Jon Langford & Sally Timms at Gold-Diggers, 2-9-25 Concert Review

Jon Langford and Sally Timms: "Sad Milkman"

Jon Langford & Sally Timms brought their own special brand of folk-punk joy to Hollywood yesterday, delivering an afternoon set at Gold-Diggers. The promise was that the audience would be home and in bed by 6 o’ clock, and though that promise was made by the band, it was apparently binding for the audience, and Sally said they were going stop by each person’s home and check.  After all, a promise is a promise. They’d been in town all weekend. Jon Langford and Jim Sherraden’s art exhibit opened Friday evening, and Sally joined Jon for a couple of songs there. Then Jon and Sally played a gig Saturday night in Eagle Rock, that show a benefit for L.A. food relief for victims of the Eaton fire.

The doors were scheduled to open at 1 p.m. yesterday, and I had gotten there a little early. While I and some other folks were waiting outside, Jon and Sally came by, mentioning that they’d just gotten the tour of the place and learned that there was a Bela Lugosi connection to the address, something that was news to me. Apparently, Bela Lugosi’s trap-door grave was located there. This is where the great (can we call him great? No, probably not) Ed Wood shot some of his films. There is a good deal of fun history in Hollywood, often in spots one wouldn’t expect. Quite a few people were in line before the doors opened, which was great. I wasn’t sure how big the crowd would be, considering it was Super Bowl Sunday and all. But these were folks who did not give a shit about the game, myself included. Jon Langford joked about it at the beginning of the set, saying, “I think it’s interesting that you’ve come to see people who don’t know what the Super Bowl is.” Even if I had cared about the game, I still would have come to this show. Music beats sporting events every time for me, especially this music.

Nervous Boy

Gold-Diggers is a small venue, with stools at the bar, and some chairs and tables on the other side of the room (the stage left side, or audience right). It’s quite dark inside, so keep hold of your loved ones. The folks who run the place are cool. I called the day before with a question, and they got back to me right away with the answer, and were totally accommodating. There is a good, friendly, relaxed atmosphere, which I appreciated. Ryan Orvis was choosing the music before the show started, spinning records of some great bands like The Feelies and The Buzzcocks, setting the mood and keeping folks in high spirits. Then at 2:45 p.m., Dave Trumfio opened the show. You might know him as a music producer and engineer. You might know him from The Pulsars. You might know him as the bass player for the Mekons. But yesterday we knew him as Nervous Boy, the name of his current solo project. He mentioned that this was only his second solo show ever. How is that possible? Well, it was a treat. He played acoustic guitar, and for most of his songs used some pre-recorded parts on keyboard as accompaniment. “These are all new songs I’m playing tonight,” he told the crowd after his first song. “You’ve got nice hair/I’ve got dirty, thin hair,” he sang in the second song of his set, getting laughs from the appreciative crowd. “So, Sally, you might remember this song,” he said in introducing a song I believe is titled “Like A Spacedog.” “Oh, that’s my song,” Sally shouted from the back of the room when he introduced it. Dave followed that with “Junk Barge,” first saying that he was given permission to sing that song, as Sally also does a rendition of it. For that song, he played acoustic guitar, without any recorded accompaniment.  Sally Timms joined him on “Before The Ice Age,” a song that is going to be on the new Mekons record (yes, there is a new Mekons record coming out soon!). He followed that with “Cast Iron Dog,” a Pulsars song he said he wrote when he was twenty-three. There is a line in that song, “Thirteen years is a long time,” and afterward Dave said that thirteen years is a long time when you’re twenty-three, but not so much now. He ended his set with a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Life In Vain.” The word is he is in the process of recording some of his songs, and there is an album in the works.

"Before The Ice Age"

"Keep On Hoppin'"

Jon Langford and Sally Timms took the stage at 3:43 p.m., with Jon playfully teasing Dave, saying, “I’m Anxious Dad, and this is Psychotic Auntie.” They opened the set with “Dark Sun,” one of the songs that they did at the art opening on Friday. As they said in the song’s introduction, the lyrics mention Hollywood: “Like a small-town debutante just off the bus in Hollywood.” But it is the line “There’s a dark sun rising in this land” that especially stands out in these twisted and infuriating days. “That’ll cheer you up,” Jon said afterward. He added that miserable upbeats songs are what they specialize in. Whether a joke or not, their music does cheer up folks. And there was even more cheer in the room when he mentioned that the Mekons will be touring this summer. “Keep On Hoppin’” followed, and Sally grabbed her kazoo partway through, apparently having forgotten about it until that moment. No matter, this was such a fun song, and the audience appreciated the loose vibe of the show. In introducing “1 2 3 4 Ever,” Jon mentioned meeting Johnny Cash in the 1980s when Cash’s career was not at its highest point. There was a great energy to this song. Afterward, while Jon was tuning his guitar, Sally asked him, “When did you start caring about that?” Ah, but they do care about getting it right. Or, at least, right enough. They then played “I Picked Up The Pieces,” a beautiful and sweet number. “That’s the last nice song we’re going to do,” Jon said after it. Sally then rocked that kazoo on “Slightly South Of The Border,” which was the other song the two performed at Jon and Jim’s art exhibit opening. They followed that with “Sad Milkman,” a Handsome Family song. Sally’s vocal performance was beautiful.

intro to "Last Dance"

Fred Armisen joined Jon and Sally on percussion for the rest of the set, beginning with a great version of “Last Dance.” “Yes, that’s helped matters,” Sally said afterward, referring to his presence. And then we were treated to the afternoon’s second rendition of “Junk Barge.” It’s a song that Dave Trumfio wrote, and which Sally recorded for her To The Land Of Milk And Honey album. She played kazoo on this one. Then, glancing at the set list, Sally said, “This is a lovely song.” And she asked Jon, “Are you doing to do your five-hour introduction?” The song in question was “Tom Jones Levitation,” and as Jon started to introduce it, Sally teased, “Oh no.” This song featured a powerful vocal performance, and Jon encouraged the audience to sing along with the “la la” part, which folks did. That was followed by a fantastic version of “Hard To Be Human Again,” featuring more great kazoo work. “Harder by the day,” Jon commented at the end. But easy when you’re among good folks, and the Mekons tend to attract good people. Casey Neill, of The Minus 5, joined them on guitar for a wonderful rendition of “Seminole Wind,” a song written by John Anderson (and not Jon Anderson of Yes, as Jon Langford pointed out). He then stayed for the last couple of songs of the set, “Shanty” and “Sentimental Marching Song.” I particularly liked his lead during “Shanty.” That song comes from the Mekons’ 1986 LP The Edge Of The World, and it is the song that gives that album its title. “With a ‘Yo’ and a ‘Ho’ and there’s one thing I know/We’re not in the same boat at all/With a ‘Yo’ and a ‘Ho’ and the wind starts to blow/As we float off the edge of the world.” The set ended at 4:49 p.m. There was no encore.

"Seminole Wind"

Set List

1. Dark Sun
2. Keep On Hoppin’
3. 1 2 3 4 Ever
4. I Picked Up The Pieces
5. Slightly South Of The Border
6. Sad Milkman
7. Last Dance
8. Junk Barge
9. Tom Jones Levitation
10. Hard To Be Human Again
11. Seminole Wind
12. Shanty
13. Sentimental Marching Song

Gold-Diggers is located at 5632 Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles, California. Tickets for this show were $20.