Irony

Irony has returned to the web. More or less.

Irony started out as Brian Wilkes [lead guitar], Ben Mecham [guitar, vocals], and Dan Sterger [drums] in approximately 1992. Since Dan Sterger's left handed hi-hat drumming was less than perfect, Brian & Ben hooked up with Matt McCleary [drums - later of Mindset & the Common Ground] and his childhood friend Brian Konnick [Bass - later of Joker's Wild]. Enter Mike Westover [Bass - later of god-knows-what], who was just plain hot. Mike & Ben left the band together because they were annoyingly anti-drug, whereas Brian & Matt enjoyed them. Enter Rob Darke [Bass - later of a shitload of bands... we'll just link to 'em]. Rob's then-girlfriend suggested that he talk to Matt, since they were looking for other musicians to replace Ben & Mike. After some phone bonding, Rob & Matt got together. Songs that were played include "Last Caress" by the Misfits and "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" by Nirvana. This lead to the defunct band being re-solidified as Rob [vocals, guitar], Brian [lead guitar], and Matt [drums]. This lasted for about 2 weeks. Afterwhich time, Ben showed the band a song that he had recently finished. By this time, Rob & Ben had started hanging out & had become good friends. The song was good & Rob was more than happy to step aside [switching to bass], for Ben's rejoining. The band then re-re-solidified as Ben Mecham [guitar, vocals], Brian Wilkes [lead guitar], Matt McCleary [drums] and Rob Darke [bass]. Things were going just fine... for awhile. The band at this point had about 3 original songs, but performed a LOT of Metallica. "Enter Sandman," "Harvester of Sorrow," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Am I Evil?," "Helpless" [always instrumental], and occasionally "Master of Puppets." The unreleased album "Piss Bombing in Park City" is a good reference to this period. In 1995, the band found itself feeling stagnant, so they dismissed Ben [something that would come to happen quite a bit over the years] and replaced him with Curt Jackson [currently of 4 Corners]. The band stopped playing Metallica and became an originals-only band. After a few more weeks, it became evident that Curt was just not going to cut it. Rob was elected to fire him, because Matt & Brian had handled the various other firings over the years. The band tried several times to reunite with Ben & have it turn out differently [the definition of 'insanity'] than the time before. Ben was dismissed for the final time in approximately 1998. Ben's total dismissals from the band number around 13. Taking the band in a different direction, Rob started writing songs for the band. "Fucker" was a defining moment in the band's direction. Brian also began writing "meaner" songs. Rob & Brian shared the vocal duties in the spirit of adding different elements to the group... and also some sort of ego thing about "I wrote it, I'm going to sing it." But that's just a guess. An educated guess, but a guess nonetheless. The band went on to play a few large shows, had a few more police raids at the house, and eventually just sputtered out and died. The songs were plentiful during this period. At one point the group had about 40 songs. All in all, Matt seemed to be bored with the group, Brian's drinking had taken him to strange new places, and Rob had started working exclusively on his own material. Hence, the end of Irony. The band still plays together on occasion, but only for themselves.

Like all bands Rob Darke has been in (save one), the band has broken up. Rob & Brian Wilkes still play together though.

Metallica, Metallica, Metallica, Metallica, Metallica, Metallica, Metallica, Metallica, Nirvana, Metallica, Metallica, and so on.