May 24–31, 2001

naked city

See How They Run

How does it feel to be on VH1’s rockin’ reality show?

by Alex Richmond

illustration: Josh Neufeld

Will reality television ever stop churning out its special blend of petty drama captured at random and edited for full effect? Unless we all stop watching, it seems unlikely — and it’s so hard to quit with junk this good.

The newest reality offering from VH1 is a bit grittier and a lot more fun than what the other music channel has provided. Bands on the Run (airing on Sunday nights at 10 p.m.) has been called the "rock Survivor " by one cast member; in a phone interview, another called it a mix of Behind the Music and Road Rules. Four bands travel from city to city (van and gas money provided by VH1) and play different venues on the same nights (booked by VH1) and try to outdo the others in door and merchandise sales. The prize for all this rocking out is equipment, studio time and a video to be shown on VH1 (wow, they still show videos!).

But packaged with the challenge is much more interesting stuff: excessive drinking, promiscuous groupies and random camera whores, sleeping around, car wrecks, screaming fights, blurred-out nudity and oh yeah, the music, which we hear in ten-second snippets.

What makes this show different from others is that we can actually find out whether the bands are as bad or as good, or as funny/slutty/sloppy/dramatic/drunk as they’ve seemed on television. We can see them live and unedited as they make the rounds at rock clubs. And they’re all coming through; see them out of curiosity or because you’re a fan. See them for better or worse.

The self-described "token alcoholic bad boys" of the bunch, Flickerstick, come to the Pontiac Grille on May 29 — but the less dramatic, ersatz-Dave-Matthews-Band Josh Dodes Band rolled into the North Star Bar this past Friday. The crowd’s reaction was, in a word, underwhelming: Less than 50 people showed up, and no one in the audience seemed willing to admit that they had come to see the band because they watched the show. Megan Adams, 29, told us that knowing the band was on television "piqued my interest," and that she enjoys reality television shows "although they’re starting to run their course — but I really don’t want to be in the paper." Well, then.

From the stage, Josh Dodes said the band members are undergoing "the surreal experience" of touring while seeing themselves tour on TV. He then called the show "horrible" and allowed that the band "are not fans" of the show.

So Sunday’s episode of Bands, in which Dodes’ band got the boot, wasn’t exactly a surprise. But what about the other three contenders?

Amanda from Harlow (all-female goth rock from L.A.) said she loves getting fan mail, but wouldn’t do the show again. Mostly she loved the tour van VH1 gave them.

"Oh my God, what we would give for one week of having that van in LA! It ROCKED SO HARD. We called it our ‘coffin of pimp.’ If that had been the prize for the show, I think we would have worked WAY harder for it. There were tears in our eyes as we drove away from it for the last time." Currently Harlow’s in the studio with Pat Smear at the control board.

Sutton from Soulcracker (Blink 182-style all-boy pop from San Diego) said stoically, "It would be impossible for me to know if any other opportunity would ever come along. This isn’t the way I would ideally want it all to go down, but I want everyone in the world to hear my songs, and this is the best shot I have right now."

Brandin, from Flickerstick (Radiohead-ish alternative rock from Dallas, TX), had the most to say about the experience. First, that he wished the competition was "more about art than commerce," and in particular, he complained about the "creative editing" VH1 employed.

"The only problem I had was when they made it look like I slept with a girl one night, and then my brother Fletcher slept with her the next night. What they didn’t show — her getting drunk and passing out, fully clothed, and me only crawling into bed with her after doing an early-morning radio show — wasn’t as interesting as making it look like there were musical beds going on. I did not realize the power of manipulation they had. But that’s a reality show for you."