Longstanding cow-punksters The Mekons mustered up an impromptu performance at Chicago's Rainbo Club last Wednesday night.| The band played for a little more than an hour in the tiny Wicker Park bar located just down the street from the Double Door (site of last week's surprise Stones gig). "It was weird and fragmented, but good," noted Jon Langford, the band's founder, frontman and creative impetus.

Langford is involved in several side projects, including the rock-tinged Skull Orchard Band and alt-country act, The Waco Brothers, whose latest release Cowboys in Flames has been garnering considerable critical acclaim. Although the Mekons only recently came out of a two-year hibernation, Langford doesn't feel the side projects take away much time from his original band. "They all complement each other, if anything. The Mekons are so scattered, so we rarely get together. We've just taken this past month or so to work on [that particular project]." (Isaac "Ike" Josephson)