Twin Cities glam-rockers hope Woodstock '99 flips for them.

This could be Flipp's big day. Will 200,000 people at Woodstock '99 discover what many Twin Cities rock fans already know? That Flipp puts fun-loving glam into riotous, slamming rock 'n' roll?

The cartoonish quartet was given the option to perform on the "emerging-artists stage" (with the likes of Supersuckers, Indigenous and the Chris Perez Band) or play the main stage to a captive audience of early arrivals the night before this weekend's three-day, 30th anniversary festival in upstate New York. The Flippers chose tonight.

"It's such a gigantic event that I think my mind has a mental block in it," Flipp singer/guitarist Brynn Arens said Monday. "It's not even real to me until my foot hits the stage, and my guitar is at 10 [on the volume knob], and I hear that first kerrrrang, and I look out and say, 'Hello, you crazies!' Until that, it almost seems surreal."

Following several local bands during the afternoon, Flipp is scheduled to hit the stage at 6 p.m. "We start the national bands," Arens said. "After us, it's Ben Harper, [then] G. Love & Special Sauce."

If tonight doesn't launch Flipp into the consciousness of the masses, Friday could be the band's big day . . . or Saturday . . . or Sunday. That's because the Twin Cities quartet has been told that it's the first-call standby band in case anyone else -- from Alanis Morissette to Buckcherry -- cancels, for whatever reason.

"We are the Benchwarmer Bobs of this event," Arens said. "The worst thing in the whole world would be to have Metallica cancel and have to walk onstage in their spot. But I'd put my head in that lion's mouth.

"That's half the enjoyment of rock 'n' roll. You don't know what's going to happen. I don't care if it's 12 people at a garage, I don't care if it's 35,000 people at Edgefest, I don't care if it's 400,000 people at Woodstock. It's all the same."

Does that substitute role mean that Arens will have to put on his stage makeup -- sort of rock's answer to Batman's adversary Two-Face -- every day just in case?

"Yep," said the fuschia-haired singer, his makeup removed as the four fellows sat around in a photo studio after posing for the camera. "Regardless of whether we're the substitute act, we're hanging out for four days. In the middle of Day Two, it's going to be 'Try to keep me off that stage.' There's the main stage, the emerging-artists stage -- we'll play the puppet-show stage. I don't care. It's a party. It's Woodstock!"

How did Flipp get this golden opportunity, given that its only national credentials are getting a video on MTV's "120 Minutes" for a minute, releasing an underexposed CD on Hollywood Records and opening regional tours for Cheap Trick?

It's probably because Woodstock cofounder and current promoter Michael Lang has known about the band before it played its first gig, Arens said. The singer had made a video of a bunch of musicians doing a version of the Who's "My Generation" and sent a copy to Lang and almost made Woodstock '94 as their first gig.

"Michael Lang lost his mind when he saw that video -- he loved it," said Arens' younger brother, Kii (a k a Chia Karaoke), Flipp's guitarist/keyboardist. "We've kept him updated. We'd send him whatever we were working on -- the new T-shirt, the new video, the [Flipp] cereal. When it came time for this event, we got a phone call."

"His being as informed on what we do, they sent us a contract -- and made us sign it -- that said 'we will not upstage any of their bands.' " added Flipp leader Arens, known for such stunts as having cereal dropped on an outdoor crowd from a helicopter. "There's no huge shtick planned. But 24 hours [of driving] to get there -- who knows what roadkill we'll find along the way?"

Flipp actually formed shortly after Woodstock '94. Kii Arens worked with Lang at that 25th anniversary festival in Saugerties, N.Y. He was hired to be hotel coordinator, but ended up being graphic designer, as well (he has designed CD covers and posters for many Twin Cities groups). For this year's festival, he was asked to design some print ads; those designs are being incorporated on various Woodstock '99 items, including credit cards.

The Arens brothers and drummer Kilo Bale and bassist Freaky Useless aren't getting big heads about playing the year's biggest rock festival. In fact, they seem to be keeping their platform shoes on the ground.

"After Woodstock," Brynn Arens said, "Flipp is coming back to Minneapolis to play somebody's garage."