The enduring power of The Mekons is the band’s nearly 50-year commitment to doing things their own way, creating a glorious snaggled-toothed sneer mixed with the most bittersweet sentimentality. This timeless punk rock attitude is the perfect soundtrack for moments when everything feels completely fraught, and The Mekons brought that energy straight to the Tiny Desk. The band immediately launched listeners back four decades, opening with the joyous and desperate “Last Dance,” a standout from their influential 1985 album ‘Fear and Whiskey’. This track is about falling in love during wartime, and its decades-old themes feel acutely relevant today. The middle of the set featured two phenomenal cuts from this year’s album ‘Horror’, starting with “War Economy,” which has that post-punk throwback energy reminiscent of the days when The Mekons borrowed Gang of Four’s instruments. They followed that with “Sanctuary,” where the always-steadying violin player Susie Honeyman takes a rare vocal lead, her gentle sing-songy voice providing an elegy-like wisp in the musical wind. The performance closed with another classic from ‘Fear and Whiskey’, the down-but-not-defeated barn burner “Hard to Be Human Again,” a song that demands to be sung loudly alongside comrades who have also been punched and beaten by life.