For all you young guns, or young’uns, out there who think you’re hot shit now, you might do well to, first, check yourself and, secondly, haul your ass to House of Blues on Sat, Jun 25. That’s when a really good rock band partially based here will reunite after over a decade apart to play one show only.
The Flickerstick story is semi-tragic in a sort of #firstworldproblems kind of way. This is not to take away from the surely long, surely successful career that had been snatched from them, but when you’re about to play a showcase for a major label and 9/11 happens right outside your New York City hotel room, you’ve got to think that maybe something was not meant to be. Who knows. Maybe 9/11 kept the bandmembers from getting into a really nasty bus wreck out on the road somewhere later in life. Maybe it helped them connect with their families in ways they wouldn’t have been able to as bona fide rock stars.
Or maybe it’s what is leading to a triumphant return. According to frontman and co-songwriter Brandin Lea, not only will he and fellow original members Dominic Weir, Cory Kreig, brother Fletcher Lea, Todd Harwell, and Rex James Ewing be onstage at HOB in late June, but Lea says there’s interest in writing some new material.
The timing couldn’t be sweeter. Flickerstick is not just a great band. They’re pioneers of reality TV, having “won” the MTV competition show Bands on the Run over two decades ago. And what’s tastier than legitimately solid tunes but a juicy backstory to go with them? This reunion could just be the start of something better than what 9/11 times could have offered. Could be. But I guess you gotta look at it that way to keep from losing your mind over coulda-been/shoulda-been scenarios. Move forward. Always move forward.
Anyway, part of the credit for the Flick reunion has to go to a Facebook group created eight years ago that now has about 2,200 members from all over the country. Flickerstick Official is the very place where you can go to score tickets to the HOB show with a presale code before they go on sale Fri, Jan 14. There’s absolutely no doubt this gig will sell out within minutes — Flickerstick Official members are already chatting about coordinating flights and booking hotel rooms all over North Texas.
The craze makes sense. Flickerstick was — and is — a really freaking good alt-rock/mod-rock band. Their songs are dramatic, but in a good, hard-to-fake, genuine way, and a punk-rock pulse drives the louder, more bombastic numbers — and there’s a lot of them. A Flickerstick show is a rollercoaster ride that levels out in atmospheric, moody sequences bookended by fist-pumping, anthemic, poppy rock ’n’ roll the way it was known before hip-hop and country took over the airwaves for good 20 years ago. (R.I.P., non-emocore rock ’n’ roll on the radio.)
Everything’s been coming up Flickerstick. Just a couple weeks ago, a revamped version of the band’s 2000 debut album, Welcoming Home the Astronauts, was released, and a new compilation, When We Were Young: Singles, B-Sides & Rarities, 1997-2004, came out. Maybe it won’t be long before Epic Records (Flick’s original label) comes a-calling again. Stranger things have happened. Much stranger. — Anthony Mariani
Contact HearSay at Anthony@FWWeekly.com.
Why “won” in quotes bro? People keep asking.
From Anthony: Having written about Fort Worth music pretty much every week since 2002, I’ve interviewed the Flickerstick guys once or twice, and while I missed the show, the guys told me they, essentially, did not want to be there. The producers pitched BOTR to every band as a behind-the-scenes look at young, working bands. When the musicians got there, the producers turned it into a competition, pitting the bands against one another. Flickerstick told me they weren’t happy about that, which is why they refused to participate in all the little competitions and just focused on putting on great shows. Saying Flick “won” a competition by refusing to participate makes a lot of sense to me.