By Elmer Ploetz
Editor-in-Chief

There was a sense of both celebration and sadness at 47 E. Mohawk Street Thursday night. And maybe a bit of hope, too (you’ll have to get to the bottom of the story for that).

The sadness was there because it was the penultimate night of performances at Mohawk Place under the dive bar’s current ownership. The celebration was in the performances, at least for the three performances I saw before I had to call it a night (there are classes to teach this morning!).

Tyler Bagwell and Sally Schaefer, playing with a full band (bass player Brendan Zehnder and drummer Marc Felix Smith from Bagwell’s band, the Travesties), pulled out rowdy versions of “Finnegan’s Wake” and the Clash’s “Safe European Homes,” among others. Capt. Tom of Capt. Tom & the Hooligans joined the band for its opening song.

All photos by Elmer Ploetz

And Bagwell brought some old-school graphics for a bit of history on the Mohawk building and the city (the building was designed by Bethune, Bethune & Fuchs, which included Louise Blanchard Bethune, the nation’s first female architect and designer of the Lafayette Hotel).

Next up was Shoot Ya, which was singer-songwriter Cody Barcroft with world-class guitarist Sean McNamara. Trash country is one of the descriptions they apply to themselves, and it fits. While they could aim for the emotions, they also have a song called “The Pink,” which was written before the Old Pink burned and which contains in the chorus the line “Nothing good happens at The Pink.”

They closed their set with a version of the Woody Guthrie song “Refugees,” an appropriate choice for these times.

The last band I saw was the Spit Sisters, who blasted away with a combination of punk and metal energy and some really impressing yowls. While it was a little hard to catch the words to their originals if you weren’t already familiar with them, they turned up the energy even a notch higher with their cover of the Electric Six song “Gay Bar.”

There was plenty more to come, and the bar was crowded all night. It will be interesting to see how crowded it gets tonight for the grand finale, with even more bands playing later into the night on a Friday. You can check out the lineup HERE. Note that the times have changed for tonight, with doors opening at 5 and music beginning at 6.

But that note of hope? What was that? There are reports that talks are happening for the Mohawk Place and the neighboring Electric Avenue bar to be sold and kept intact as bars and music venues.

But those are just talks. Business negotiations go on all the time and often fall apart, so there are no guarantees the Mohawk will return. It’s still worth going to the final finale tonight because of the outstanding lineup and also because, who knows, it really could be the last show ever at the Mohawk Place.

Or not. And I’m hoping it’s not.