Since 2001, Particle’s rise to success has been meteoric compared to other contemporaries in their scene. Sure they weren’t opening for the Stones at MSG, but in between festival spots at Bonnaroo, Coachella and Austin City Limits, and selling out venues coast to coast, Particle was a rare success with limited record sales. So to most fans on the outside, it came as a surprise when the band broke ties with longtime guitarist Charlie Hitchcock this past autumn. The split is still very much a ‘he said, he said’ mystery, but regardless of who was right or wrong, at the end of he day, one thing is for certain… it definitely didn’t end well.
With one guitarist spot to fill, Particle surprised the masses again by not only hiring RANA’s Scott Metzger to step in, but a second axe man, Badshoe’s Ben Combe, was also added to Particle 2.0. Their performance at the Brickhouse in Phoenix brought together the beats from Particle’s past atop a new lead sound that was out of context for the former space-porn-funk kings of late night.
Metzger, who is clearly one of the most talented and versatile guitarists in the scene, having played slick improvisational and arena rock riffs with RANA and Benevento/Russo amongst others, wouldn’t have fit the old Particle at all. So it was clear that a drastic change was going to be in order. Sure enough, this time around, the lengthy jams were there for Metzger to lay out on, but there was a more song-oriented approach quite foreign to more traditional Particle, and doubtful it will work at 5 am.
As a homecoming show for Combe (Badshoe is from Arizona), he represented the new era of Particle with his vocal duties. A bit unassuming and at times even sloppy, particularly on the acoustic version of Radiohead’s “Creep” as an encore, Combe solidified the more song oriented approach this band seems destined to take. Clearly a break from the marathon jams of Particle past, band leader Steve Molitz even jumped into the new sound spectrum as he grabbed the mic for a version of Beck’s “E-Pro.”
Only time will tell if this new format works, and if Particle fans even stick around long enough to find out. The Brickhouse performance clearly proved this is a new band with only a few gigs under their belt together. That’s understandable of course, but this version may have a more difficult climb to the top than the previous incarnation – regardless of how good they are together. Particle 2.0 isn’t going to be able to ride that late night festival circuit crowd that drove them to quick success in the past – it’s going to take a whole new approach and possibly a whole new audience.
