A personal remembrance, with some video evidence

By Elmer Ploetz
(Above: Irving Klaws at Mohawk Place, 2017)

Why does the Mohawk matter? A little history …

The Mohawk has been an integral part of Buffalo’s music scene since the early 1990s, when owner Pete Perrone opened it as a blues and rock ‘n’ roll joint. (It had been known as the Theatre Bar in a previous incarnation)

But with the Lafayette Tap Room around the corner on Washington Street pulling in the blues hounds, Perrone listened to people like Jack Hunter and Marty Boratin, who started booking a broader palette performers.

The big picture is that with the arson that destroyed the Old Pink last yearly, the Mohawk is one of the few remaining music venue/dive bars left, a vestige of late 20th century, largely pre-Internet Buffalo. A place to hear a new band, not overpay for a beer and not worry about spilling any on the decor. In short, it’s become a kind of cultural institution.

The list of performers who have played there (many on their way to national stages) includes White Stripes, the Black Keys, Sam Roberts, the Mekons, John Cale, the Donnas, Jason Isbell, Daniel Johnston, Drive-By Truckers, My Morning Jacket, Mudhoney, Broken Social Scene and Link Wray.

On a more personal level, the Mohawk became many things to many people, depending on what time, scene and show they witnessed. Through the ’90s, it was at the center of Buffalo’s Americana/alternative country and garage rock scenes.

That was this writer’s prime era at the Mohawk, with local performers such as the Steam Donkeys and Scott Carpenter & the Real McCoys providing my life’s soundtrack. The Steam Donkeys moved their Americanarama music fests there at the end of the ’90s and at one point made it a two-day festival with the street in front of 47 E. Mohawk shut down for a stage.

Garage (the Cynics) and power pop (GirlPope and BoBo) were frequently on the menu.

It’s impossible to follow journalistic convention and call Perrone by his last name, so I won’t. Nobody called him anything but Pete. Pete was the world’s most laid back bar owner ever as he watched maniacs like the Cowslingers (who have now morphed into the Whiskey Daredevils) take over his stage, with Irving Klaws, the Pine Dogs, the Outlyers, Red Gills and Pete Worden adding in. Original Sun rockabilly Sleepy LaBeef played there, as did Link Wray, who way too belatedly was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.

And for long periods, Pete had the Willie & the Reinhardts blues trio as the resident Friday happy hour band. They ended up recording a live album there.

From sometime in the early aughts through the first closing in 2013, a more indie rock vibe took over, symbolized by the local Harvest Sum Records performers, especially Roger Bryan & the Orphans.

Pete sold the place to  Scott Leary in 2009, and some needed improvements were made. Unfortunately, a fan was severely injured in a 2011 stagediving incident and legal entanglements apparently ensued. On Jan. 12, 2013, there was a “last waltz” show, much of which was recorded on video and which became part of the “Bring Me Your Vultures” documentary.

Here is my own bit of video from that night:

But the Mohawk was back in September of 2014 under new owner Rick Platt. He asked Boratin to help out with the booking at the start, and Boratin ended up doing it for almost all of the past 10 years.

The new vibe was a little more hardcore, a little more metal and a little more goth, although there were always moments when the Americana, garage and folky elements came through. Among my favorite memories is a happy hour with Mr. Conrad pounding boogie on the piano – on a December late afternoon when the heat hadn’t really been turned on yet. Conrad warmed up the place, but our coats never came off.

Other highlights included memorial shows for two friends, Gary Sperrazza! (he always added the exclamation point and usually dispensed with his first name) and the aforementioned Tyler Harrington. The Mohawk was a place where people could come together in almost a public wake, where memories could be shared along with the drinks. It was even a place where I might end up on stage. Please excuse any lack of musicality.

In more recent years, I’ve been to the Mohawk less. The Mohawk has been providing memories for other, younger generations.

Over the past year rumor had been circulating that the Mohawk was in trouble, even before the incident in which a fan, Bird Piche, was severely injured by a performer stagediving and landing on her. Bird is one of my former students at SUNY Fredonia and one of the biggest music fans I’ve known. It’s a tragedy on so many levels, and a lawsuit inevitably has been filed.

Now, this time, it feels like the Mohawk may be in its final stages. But, to quote a line from “The Princess Bride,” “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.”

We’ll see what happens next. And no matter what happens, if you were lucky enough to have been there, you’ll always have memories.

Recommended: Nick O’Brien’s recollections make for a great history in this piece on “Bring Me Your Vultures.”