With a Pink Floyd cover band, we listen to ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ on its 50th anniversary

CHICAGO — The other day I called Kyle Stong and asked if I could come over to his house and listen to “The Dark Side of the Moon” with him. It was like I was in junior high again. Except, I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me. But the album turned 50 years old this month, and I didn’t want to celebrate alone. Plus, Stong is co-founder of Think Floyd USA, a venerable, nine-piece Chicago-based Pink Floyd tribute act. They’ve been doing it for 19 years, about as long as the brain trust of Pink Floyd remained intact.

Stong was surprised at my call, but said, “Uh, yeah ... OK.”

Then added: “I mean, every time I listen to ‘Dark Side,’ I do hear something new.”

moonlighting in Santana and Grateful Dead tribute bands, is a central-casting image of a benign ex-hippie. He even lives in one of those long-standing bastions of former hippies, Rogers Park. He greeted me in a Think Floyd USA T-shirt and Dead sweatpants with the dancing bear logo on the legs. At 68, wispy curtains of white hair hang beside a mostly bald head. He led me into a keyboard/computer/management office (he’s also Think Floyd USA’s manager). On the wall was a poster from a Think Floyd USA show at Park West, Pink