Photo by Blaine Schultz
Mekons Sally Timms and Jon Langford with The Sadies at X-Ray Arcade Aug. 23, 2023
Mekons Sally Timms and Jon Langford with The Sadies at X-Ray Arcade
The Mekons and The Sadies are bands that nearly define cult status among discerning music fans. Wednesday night Mekons Sally Timms and Jon Langford joined The Sadies at Cudahy’s X-Ray Arcade.
Timms and Langford relocated to Chicago decades ago. While first generation English punk band The Mekons still perform when the mood strikes, the duo’s proximity to Milwaukee has bestowed us many visits from them in various situations.
As a backing band Toronto’s Sadie’s are perfect. In fact, Langford recalled the Mekons 25th tour where The Sadies opened shows performing “songs The Mekons couldn’t play.”
Witty and sardonic, Timm’s introduced “Seminole Wind” with an anecdote about meeting prog-rock vocalist Jon Anderson of Yes on an Outlaw Cruise music event, before coming clean that she meant the song’s author country singer John Anderson. They would also perfume Anderson’s “Wild and Ble.” Other standouts included Mekons’ “Millionaire” and Langford’s take on “Joshua Gone Barbados.”
With an image of his late brother and bandmate Dallas, watching over the band, Travis Good said, “We’re going to dedicate this song and every song to my brother.”
The heat index still hovering near 90 degrees outside, X-Ray Arcade felt like an out of time roadhouse. Perfect for a band that soulfully mixed driving rockers, lightning speed country pickers, reverb-drenched surf licks and psychedelic-tinged should-have-been-hit pop songs. When Good broke a string on his road weary Gretsch hollow body the band paused on a dime and he grabbed a backup. They resumed, seemingly from the same note.
Timms and Langford joined the band for an encore of “Memphis, Egypt,” The Mekons rabble rousing anthem with Timms offering pointed jabs at the Republican presidential debate happening at the same time, just a few miles away.
