The Effigies have never played Buffalo. That changes Saturday, October 10 at Mohawk Place — and this is not a legacy act running through the motions. They are here behind Burned, their fifth studio album and the final recording to feature founding frontman John Kezdy, who died in a bicycle accident in August 2023.
About the Show
The Effigies formed in Chicago in 1980. Within a year, they were the first Chicago punk band to tour nationally. They spent the 1980s and ’90s on the same bills as Black Flag, PIL, Circle Jerks, Naked Raygun, and Big Black. Steve Albini credited the band without equivocation: “John Kezdy was a hero of mine. Effigies were the first great band from Chicago’s scene… Not overstating to say that without John and the Effigies, I would never have made any records.”
Kezdy had survived the Highland Park mass shooting in July 2022, shot in the arm. In August 2023, he died in a bicycle accident on a Chicago route he traveled daily. The band had already completed Burned before his death. It is their fifth studio album and the last recording to include his voice.
Founding bassist Paul Zamost and founding drummer Steve Economou are still in the band; both rejoined in 2004. Guitarist Andy Gerber and vocalist Geoff Sabin, a graphic designer who also created the Burned cover art, complete the current lineup. Zamost encouraged Sabin to interpret the catalog in his own voice, not to replicate what Kezdy did. Punk Rock Mag called the result “grim, heavy, and uncomfortably honest — a final middle finger to false hope, polished scenes, and the ticking clock.” Zamost, in an interview with the Illinois Entertainer: “I’m an angry OLD man, and The Effigies have not grown complacent.”
Since Kezdy’s death, the band has played RiotFest, Rebellion, and PunkRockBowling, and toured with The Black Crowes. They are currently recording a sixth album. Support for the Buffalo show comes from Perilous, Acoustic Distortion Disorder, and Brutal Llama.
Venue & Logistics
Mohawk Place is a 200-capacity club on E. Mohawk Street in Buffalo, the right room for a band whose reputation was built in tight, loud spaces. The Effigies arrive from Montreal (October 9) and head to FEST in Gainesville, Florida, later this month. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets run $22–$27 and are on sale now via Eventbrite. Buy tickets