The Return Of The Golden Guitarist

Jon Langford and his Ship and Pilot band visited the Mad Planet in Milwaukee saturday Night, and of course, rocked the joint.

The set was similar to other stops on the tour, as reported on the Mekons-yahoo. They opened with Lost In America, and played songs going all the way back to Langford's stint with The Three Johns, with the show closer "Death Of The European".

The band was rounded out with longtime collaborator Sally Timms, on Ukelele, shruti box, vocals and deprecatory banter. Jean Cook on violin, Dan Massey, gamely soldiered on drums with a broken foot, and Tony Maimone on bass. A full sound in a small room


Sally apologized for Grant Hart, who had to cancel due to his father having a stroke. They said they had been looking forward to playing with Hart. All night long, "The Laziest Woman In Show Business" Kept trying to end the show so they could hit the road back to Chicago, before she was forced to go into full-bore screaming harpy mode.

They spent the night slagging the venue the night before, which apparently was booked by a Clear Channel station. They said the CC rep was quite nice, with elegant horns a small pitchfork. But the said the barn they played in had atrocious sound, and they were happy to be playing a nice club like the Planet. Yay. Maybe we'll get a Mekons stop on the next go round.

Violinist Jean Cook fit right into Langford's MO, performing rockstar moves to Jon's foil, and providing cool counterpoint to Langford's impassioned, brute-force guitar chording.

Some of my favorite points were Sally's reading of the Handsome Family song "Drunk By Noon" , more rocking than the original; a wonderful version of "Sentimental Marching Song", a superfast version of "Nashville Radio" and all the stuff they played from Skull Orchard.

"Buy It Now" was ironic, given that Jon's CD was not present. UPS had tried to deliver a box to the bar at 10 AM that morning.

Jon wanted to keep playing, and as I said, Sally wanted to leave. They did several encores, and Jon never really left the stage.

Unfortunately, no "Wild and Blue", and no "Memphis, Egypt". Interestingly, I see from other reports that they are melding Memphis with the Art Brut song "Formed a Band" Brilliant!