Mekons

Posted by Aldo Pusey on Friday, August 9, 2024

Before the Mekons had even played a note at the Troubadour Monday night, singer-guitarist Jon Langford announced the band would be playing selections from its new album "Punk Rock" (1/4 Stick). "It's a new concept," he deadpanned. "I hope you can grasp it."

Before the Mekons had even played a note at the Troubadour Monday night, singer-guitarist Jon Langford announced the band would be playing selections from its new album “Punk Rock” (1/4 Stick). “It’s a new concept,” he deadpanned. “I hope you can grasp it.”

Although it was part of the first wave of English punk bands in 1977, the Mekons take on what constitutes punk has expanded to include accordion, fiddle and the saz, a precursor to the bouzouki; the new album finds the Chicago-by-way-of-Leeds collective revisiting songs written during the band’s first four years.

It’s a project that appears to have energized the Mekons. The 90 minute perf showcased the band at its roughhewn and pointed best. As the band performed material from all phases of its 27 year career, the night felt less like a performance than a group of old friends up on stage partaking in the simple joy of playing music. Songs such as “Teeth” retain their agit-pop bite, while the ramshackle country-Celtic “Last Dance” and “So Good It Hurts” have the lumpy, lived-in comfort of an old favorite sofa. The brooding “Corporal Chalkie” is a showcase for Sally Timms’ plummy, alluringly tousled voice.

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Oddly, “Lonely and Wet,” introduced by Langford as the first song the Mekons wrote, strikes the most contemporary note. Its lumbering tempo, melodramatic pacing, squalling guitars and confessional, occasionally screamed, lyrics of thwarted love wouldn’t sound out of place on an emo compilation.

But thankfully, the Mekons isn’t that easily pigeonholed. You leave their show with a buzz, knowing you have heard a band that sounds gloriously, unselfconsciously like itself.

And if that’s not punk rock, I don’t know what is.

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Mekons

Troubadour; 450 capacity; $17

  • Production: Presented inhouse. Reviewed March 22, 2004.
  • Cast: Band: Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Steve Goulding, Sarah Corina, Tom Greenhalgh, Rico Bell, Lu Edmonds, Susie Honeyman.

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