Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 31-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
In the middle of June, David and I went to a Lt. Frank Dickens and Gretchen Snakes show in a small cinder-block room in an industrial part of Vancouver. I walked to Dave’s, and we took the bus from there. While we were waiting for the bus, two guys around our age recognized us.
“Hey, weren’t you in a band?” the one guy said.
“We’re still in a band!” I said. “Mecca Normal.”
The one guy said, “I moved here in 1986.”
I said, “That’s the year we released our first album.”
I was looking at them trying to think how they’d have looked back then. I didn’t recognize them at all. I was wondering what show they might have seen, wondering if that was the last they’d heard of us: some random show in the ’80s.
“More More More” from Jarred Up (K, 1993) (download):
