The Mekons Shall Inherit the Earth

It's summer 1991, and a hot summer back before we knew what hot really was. I mean, this was prior to Al Gore inventing Global Warming. But it's a free show in Central Park and the double bill is Yo La Tengo and the Mekons, as if I got to program the darn thing in the first place. YLT as usual choose a setlist to match the mood, and cruise through the unbearably wistfully catchy "The Summer" and roil through a lengthy float along the heatwaves with "Sunsquashed."

To be honest, I don't remember too much of the Mekons set, specifically, except for it being the usual energetic-sloppy-lovable and that since it was close to the 4th, Sally Timms opted to show her patriotism in a red, white and blue tube top. But the moment is between set and encore, and it's already immortalized, for there I am on the back cover of the I [Heart] Mekons CD. Sure, you can't really pick me out of the blurred photo, and it's possible I'm not even in the cropping of the crowd. But I was one of the 2000 people who did what Jon Langford asked, and gave him a hearty middle-finger salute as he snapped all of our pictures from the stage. Now that's [heart].