Mekons: Mercury Lounge NYC, August 1st

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The "electric" counterpart to the previous night's "acoustic" performance, meaning mostly that Steve got his full drumkit back, and everyone was standing up this time. Susie Honeyman had flown back to England, so Jean Cook from Jon Langford's Ship and Pilot stood in, and was spectacular in her Mekons debut.

As with the rest of this tour, no Tom Greenhalgh; Lu filled in on lead vocals for "Beaten and Broken" and "Last Dance," and Chris Mills for "Heaven and Back." And Tim Tuten, late of the Hideout in Chicago, showed up to deliver one of his patented rambling intros.

It was a hot, packed night at the Merc - Jean in particular seemed about to pass out, with Lu fanning her with stage flotsam at one point - and the band responded with a sweaty, energetic performance, only occasionally delayed by inability to master the nuances of guitar cables. The vibe was not quite as warm and fuzzy as the previous night in Brooklyn - Sally threatened to fight Jon, and Jon threatened to fight an audience member, neither entirely unseriously - but the electric format fit the material much better, including the especially rocking new song "Space In Your Face."

This was recorded while standing on a bench seat at far stage left/crowd right, maybe 15 feet from the speakers on Jon's end of the stage. The Merc's sound system always comes out a bit muddy for me on recordings; I've boosted the treble some here to compensate, and am pretty happy with the results. Enjoy, and for godsakes, buy their CDs!