Flickerstick Fells Malevolent Rock Behemoth SoulCracker on VH1's Bands on the Run

If not for the Spartan integrity of Florida election judges last December, telegenic Dallas rock phenomenon Flickerstick might never have had a sweaty throng of squealing women convulsing with recklessness at the Wetlands two weeks ago. Girls shifted weight from foot to foot with the rest of their bodies taking a second to follow along luxuriously, neck veins made a point of themselves from all the screaming and smoke-absorbent hair swayed like a Dust Bowl twister. All this for an encore. And if not for that room full of judges in Florida?who had been tempted into dishonesty by this band's sworn enemies and direct competitors during the days leading up to the contest?Flickerstick might never have a moment so triumphal, might never have a deal with Epic, never have other men in a foreign city acknowledging their genius while their girlfriends measured their dates against lithe men holding guitars.

So it's forgivable when the singer, the white-belted Brandin Lea, struts his infamy. "We can finally say it," Lea tells us. Two days before, the VH1 show Bands on the Run had aired its climactic episode, wherein Flickerstick felled the malevolent rock behemoth Soulcracker. "We won!"

To the crowd, offscreen at Wetlands, this is the fulfillment of an impossible promise, a reason to bite down on a lip or inhale more deeply on a cigarette. Flickerstick now have figural meaning. For everyone staring down failure even though he deserves to succeed on raw merit, Flickerstick say, you can beat the odds after all. More truthfully than a million self-righteous benefit concerts, Flickerstick are rock for justice and redemption.

?VH1 picked four independent bands. Put 'em on the road. Came up with distressed fonts for simulated show posters and birthed Bands on the Run, a document of the hungry rocker's touring life. The band that made the most money after eight weeks reaped a heavy-rotation video on the Faith Hill Network, $100,000 worth of equipment, an A&R showcase and $50,000 in cash?not to mention what Nielsen Media Research determined was an average audience of 373,000 viewers each week. The show's producers shuffled Flickerstick to an audition after initially expressing interest in them for an aborted show about bands with family ties. (Brandin's brother Fletcher plays bass for Flickerstick.) Competing against the men from Dallas were aggressive yet ethereal female quartet Harlow from Los Angeles, Dave-Matthews-via-Ben-Folds the Josh Dodes Band from New York City, and Soulcracker, Warped Tour second-stagers from San Diego. Each band got a rented van, a $20-per-contestant per diem and an unshakable camera crew for eight weeks. And a message, reinforced by the threat of elimination every few shows: Do what it takes.

The drama of Bands on the Run came from each group's interpretation of that message and its implications for the mythology of underground rock authenticity. The show established tension by broadcasting unchecked, unfeigned ambition: the right stage leaps accenting a crescendo, the right grimaces and moans to underscore emotion, the right networking, the right smashed instruments, the right pelvic swagger. Pulling the curtain on rock's backstage, Bands on the Run demystified the effort that undergirds the building of a market for catharsis.

The narrative that Bands developed focused on the Janus-faces of rock represented by Flickerstick and Soulcracker. Soulcracker took an early and commanding lead in merchandise sales by working with military discipline. They debauched the least of all the bands, viewing every distraction as a missed opportunity. Focusing on relentless promotion, Soulcracker played as many shows as possible in each city the tour visited?when they couldn't book venues at lunchtime in unfamiliar towns, they brought acoustic guitars to college campuses. Bassist A.P. thought nothing of soliciting strangers in bars with fliers and CDs, waving his hands to begin his ubiquitous pitch of "Okay, check it out..." By the final show, Soulcracker led Flickerstick by $3000.

In contrast, Flickerstick combusted regularly. On the pilot episode, guitarist and keyboardist Cory Kreig learned his father had died. Drummer Dominic Weir morphed into pure appetite, taking every girl he could find into hotel bathrooms, away from the cameras. Rex James Ewing, clad in psychedelic shirts and scarves, became "El Dangeroso," beating his knuckles bloody on the shards of his guitar. Fletcher cheated on Angela, his son's mother, and spent much of the show in tears over his weakness in the face of temptation. The entire band drank themselves into oblivion, fighting with each other and even once with a stranger on a Miami street. Dominic and Cory both felt unappreciated and threatened to quit. Brandin assumed the unenviable task of holding the band together, at one point grabbing Cory's shirt and grunting, "Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!" Flickerstick played fewer shows and lapsed behind the other bands in sales. In short, they reflected every cliche of the volatile, self-immolating rock band, their urges frustrating their desire to succeed.

