Every week, 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 39-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
David and I started Mecca Normal in 1983, when a guitar-and-voice punk band focused on feminism was a different approach. We had to consider how we fit on bills. Were we the small thing on a bill of four guys onstage or were we the big, loud thing on a poetry bill? Our format of two people—and my feminist lyrics—were a reaction to a scene with very few women onstage. Over the years, we’ve found a lot of different places to perform including university classrooms, where we present an event called How Art And Music Can Change The World.
“Armchairs Fit Through Doorways” from Jarred Up (K, 1995) (download):
