CHICAGO — A basement venue known as Mouse Kingdom is quickly gaining a reputation for their great lineups of local molds, sources Googling if they need to go to the hospital confirm.
“The city has tons of great DIY spots with tons of great molds, but you won’t find a higher concentration of spores and mycotoxins anywhere else,” explained local musician Erik Reese. “Mouse Kingdom always has a really diverse blend of molds that are perfect for creating the type of toxic environment the local hardcore scene has always been known for. It’s really the epicenter of the fungal boom we’ve seen over the last few years. I love going there because you never know what you’re going to see and sometimes you just start randomly hallucinating.”
The venue’s success is largely due to founder Lacey Anderson, an amateur mycologist whose other hobbies include storing damp items and turning off the dehumidifier.
“It’s always been my dream to help grow and support local molds,” Anderson explained. “When I started producing shows, there wasn’t much here. We would have bands bringing molds with them from out of town, then some of those molds planted roots here. Now you can’t stop by without seeing Aspergillus, Stachybotrys, and Alternaria. It’s a whole culture and it’s spreading not just through the wall of this building, but throughout the greater Midwest scene. I love organizing the shows, but it’s exhausting. Also, it’s giving me a rash and neurological issues.”
Anderson’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed, as Mouse Kingdom is now a regular feature in Chicago publications.
“I haven’t gotten respiratory diseases like this since the early ‘90s,” claimed music journalist Chuck Atkins. “This house has the kind of deep, funky moisture problems I never expected to see again. But thanks to people like Lacey cramping sweaty punkers into poorly ventilated basements in a way that reduces airflow and traps moisture, this city’s molds have stayed vibrant and strong. You can’t underestimate the impact this will have on future musicians and their central nervous systems.”
At press time, Anderson says Mouse Kingdom is still operational, but they had to cancel next week’s show because the ceiling collapsed and everyone got rhinitis.