Only one thing kept Flickerstick on the tour?the fact that they rock. They emerged not only as the best band on the show, but possibly one of the best unsigned rock bands in America. Welcoming Home the Astronauts, their debut CD on their management's own 226 label, hosts 11 deeply textured, dynamic, spacey tracks. Live, Flickerstick are invincible and awe-inspiring. The Soulcracker juggernaut could persuade more people to open their wallets, but in the show's Battles of the Bands that promised the winner immunity from elimination, Soulcracker never had a chance. Flickerstick won every single battle, threatening Soulcracker in the only way that really counted.

So in the final stretch, leading up to the climactic battle in Fort Lauderdale, with Harlow and the Josh Dodes Band sent home, Soulcracker began a campaign of character assassination. VH1 had introduced an unpredictable element by getting the Guitar Center to offer a $5000 purse to the winner of the last battle, making success contingent on that performance. Soulcracker's clownish Beastie Ulery told a crowd of tattooed, meaty rockers that if Flickerstick triumphed, "corporate yuppie rock is going to continue to reign supreme." Driving in Miami, Soulcracker's A.P. and singer-guitarist Sutton attributed Flickerstick's triumph to a Barnum-esque hustle: smashed guitars. A.P. argued Soulcracker needed a stage gimmick to dull Flickerstick's potent weaponry. "People are fucking idiots, and they're impressed by a stupid, trite move."

Unlikely as it was that particular year, the arbiters of this crucial Florida election kept an open mind. In spite of all the persuasion Soulcracker attempted?even their own drummer Bob, who denounced Beastie for the onstage slander, schmoozed with the voters before the show in a bid for prejudicial sympathy?Florida let justice triumph. Flickerstick won the battle decisively, and proved redemption possible.

?But remember, this was television?a medium that thrives on simplistic morality plays. Could this clash have possibly been so simple? Flickerstick were no angels. They sabotaged Soulcracker's van and allowed their nemeses to think Harlow did it.

Editing is difficult. (For instance, Harlow and the Josh Dodes Band surely deserve more mention here.) Bands on the Run executive producer Jane Lipsitz explains that she had the grueling challenge of condensing more than 1000 hours of footage into a digestible and compelling 17, navigating between a documentary portrayal and good tv. She began a month after the tour ended, meaning the producers already knew of the victory of the beleaguered, meritorious Flickerstick. Would the show have been put together differently if Soulcracker won? Would it then contrast Flickerstick's dissolute and lackadaisical attitude to the legwork required for success? Would Soulcracker suddenly appear sympathetic?

"I really haven't ever thought of that," Lipsitz says. "I really can't say what I would have done." The producer is confident of her fidelity to the events as they transpired. "We didn't abuse the editing process. We thought we were fair. We had to cull little bits of stronger storylines out on the road."

Flickerstick are happy with the way the show makes them look, but considered the possibilities if things had turned out differently. "Yeah, they were definitely editing on the fly as they were going, but if, like, Harlow had beat [Soulcracker] and stayed on the show then [VH1] would have changed the whole dynamic of the show," Cory says. Brandin adds that the show gave viewers the tour as it was "to a certain extent, but they played [the Soulcracker conflict] up," which he understands. "They want heroes and villains and interesting characters."

Still, the conflict was real. Despite the shots of Soulcracker and Flickerstick clinking beer bottles together, "that shit was just to keep the peace, dude," Cory offers. And the show revealed to Flickerstick things they hadn't known on the road. "We didn't really get to see all the shit [Soulcracker] talked until we actually got to watch the episodes," Dominic says. "We weren't aware of how much assholes they were being towards us until the end." The band have few regrets about their own behavior: Dominic allows that "I regret saying I wasn't always practicing safe sex."

?Bands on the Run ended up earning ratings as high as those for Behind the Music and garnering an Emmy nomination in the new category of "Nonfiction Program (Special Class)." Although the producers don't yet know if they'll get to make a second edition, the show's website advertises an open call for band submissions. The show gave Flickerstick exponentially more exposure than the 300-odd capacity shows they played back home in Dallas. Their video for "Smile" debuted after the final episode, and radio stations are beginning to add "Coke" and "Beautiful" to their playlists. Rex plays down the A&R showcase that came as a spoil of victory?just "A&R people [who] get to have free drinks and to hang out and write it off as a tax thing," quoth El Dangeroso?but at the end of last week Flickerstick signed withEpic, which plans to rerelease a version of Welcoming Home the Astronauts that will include the arresting "Smile."

And Fletcher and Angela are still together.