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 25-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Smith: There was a guy in Boston who really wanted us to stay at his house. He had a studio, and he figured we could record together—he was a real keener. We got to the house and he had this big, aggressive dog: a pit bull or Rottweiler-type dog that was disobedient and nasty. Neither Dave nor I wanted this huge dog on top of us as we sat on the couch, but the guy and his wife thought this was really funny, that we didn’t really know how to get the dog off us. The guy seemed to suggest that we let the dog do what it wanted, as they did. I did not want this dog on me. This state of siege went on through the evening; the dog controlled the household, the dog was the only subject of conversation. The only time the dog wasn’t dominating everyone’s attention was when it left the room to go and piss on my sleeping bag. The guy explained that the dog could sense my attitude toward it, that it was like a child having a passive-aggressive tantrum. At one point, Dave and the guy were in the studio with the door closed, and the dog came into the bathroom while I was in there. I wanted it out of the bathroom so I could close the door. It started growling at me, blocking my exit. Absolutely terrifying—and there was no one around to control this beast. We left. We did not stay the night.
