Jon Langford will lead the Mekons in an electric show at the Bell House Friday night and an acoustic show Saturday night at City Winery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Friday, October 7, the Bell House, 149 Seventh St., with Chris Mills, $18-$20, 8:00
Saturday, October 8, City Winery, 155 Varick St., $22-$28, 10:00
www.mekons.de
“You know our time is running out,” the Mekons proclaim on the rollicking “Space in Your Face,” one of eleven tracks on their outstanding new album, Ancient & Modern: 1911–2011 (Bloodshot, September 2011), their twenty-sixth studio record in a long career that has included such masterworks as The Quality of Mercy (1979), Fear and Whiskey (1985), Edge of the World (1986), So Good It Hurts (1988), and Rock ‘n’ Roll (1989) as well as the more recent Punk Rock (2004) and Natural (2007). Through all the changes in the music industry over the last thirty-plus years, one thing has remained constant — the Mekons are still one of the great, underrated bands, a cult favorite and critics darling that has flirted with breakout success that never quite reached the mainstream. But that hasn’t stopped Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Tom Greenhalgh. Robert “Lu” Edmonds, Sarah Corina, Steve Goulding, Susie Honeyman, and Rico Bell from releasing consistently strong albums and even stronger live shows, whether sitting around in a semicircle playing acoustic instruments, carefully being watched over by den mother Timms, or rocking out at an old-fashioned blowout. As they’ve been doing since the late 1970s, on Ancient & Modern: 1911–2011 they mix country, folk, rock, pop, Celtic, psychedelia, troubadour, sea shanty, Tin Pan Alley, and just about any other genre you can think of on jaunty, intelligent songs, including such standouts as “Geeshie,” “The Devil at Rest,” “I Fall Asleep,” and the vintage-Mekons-sounding “Honey Bear.” They’re in town for a pair of shows this weekend, playing “a wild night out with the electrified Mekons” at the Bell House tonight, followed by “a quiet night in with the acoustic Mekons” at City Winery tomorrow. We’ve seen them perform at both ends of the spectrum, as well as in the middle, and at various levels of intoxication (us and them), and they never fail to deliver an exciting, thrilling, unpredictable show. A world that includes the Mekons is just a better place for everyone, whether they know it or not.