
Final Hurrah for Buffalo’s Legendary Mohawk Place This Week
When all is said and done, next Saturday night/early Sunday morning, the lights will come on inside Mohawk Place, patrons will deposit their beverage containers, and bid a fond farewell to a club that’s been so important to bands and fans for decades.
This isn’t the first time Mohawk Place closed down. In 2013, the bar closed after legal issues stemming from a fan getting injured during a show two years prior. It reopened a year later, under new ownership, but the lead-up to the final show, along with last performances from some Buffalo artists, including the still-active (thankfully!) Roger Bryant, was commemorated in the documentary ““Bring Me Your Vultures.” If you haven’t seen it before, it’s definitely worth a watch.
Now Mohawk is facing another curtain call, and the club is going out with two nights of shows featuring bands who got their start or otherwise owe a debt of gratitude to the glorious club on East Mohawk Street.
Thursday night, January 30, has a lineup including Tyler Bagwell and Sally Schaefer, Cooler, Starjuice, The Split Sisters, and Amateur Hockey Club. Doors open at 6 p.m., the show starts at 7 p.m., and it’s a $10 cash cover to get in.
The grand finale will take place on Friday night, with doors opening at 4 p.m. and the show starting at 5 p.m. and promising to go late. Tickets for Friday’s lineup, which features Handsome Jack, The Irving Klaws, The Evil Things, Malarchuk, Nine Layers Deep, Iron Fist, HUNS, and Pine Fever, are $20, with cash accepted at the door.
Please note that the bar and the door are cash only for the last two nights. While there was a time when this was always the case, the bar had started taking cards recently, so this is an important change to note.
Mohawk Place has been synonymous with Buffalo’s rock and punk scene for a very long time, but in truth all manner of bands have played there. The loss of this crusty, tiny, oddly shaped, beautiful, soul-filled, welcoming bar, six or so months after we’ve lost the Pink, months after Swannie House closed, and weeks after the loss of Brick Bar, underscores a very real sentiment: Go see the bands you love in the places you love; we never know when it might be the last time or when you’ll run out of opportunities. (A reminder that another institution beloved by locals, Nietzsche’s, is under new ownership with a team who vow to keep the music going on both stages.)
We can hope someone else revives the venue in the future, but, for now, this appears to be it. With developers taking a renewed interest in downtown and with Douglas Jemal purchasing the parking ramp across the street recently as part of his efforts to invest in the city, who knows what will become of the space where Mohawk and its neighbor, Electric Avenue, are located?
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Gallery Credit: Katie Schneider
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