The last of Joe Myers' scrapbooks (see previous posts here and here) contains various flyers and memorabilia from the seminal Atlanta band Inkwell, which he played guitar in along with Marty Rioux (Re/Model, Black Venus) on bass, Phil Dwyer on vocals, Marcus Lowe (Seventy Spacebird, Good Friday Experiment) on drums (March 31, 1995 to April 27, 1996), and Josh Allen on drums (June 30, 1994 to December 30, 1994). I am also working on a post of their discography, which should be coming in the next few days. Above is a patch from Joe's collection of the Inkwell "hand-tree" design.
Here is the lyric sheet from the early show period - I really miss these. It was kind of a nice thing to collect from the bands, something unique from the specific show you attended.
Here is the same lyric sheet under an earlier band name incarnation Crestfallen. Some Inkwell trivia for you.
This is the complete log of shows played by Inkwell - click on the images to enlarge. I first saw them on July 12, 1994 when Car vs. Driver played with them and Spirit Assembly at the Somber Reptile, but it wasn't until I saw them play with Thumbnail and Scout at Theo Witsell's house on October 23, 1994 that they really clicked for me.
June 30, 1994: Inkwell plays with Jara and Quadiliacha at Andy Stivers' house. Their first show, I remember Jara was a bit of a letdown to those in attendance.
October 23, 1994: Inkwell with Silence Equals, Thumbnail and Scout at Theo Witsell's house in Home Park. Theo's house was diagonal to the Godless Red House, if I remember correctly. I don't remember any other shows happening at this house. I also remember that this was around the first day we moved into the Driverdome, as I had just finished unpacking and Steve Wishart and I took a field trip to this show.
November 5, 1994: Inkwell with In/Humanity, Stretch Armstrong, Unscarred, Gullah and Voice in Charleston, SC
November 12, 1994: Inkwell with Deterrent and Deus Ex at the Driverdome. This was the second show ever at the Driverdome (first was Car vs. Driver with Weston). Both Deterrent and Deus Ex had drum machines, and they were bad.
December 28, 1994: Inkwell with Spirit Assembly, Frail, True High Fidelity and Anasarca at the Beehive Collective in Washington DC. Awesome lineup. I remember Phil came back from that tour with his voice completely destroyed, and it seemed like he never really sang the same again, but maybe that's just my imagination.
March 31, 1995: Inkwell with Scout, Freemasonry and Levelhead at the Somber Reptile for the Scout/Freemasonry split LP release show. Marcus' first show with Inkwell, turning them into the powerhouse you know and love.
April 17, 1995: Inkwell with Bloodlet and The hal al Shedad at the Driverdome. Thenceforward cancelled, and I believe this was my first Atlanta show with hal. If you didn't know already, the Inkwell guys were huge Natalie Portman fans.
May 13, 1995: Inkwell with Year Zero and The hal al Shedad at the Village Apartment complex clubhouse in Athens. This show was put on by Gray Kiser (Line Drive, Regicide, Hands of an Angry God, Sonn Av Krusher), and I remember it being very sparsely attended.
May 21, 1995: Inkwell with Prevail, Outbreak and Refuse to Go at the Godless Red house in Home Park.
This is one of the funniest reviews I have ever seen - FUCK THIS RECORD TO HELL!
May 24, 1995: Inkwell with Converge, Channel, Assfactor 4 and Fragment at Senseless Beauty Cafe in Columbia. That was a great place to see/play a show back then. I miss that Columbia Assfactor 4, In/Humanity scene quite a bit.
June 17, 1995: Inkwell with Chokehold, Ashes, Despair, Contagen, Endeavor, Eleventh Hour, Stretch Armstrong, Outcome, Blindside, Prevail, Falling Down, Soulstice and Voice in Charleston, SC. Show starts at 2PM - can you even imagine being at one of these today?
June 21, 1995: Inkwell with Chokehold, Act of Faith, Regicide and Boy Sets Fire at Under the Couch. This was an early incarnation of Regicide, perhaps with Mathis Hunter on vocals? Great show, I remember the Boy Sets Fire guys coming back to the Driverdome and making us all dinner, great guests.
