Mekons With Special Guest Johnny Dowd

CRITIC’S PICK:
Tues., July 22
Mekons, Johnny Dowd, City Winery — Many fans of these edgy, defiantly non-commercial indie acts might think the location is a misprint. Regardless, at this point the “genre defying” (their publicist’s words, but accurate ones) Mekons have been around in one form or another since 1977. Of course there have been major personnel shifts throughout the decades, along with changing styles from punk, to grungy Americana, country, and anti-folk. So what they’ll be playing on this tour is anyone’s guess, although since there is a new album, Horror, we can expect longtime front people Jon Langford and Sally Timms, to recreate tunes from that. Opener Dowd traffics in dark, moody, often woozy alt-country with oblique philosophical edges indicated by his 2023 release Is Heaven Real? How Would I Know? It’s a near perfect double bill despite the odd choice of venue. — Hal Horowitz