PILLOWS FOR PYROS

Having given up its pyro antics for obvious reasons, Flipp resorted to its supposedly safer feather-pillow-bursting trick in St. Louis last week. However, the band wound up taking its tour manager to the emergency room and sending the manager for another group to jail because of it.

The other band was Little Rock's Evanescence, a female-fronted goth-rock band with a modern-rock hit off the "Daredevil" soundtrack. After Flipp left the stage to a sea of feathers at Pop's nightclub, Evanescence's crew leader, Rick Kelly, attacked Flipp's guy, Shawn Walgren, at the side of the stage, delivering several punches and kicks, according to Flipp and a club employee.

"They felt intimidated that the crowd was so into us," claimed Flipp drummer Kilo Bale, who reports that Walgren is home and OK but still has to pay his emergency-room bill.

He plans to sue Kelly, who also faces assault charges.

Tom O'Keefe, promotions director at Pop's, told a different story, complaining that Flipp "didn't tell anyone about the feathers and left us to clean it up." However, he said, "That's no reason to beat the hell out of a guy."