July 6, 1995: Inkwell with Daredevil and Benchmark at the Driverdome. Benchmark was from Ft. Smith, Arkansas and were great. Daredevil had the two brothers from Indian Summer along with the guitarist from Ordination of Aaron, and they were not great. Nothing against those guys, just not so hot based on previous efforts.
July 14, 1995: Day One of the WillJawkBilly fest at the Somber Reptile, with Hickey, One Nature, Line Drive, Copout and Grade.
July 25, 1995: Inkwell with Los Crudos, Quadiliacha, Bare Hope Essentials and Palatka at Under the Couch. Just another Summer 1995 show in Atlanta.
August 23, 1995: Inkwell with The Cleavers and Vanbuiderass at Shaft Records in Gainesville, Florida. That was a good record store, I remember it well.
December 29, 1995: Inkwell with Avail and Hose Got Cable at the Wreck Room. Another great show, this must have been one of the last Wreck Room shows for this type of music.
December 31, 1995: Inkwell with Anderson, Autumn, Broken, End of the Century Party, In/Humanity, Palatka, Prema and Regicide at the I-Defy house. This was a great show that I missed - hal was playing in Ft. Smith Arkansas with the Benchmark guys, where else would you want to be on NYE? This show was also the unveiling of the prime Regicide lineup, pictured here.
February 24, 1996: I believe Inkwell played this show with Damad, Grinch, Spliff and Regicide at the I-Defy house.
February 28, 1996: I also believe Inkwell played this show with Chokehold, Scout and Thenceforward at BLT's.
March 24, 1996: Inkwell with Damnation, Dahlia Seed, Stillsuit, Walleye, 454 Big Block, Cable, Cast Iron Hike, New Day Rising, Roswell and Madison at the New Bedford, MA YWCA. One of Inkwell's last shows.
Here are the patches from Joe's collection. I had the baby fabric one on my jacket, which was just awesome. You can't beat the 90's homemade fabric patches.
Lastly, here is the artwork from the original Inkwell demo, before Marcus took over drum duties. I remember the guys being a little disappointed with it, but I would like to include it in the discography post. Hey, I posted 6 hours of unlistenable Midget Farmers demos on this site - there's no need to feel embarrased about something recorded 15 years ago!
wow. now if i could only remember playing like half of those shows...haha. the converge/channel show in sc was probably one of my faves. the chokehold/scout show at BLTs was almost our last show, i remember it being a bit embarrassing. for some reason we got sick of the name inkwell and changed it to crestfallen for exactly one show in sc. it obviously didn't take. i forgot how cool theo's flyers always looked.
ReplyDeleteadd'l trivia: the weird tribal "thing" on the Jara flyer is tattoo'd on phil's arm. TRUE STORY.
ReplyDeleteIsnt' the design on Phil's arm/Jara flyer from Shudder To Think's "Ten Spot" album? I always thought it was an homage to them.
ReplyDeleteboth of you are correct!
ReplyDeleteI cannot (and will not) take credit for booking the Inkwell show at that pool house in Athens. That was a Robert Newsome joint! Granted, I used to swim in that very pool every single night the temperature was above 80 degrees, but that was only because I was too cheap to spring for a/c.
ReplyDeleteas i remember, you were also too cheap for heat. i have memories of trying to fall asleep on a floor covered in kitty litter, buried in my own makeshift sleeping bag (my dirty clothes) in order to try and stay warm.
ReplyDeleteokay, so even though i kept the flyer, we got bumped off the los crudos show. and the willjawkbilly fest we were booked for the first night but we used our rock star status to bully our way into the saturday show. i believe we did play the chokehold show at blt's, but i do not remember playing with damad.
ReplyDelete-joe
yeah the chokehold show was our one and only BLTs show, i think. can;t remember what happened with the crudos show though. maybe one of us was gone or something? i can't imagine us just deciding not to play with crudos, or why we would be bumped, unless quadiliacha stole our garauntee. ha. i also do not remember the damad show, but in my mind i would like remember us playing it because damad was awesome..ha.
