Susan Marie Beschta (April 21, 1952 – May 2, 2019), who performed as Susan Springfield, was the founder and lead singer of Erasers, a band that headlined at CBGB in the 1970s.
Beschta was able to stay rent-free at the Fine Arts Building at 232 East 59th Street in return for looking after its photo gallery. She shared a loft with Jane Fire and they formed Erasers, a punk-rock band, in 1974, with Fire on drums and Beschta as the singer/songwriter and guitarist. Several musicians such as Richie Lure (Walter Lure's brother) and Anton Fig tried out with the band and the most lasting were Jody Beach on bass guitar and David Ebony, a classically-trained musician. The band practised in the basement of a deli near the Fine Arts Building and they played some impromptu gigs in the street there. They performed at venues including The Great Gildersleeve's and, most especially, CBGB. Their style was enthusiastic, feminist and non-commercial. They attracted some favourable reviews but did not sign with a record label.
Beschta was influential in the social scene of punk rock, starring in 1978 with Debbie Harry in Amos Poe's movie The Foreigner. After the Erasers, she performed in other bands and artistic projects including the Susan Springfield Band, Desire and Civilization and the Landscape of Discontent.
She died on May 2, 2019, at the age of 67 in hospice care in Manhattan, New York City, of brain cancer.
