The Mohawk Lodge - Done Fighting (live at The Dakota Tavern)

It is almost impossible - even for a writer used to putting his heart in his mouth- to overstate how important the music of The Mohawk Lodge has become to me at least personally in such a short period of time.  It is partly by function of working as a music journalist that you listen to a great deal of music you respect but don't like, like but don't admire or admire for it's craftsmanship but it's just not your bag.   Then there is that one band that comes by about as often as a lunar (solar?) eclipse who manage to escape the trajectory of Canada's protectionist 'CanCon' regulations (which force our radio and TV outlets to play %50 Canadian music even if it's utter shite) and 'music industry'.  In an innately local way they thrust their offering out upon the world and though they may not be switftly judged it is with absolute certainty that I pass onto you dear reader the humble opinion that you should see The Mohawk Lodge now, as frequently as possible, acquire their music and continue to let them wear down the rough edge's of your hearts jagged ends.

In that vein Done Fighting moves beyond simply throwing one's arms up in disgust, refusing to play that game to something like a clarion call for a new way of being in the world. 



This again is the studio version of Done Fighting however the music is synced to intimate footage of the band playing their most confident set to date on a recent White Whale Wednesday at The Dakota Tavern (unfortunately now ended). 

That evening I made a single definitive declarative statement at the top of my lungs to an audience of two rounders at the bar Sean Dean (The Sadies) and Wild Blake Manning (a friend of The Lodge's):

Every once in awhile - just for shits and giggles - a band comes along like The Mohawk Lodge who has so absorbed and subsumed all of their influences to the point that everything they offer is wholly new.   - Luke C. Bowden

The Mohawk Lodge - Wicked Nights (Canadian Girl)

Going into the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest (which is not a 'Blues Festival' but something more like a more civil Bonnaroo spread out over two weeks in the Canadian Capital on a sprawling grounds known as LeBreton Flats attached to the Canadian War Museum - which houses a number of the festival's performance spaces) I had a very clear sense in my mind of the bands I was hawkish to watch:  Furthur (members of The Grateful Dead), Levon Helm Band, The Hold Steady , Santana, Bear In Heaven, Passion Pit, Rural Alberta Advantage and a handful of very notable wild cards (one of which turned out to be a seperate ticketed event over and above my media accreditation to see a little comedian named Louis C.K. in the same tent in which The Mohawk Lodge are seen here performing).

That is to say going into the Bluesfest my entire applecart was upset one random night in The Dakota Tavern when a band called The Mohawk Lodge had a CD release show for Crimes (released June 22 on White Whale Records).   The song off Crimes that instantly jumps out and smacks it's way into the tapestry of your life is Wicked Nights (Canadian Girl) although over time particularly by way of their devastating live show many others come to the fore.  These then are still photos of The Mohawk Lodge playing in the Black Sheep Stage tent on July 10, 2010 (the audio is the studio version from Crimes, all lyrics Ryder Havdale, all music 'The Mohawk Lodge').  Wicked Nights was performed during their sparsely attended yet undoubtedly monumental appearance.