Feb­ru­ary 16, 2008 Park West, Chicago, Illi­nois
Moon­al­ice poster by David Singer

Accord­ing to Moon­al­ice leg­end, tribal bands have fre­quented the Chicago area since the begin­ning of time. Chicago’s cen­tral loca­tion was a fac­tor, but leg­end also speaks loudly about the local hemp. If you don’t believe us, look it up in Wikipedia. The name “Chicago” turns out to be the French ren­der­ing of the Miami-Illinois word “shikaakwa,” which metaphor­i­cally meant “onions” or “wild leeks.” The lit­eral trans­la­tion of skikaakwa was “striped skunk.” We’re not mak­ing this up. If “striped skunk” is not a ref­er­ence to the local hemp, then Anna Nicole Smith is not a dead blonde.

Twenty-eight years ago today, in what qual­i­fies as the pre­his­toric days of the mod­ern Moon­al­ice tribe, Chubby Wom­bat and Blue went out on their first date. Accord­ing to Moon­al­ice leg­end, the Jerry Gar­cia Band was play­ing at the Uni­ver­sity of New Haven gym. On the set list that night was Chuck Berry’s Let It Rock. An explo­sion of hor­mones has caused mem­o­ries of the evening to be sketchy, but both par­ties recall that it was the begin­ning of some­thing amaz­ing. Chubby and Blue recall that the air fresh­ener in the UNH gym was over­pow­er­ing, which may have con­tributed to a loss of detail, con­scious­ness, etc.

The ten-show Whiter Shade of Frost­bite tour con­cluded in Chicago’s Park West with Moon­al­ice and Tea Leaf Green on stage together for Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad, with a cho­rus of 400 audi­ence mem­bers shred­ding their vocal chords. Huge thanks to TLG and its won­der­ful crew for a great tour.

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