’s “so happy” for her and told her the baby was cute.
Stanko began smacking her husband’s arm as he was sleeping to tell him about the TikTok. He woke up in a panic, she said.
“I was freaking out,” she said.
She said the fact that he shared her video shows “just how nice and humble of a person he really is.”
Plus, it’ll be a great story to tell her little Noah one day.
“I’m going to tell him that his very first concert was Noah Kahan. And then, when he was a little less than a month old, he became famous from it,” she said.
And, of course, they’ll all be going to more of Kahan’s concerts in the future.
