Communication junior Leo Garcia has a list of more than 80 potential band names in his Notes app, compiled over nearly five years.
When he stepped onto campus this fall, Garcia was expecting to spend the quarter band-less. His primary band, Static Transmission, is on hiatus because several of its members are studying abroad. But that’s when McCormick sophomore Cameron Crawford reached out.
Crawford is part of the band Inertia, which is also on pause this quarter due to the busy schedules of some members. This year, she arrived on campus with a mission: start a new band.
When she reached out to Garcia, Crawford was organizing an event called “Rock at the Rock,” held at the end of Wildcat Welcome through Local Mojo, a student organization that puts on musical events for the Northwestern community. She hoped to perform at the event herself, and once she had Garcia on board, everything fell into place.
Before they knew it, their band — still unnamed — had four members: Garcia on lead guitar, Crawford on bass, SESP sophomore Hailey Kim on drums and Communication freshman Allie Park on guitar and lead vocals.
The band only had one full rehearsal together before its first gig. For “Rock at the Rock,” it adopted the name “You and I,” performing a set of four songs that spanned multiple genres: “Leave Me Be” by Computerwife, “What Was Really Said” by Fleshwater, “Nervous Energy” by Unwound and “Untied,” an original song.
“I like the idea of being weird, and I think we should embrace being weird,” Garcia said. “Let’s embrace all genres of music. Let’s mosh, let’s dance, let’s slow dance, let’s do ballads, you know, folk songs, let’s just be weird and embrace everything right now.”
The four did just that for back-to-back performances on Oct. 3 and 4 at off-campus houses. By then, they had four original songs in their repertoire and had chosen a new name: “Moon Age.”
At those two shows, Moon Age performed covers across genres while sprinkling in the original songs it had been working on. Fan favorites included “Sunday” by Momma and “Bitter Everyday” by Wednesday, which led to the development of a mosh pit in the crowd.
The audience loved it.
“They blew us away,” said Local Mojo co-president and Weinberg senior Max Garon. “My band was like, damn, these guys just formed a month ago. They clearly put in the work. They have their sound down, they know what they’re doing.”
This quarter, Moon Age plans to perform as much as it can, including at least once over Halloween weekend and at future Local Mojo events.
The band’s fate is still undetermined. But Crawford said the return of Inertia and Static Transmission doesn’t necessarily mean the end of Moon Age.
“The more I interact with these musicians, my band members, the more I don’t want this to just be a temporary thing that will end,” Crawford said.
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— Local Mojo brings free live music to campus
— Rock band ‘Inertia’ sets career into motion as the winner of Battle of the Artists
