Venues of the Past – Remember The Moon in New Haven?

It was pretty rare to hear Bauhaus in a bar or nightclub around Connecticut in 1990. In that day and age, you were much more likely to hear "Black Velvet" from Alannah Myles or "Step by Step" from the dreaded New Kids on the Block. There was one place though that you could get your Love and Rockets, Soup Dragons, The The and The Cure fix at, it was called The Moon in New Haven.

You may have heard of it before from your older brother or cool sister. I think we all know someone who's claimed to have been at The Moon on the night of September 26, 1991, when a certain up and coming band named Nirvana wheeled down Whalley Avenue and destroyed everyone's eardrums.

The only show that I've known more people say they were at was the fabled Rolling Stones show at Toad's.

The Moon was a pretty small, dark place. Not as filthy as Toad's, but dirtier than the average bar. Lots of Robert Smith worshippers, pretty girls wearing their Doc's, and the pre-flannel grunge noobs, on the cusp of discovering the sounds of Seattle. The music was LOUD. They rocked the speakers up to almost full-blast. The synthesizers on "The Walk" from The Cure cut through you like a sonic knife on that cramped dance floor.

I mostly remember the people I used to hang around with back then dancing, drinking, and loving every minute of screaming along to "Add it Up" from the Violent Femmes. My ears rang all the way up Rt. 63 on the way back to Waterbury at 2:15 in the morning. Most of my friends passed out by the time we hit Naugy. I don't know, or remember, how or why The Moon shut down. Right around that time, Bar in New Haven opened up, and they had pizza.

There's a Facebook page dedicated to keeping the memories of The Moon alive, you can check it out by clicking HERE