ReplyDeleteI drop some random trivia that I thought of while reading this that I would like to record for posterity.
ReplyDelete- The Mike D House and the Godless Red were the same place, but with different tenants.
- June 21, 1995 show at Under the Couch with Chokehold, Boy Sets Fire, etc. was the first show ever at UTC.
- July 25, 1995 - I am 99% certain that Los Crudos did not play this show, they must have cancelled. This would explain why no one from Inkwell remembers it. I think this show got moved to the I DEFY house as well. Also, "Bare Hope Essentials" was not the band's name, it was "Hope Springs Eternal." Gavin got confused I think when he booked the show. Crudos ended up playing at UTC in 1997 or 1998, long after Inkwell was gone.
- Aug 19, 1995 Wheeljack, Pagan Holiday, Hal and Inkwell at the Driver Dome is probably the weirdest crowd ever assembled at a house show in ATL. This is the show that Blondie (of Claremont Lounge fame) made an appearance.
- Feb 24, 1996 - I don't remember Inkwell playing the Damad show. I think this flyer must have just been mixed in.
- March 20, 1996 in Philly with Ink & Dagger. This was one of I&D's early shows when Eric Wareheim (from Tim & Eric Awesome Show) was in the group. This was over Spring break so I was at that show while on a road trip to see...
- March 23, 1996 - this was Chokehold's last show and it was in New Bedford, MA. This is also the show where some cretin jumped off the balcony during Lifetime's set and nearly killed someone.
- April 27, 1996 - last show at Driver Dome. This was also the release party of the Placebo comp, which featured all the bands that played the show. Prevail was also on the bill but their van broke down.
--scottmc
excellent tidbits, scott. the pagan holiday show was one of the major disappointments we ever had i think. for me anyway. pretty much a complete waste of time. they asked us all to play their show which we happily agreed to do and then they all just trashed us. but i reckon those were the times. never trust a riot grrl. or a stripper. i have that tattooed on my chest.
ReplyDeletethe ink and dagger show in philly was their second show ever. obviously nobody knew what they were about and the show was complete pandamonium. a total surprise, complete with a person in a chicken suit if im not mistaken. i don;t remember eric being in the band or at the show, but i could be mistaken. eric became a good friend of inkwell during these times, having befreinded him in the elements of need days (and i did some work for his subsequent bands). i should have kept in touch with him. obviously he is doing quite well, which is excellent. last i saw him was at the new bedford fest where he told me he was thinking of doing standup comedy and i thought he was crazy. haha.
Yeah - I remember Ed Rawls working with Stella Zine from Pagan Holiday on that show and getting a bad feeling about it in the days leading up to it. One of the more notorious shows at that house. Then there was that one lady doing her anti sxe spoken word rant right in front of the local crew, and getting in this huge fight right before either hal or inkwell played. Awesome show.
ReplyDeleteI found a Pagan Holiday 7" the other day at Kudzu, and they wanted $5 for it! If it was a dollar or two, I would have bought it just to post on the blog for fun. Maybe I'll go talk him down.
if memory serves me correctly, inkwell was bumped off the los crudos show because it got moved to a house and it was too many bands, and since will booked it (i think) he kept his band on the show. i believe it got moved to the driver dome, because i remember seeing them at the driver dome.
ReplyDeletespeaking of eric wareheim, i still have my introspect patch.
haha. the ink and dagger show also had sean mccabe starting a fake fight with the i hate you guys, with them not being in on the joke.
-joe
I do not remember which show it was, but i will never forget the event.:
ReplyDeletePhil accidentally (or was it on purpose) smashing the light cover in the driver dome during the show. the screams mixed with the broken glass and blood and made it the most memorable inwell moment I remember, it comes in just above marty slamming my finger in the door of the van on the way down to pensacola.
"can you imagine being at one of these today"
ReplyDeletethe answer for me is "yes"