Particle's first-ever show was an October 2000 boat cruise around the San Francisco Bay following a Phish concert. And the group began and ended 2003 by jamming after Phish's New Year's soirees in New York and Miami. "The after-Phish gigs have been amazing," says Steve Molitz, keyboardist for the Los Angeles jam band. "But we're definitely ready to reach into new and different areas."

That's because while Particle share the spontaneity and improv components of Phish, the String Cheese Incident and other jam bands, they come at the music from a very different place, filling their jams less with hippie-ish guitar solos than with thumping, disco-fueled beats. "Our experience came from listening to DJs and even video-game music and electronic music you hear in commercials," explains drummer Darren Pujalet, who drives the drum-and-salsa swirl of songs such as "Sun Mar 11" with bassist Eric Gould.

After forming in 2000 in Los Angeles, Particle took to the road almost immediately. They began to build a big fan base before they'd ever seen the inside of a studio and became known for staging ambitious events, such as a 2003 Halloween blowout in New York, for which the group converted a small concert arena into a near-perfect reproduction of legendary disco Studio 54. The group then performed Seventies dance hits all night. It also won new fans during a marathon five-hour set at 2003's Bonnaroo, which started at 3 a.m.

After three years on the road, the band has no plans to stop the constant touring, even though it has finally released its debut studio album, Launchpad. Molitz compares the record, slickly produced by Tom Rothrock (Beck, Coldplay), to "the feeling of a London DJ set." But guitarist Charlie Hitchcock's prog-metal runs might make Particle a tough sell for hard-core clubbers. No matter. "Our fans want to stay out and they want to dance, and we'll be there for them," says Molitz.

JESSE JARNOW
(April 12, 2004)