By Paul Robicheau

Fans who at least followed the band through its heyday in the late ’80s and early ’90s couldn’t have predicted the Mekons would wind it back in 2025 behind a new album just as galvanizing as their past catalog.

The Mekons at City Winery. Photo: Paul Robicheau

The Mekons’ lead mouthpiece Jon Langford wasted little time in turning to the British ensemble’s latest album at City Winery on Wednesday. “There’s a reason it was called Horror,” he proclaimed, “and you’re living in it!” (Arts Fuse review of Horror).

With that, the punk-era veterans broke into “Mudcrawlers,” a gliding rocker about refugees (“ballast cargo contraband”) from the Irish Potato Famine – from an album that both looks at the legacy of British imperialism while making allusions to what the band sees as modern fascism.

“These are difficult times,” singer Sally Timms later added to the sold-out Boston audience. “We need to keep our spirits up.”

Indeed, even when broaching serious subject matter, the Mekons can be counted on for delivering the goods with a frisky spirit and determination borne through 40-plus years of a lineup that’s remained surprisingly intact.

Six of the seven musicians at City Winery were onboard for the Mekons’ mid-’80s turn to a rootsier sound (alt-country, ahead of its time?), marked by Susie Honeyman’s violin and Rico Bell’s accordion. Their camaraderie remained as palpable as ever, exuding a joyful sense of mutual respect and purpose, a good reason to soldier on without concern for commerciality. In turn, the group capped “Mudcrawlers” by accenting its “Goodbye, goodbye” refrain, cribbed from “Damaged Goods” by hometown Leeds peers Gang of Four, whose North Shore-based drummer Hugo Burnham was in the house.

Rico Bell of the Mekons. Photo: Paul Robicheau

While lead vocals were split between Timms, Bell and guitarists Langford and Tom Greenhalgh, they all chimed in with gang vocals on nearly every tune. Even off-mic, Timms could be seen mouthing words as Greenhalgh – looking beatnik-mysterious in his beret and shades – sang the winsome “Chivalry” and “Lyric,” which quotes Moby Dick in the lines “Where do murderers go, man? Who’s to doom when the judge is up for trial?”

The 85-minute set hit an early peak with Timms’ whirlwind waltz “Oblivion,” the new “War Economy” (Langford barking a countervocal to Greenhalgh’s grim forecast) and the lively “Sympathy for the Mekons,” shot through with Bell’s harmonica and Steve Goulding’s drumming (little-known fact: Goulding played on Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives”). That play on the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” featured the lines “I wish the Mekons good fortune. I sold them fame and riches, and good health.”

At least the health paid off. The midset took a dip in energy, including two Mekons tunes covered by Will Oldham, the Timms-sung “Love Letter” and Greenhalgh’s “Last Dance,” which lingered on his admission “I wanted to say fall in love with me.”

Sally Timms and Jon Langford of the Mekons at City Winery. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Band members lauded City Winery’s excellent sound mix but complained that it was hot onstage. The latter issue was simultaneously alleviated by staff and fans delivering water and glasses of ice – one of which Langford rubbed upside down on his near-shaven head.

Refreshed, the Mekons poured it on in the homestretch, adjusting the final lyrics of the Timms showpiece “Millionaire” to “We hate them billionaires!” and giving set-closing zest to the favorite “Hard to Be Human Again.”

The encore provided its own arc, beginning with Bell singing the somber new “Fallen Leaves” as a practical soliloquy, though it was strange to hear strings from his synthesizer while Honeyman rested her violin. The country shuffle “Big Zombie” and the rock ‘n’ roll-plugging “Memphis, Egypt” set up the final punk salvo of the Mekons’ 1978 single “Where Were You?”

Fans who at least followed the band through its heyday in the late ’80s and early ’90s couldn’t have predicted the Mekons would wind it back in 2025 behind a new album just as galvanizing as their past catalog and play a sold-out show at City Winery. But now they’ll remember where they were.

Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian in addition to writing and photography for The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.