red lights

The Candle Flickers Brightly

Flickerstick
House of Blues
New Orleans, LA
September 1, 2001
Flickerstick
Flickerstick erupts at the House of Blues.

Story and Photos by Rob Grabowski

And the winner for best new artist is, and it may be premature, is the band out of Texas known as Flickerstick. They should definitely be considered come award time. After signing a deal with Epic records and winning the VH1 band on the run contest, their debut album "Welcoming Home the Astronauts" is slated to come out October 23rd. The band recently played a show in New Orleans at the House of Blues to a capacity crowd, with audience members ranging from early teenagers to thirty somethings. Lead singer Brandin Lea stepped out onto the stage to sing their trademark song "Smile" which the video does no justice to because you miss the enthusiasm their live performance gave it.
The stage consisted of a 15 by 20 foot video screen that set a perfect backdrop to the show that helped to only enhance an electrifying performance.Flickerstick These boys are an emerging working class rock band. From the starting gates, Flickerstick exploded into a self-induced oblivion of kick-ass rock 'n roll. Band members also include: Corey Kreig, Fletcher Lea, Rex Ewing and Dominic Wei. They brought to the table a very able and urgent party style atmosphere to the intimate setting at The House of Blues. The southern rockers sucked-in the audience from the start and really connected well with the younger crowd as if they were all long lost members of the band. The lead singer Brandin Lea could be compared to a young Mick Jagger that took too much of momma's speed perscription. With arms flailing about and his energetic veracious moves about to explode, he put the audience into a hypnotic trance, rock-n-roll style. He is definitely the right front man for such an energetic party band, which included Lea running through the crowd and into the balcony and stepping out onto a 6 foot, ledge 20 feet above the screaming audience below. He never had to worry about falling because the newly converted loyal subjects would have caught their new hero, no matter how far he had fallen. While on the balcony he belted out "Beautiful" which will undoubtedly be a bona fide hit as it has a upbeat, catchy hook with spicy undertones. As the show was nearing it's close the boys did a memorable cover of "Fade Into You" and with all of their energy still in tow, the boys took a page out of the Who's history book and tackled each other with instruments in hand, tore apart the drum set and had a good old fashioned rock 'n roll melee. After the show was over, the youthful Flickerstick gave back to their newest fans and signed autographs and genuinely interacted with the crowd that couldn't have asked for a better time.
With their new album coming out, stardom is definitely awaiting them. Let's hope the boys will keep evolving musically, but stay as genuine to their fans as they did on this night.

Perry Farrell
Perry Farrell spins some disks
after the Flickerstick show.

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