Friday night was a sort of bittersweet old punk reunion/celebration when the remaining members of The Effigies made a return to the Metro to celebrate the release of their new album which they recorded before the untimely passing of Effigies lead singer, John Kezdy a year ago. The band hadn’t been active in about 15 years so it came as a total surprise when they announced they were releasing a new album they recorded while John was still with us and that they would be playing shows in support of it. They were joined this evening by The Bollweevils, another beloved band with a long history here in Chicago.
First up was Ganser. This local act has been winning over fans lately opening for a variety of bands around the city. They played a really great blend of post-punk and no-wave. They were quirky, intense and very interesting. They had a rock solid 30 minute set and probably won over a good amount of the people who showed up early that night.
Next up was The Bollweevils. It’s no secret that they are one of the best Chicago punk rock bands around, and have been for decades now. It was very fitting for them to be playing this show as bands like The Effigies and Naked Raygun were huge influences on them, and paved the way for them to come around nearly a decade after those bands formed and carry the torch forward. This time out, they were missing their drummer Pete as he broke his ankle in what as likely an accident caused by Ron Jones moving, and was unable to play. He was sorely missed as we all love Pete. They had a substitute drummer with them this evening and he did a very good job. The band played an energetic 45 minute set filled up of many of their favorites and stuff from their recent album, and they even played a new song too! The Punk Rock Doc, singer Daryl Wilson, was jumping all over the stage and spent a good amount of time down in the crowd singing along with them as well and the whole band sounded fantastic. Their performances are always so much fun and this was no exception. Despite the omission of their two best songs, they still ruled!
Metro owner and beloved Chicago music scene icon Joe Shanahan, took the stage to introduce The Effigies. He gave a nice speech about them and even held up an original flyer for the first time The Effigies played at the Metro way back in 1981! Joe doesn’t do stuff like that very often so that made the evening really feel like the big deal it deserved to be. The Effigies then took the stage to an excited crowd.
It was, of course, strange and sad to see The Effigies minus their iconic frontman, John Kezdy, who was such a major part of the band. The man left giant shoes to be filled and Geoff Sabin must have balls of steel to attempt it. So many bands have tried to pull off similar feats and so few of them ever manage to pull it off very well with few exceptions. I’m happy to report that this new lineup of The Effigies sounded great! Geoff’s voice fit those songs really well, and did the band and the songs justice. His voice is certainly not a carbon copy of John Kezdy, but it has a similar enough feel that it matched up really well with the music and the overall results were surprisingly excellent. One nice thing that Sabin brings to the table is that he also plays guitar, so for a good portion of the set, The Effigies had two guitarists for the first time ever and it really added some extra punch to the songs. Since the last time they were active, Keith Shigeta is no longer in the band and lead guitar duties are now being handled by Andy Gerber, who was well up to the task and fit in nicely.
The band played many of the old hits you’d expect them too, and also played some of the new album, and even dug a little deeper into their back catalog than they had the last time they were active. They really sounded great and the songs were very powerful, especially when they had dual guitars. Standouts included “Below the Drop”, “Mob Clash”, “Haunted Town”, “Smile”, “Guns or Ballots”, “We’re Da Machine” and a long version of “Security”. The crowd ate it all up and were dancing the entire night and giving the energy right back. They played a really lengthy set, around 90 minutes long before taking a quick break before coming back for a two song encore.
For the encore, they brought out Daryl from The Bollweevils to sing “Body Bag” which really was a highlight. The Bollweevils had done a cover of this song on one of their early singles so it was very fitting to have Daryl up there for this one. When they finished up that one, he stayed on stage and Lary Damore came on stage with the world’s biggest lyric sheet to sing lead vocals on “We’ll Be Here” to close the set, they were also joined by Scott Lucas of Local H to sing backups with Daryl! It really felt like a fitting tribute and sendoff to one of our beloved fallen members of Chicago’s punk rock tribe. As far as a band staying together and moving on while paying tribute to their iconic frontman’s passing, I’d say The Effigies pulled it off way better than most, and it was a good way to ring in the holidays and get everyone together to celebrate.
