2008 Archives

March 03, 2008

ARTICLES OF PARTICLE AND PARTICLES

The Adventures of Particle continue!!!

Most recently, each member has embarked on individual adventures taking their own Particle flavor across the country and around the world. Steve has been out playing shows with Phil Lesh and Eoto and will be performing at the Langarado Music Festival next Sunday in Florida, Eric has just completed a run playing bass with Banyan (Stephan Perkins) in Colorado, and I just returned from a musical voyage in Australia and will also be performing at Langarado Music Festival with Mickey Hart and Friends (featuring George Porter Jr. and Steve Kimock) next Friday, March 7th in Florida.

For those of you who haven’t been blessed to have the chance to go to Australia, I will attempt to describe it in a paragraph, and for those who have been so fortunate, you might resonate with my thoughts about this amazing country.

What isn’t black is not necessarily white, and what’s located on the other side of the world isn’t exactly opposite as I found in the interest piquing land of OZ! Aside from the many commonalities such as language, music, and European influence, Australia offers many differences from our motherland. The vibration is much lighter and the air is more serene without the common honk of the horn or the scattered sounds of cell phone chatter filling the airwaves everywhere. The energy in Sydney unlike most cities is quite placid and calm in its chaos, with locals parading the streets between skyscrapers in flip-flops and board shorts. The city has a plethora of parks and is the antithesis of our concrete jungles. Even in the city, the birds lend a tropical feeling with their rainforest type sounds. And YES…….the water does flush the opposite direction in the toilet (Corrales 101). It is currently summer time in Australia. The H2O is warm, the personality is warmer, and the accent is absolutely infectious.

Like Americans, Aussies love music. The rock and DJ scene thrive in all the major cities. I was able to attend the Good Vibrations Festival in Sydney featuring Kanye West, Cypress Hill, Thievery Corporation, Rapture, with about 30 other artists and over 60,000 in attendance. I was fortunate to see Infected Mushroom, a DJ-esk rock band from Israel. They had a packed Sydney club and kept it bouncing the whole show.

I was also fortunate to personaly perform twice while in Australia. I played a trio show in the Kings Cross area of Sydney with my friend Dan Beiderman on keys and Scotty Greenway on bass. We had a blast playing an assortment of jazz and dance funk tunes over two long sets of music. We had several guests as well. My longtime Aussie friend Scott Enderby sat in on percussion, tearing it up, and Jill Desiree and Nat Conway lent their vocal strengths and talent. Natalie sang an amazing impromptu version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” The General Manager said that we were the best band they had ever had, which is funny being that over 90% of it was improvised. It was a really solid night with excellent players on board. On another night, I was also able to DJ and drop some deep chill-out grooves for a 3-hour set at MAD Café. This is a very popular café also located in the Kings Cross area. The crowd soaked it up when I dropped our family/friends band Boombox’s music into the mix. What a blast it was to see how the Aussie’s reacted to some of my favorite American cuts. I had an amazing time that night!

Another few interesting moments included renting a car (they drive on the other side of the road) for 3 days, shifting gears with my left hand, surfing a nasty left point break named Erie that requires a kilometer hike and is located an hour south of Sydney in a National Park near Bundeena, AND getting shit on by a bat! They say it’s good luck to get shit on by a bat, but it still stinks!

Cheers Mate. See you all at Langarado or somewhere out on the road soon!

darren



Bats sleeping in the trees


Erie in-between sets


Feeding a Possum


Sydney Opera House


Sydney from the plate

January 12, 2008

PARTICLE COVERS THE WESTSIDE FOR NEW YEARS 2007

We had an awesome string of shows out here on the west coast for New Years.
Local Family, Brian Jordan (Lauren Hill, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Banyan), joined us on guitar for the entire run. It was a fresh, new experience having him. He brought a lot of great energy to the stage and we hope to do more with him soon.

We started off with 2 packed nights in San Diego. This town is always on fire. There's a solid community of die-hard music lovers dwelling in this beautiful southern California paradise. The first night had great energy setting the pace for night number two. On the 2nd night, we ran 4 new doors songs with Adam Iscove belting the lyrics with remarkable resemblance to that guy named Jim that we've all heard about once or twice. We were preparing for our big San Francisco show the next night on, Saturday, Dec. 29th!

The SF show was a blast for the whole gang. Even though flying from city to city is exhausting, we managed to get to the there in time and muster enough energy to rehearse a 2 hour-plus set of both Doors and Particle tunes, with the original gansta', Doors guitarist, Robbie Kreiger. We've played with Robbie on several occasions, but this night was very special. We prepared 6 Doors songs for our set (The End, Riders On The Storm, Peace Frog, Light My Fire, When The Music's Over, etc.). The vibe is completely different when you have the original guitar sound with you on stage while playing the music of the Doors. It was very nostalgic for me because I studied the lyrics/music of the Doors in my college Music Appreciation class. It's a weird feeling being up on stage and realizing that my thoughts and concentration from several years ago my have manifested this incredible opportunity for me. The entire night ran smoothly with the help of Lee Scotty and Darren LaGroe helping us along with our usual dynamic duo, Jason Zaring, the wizard of lights, and Kevin Rudnick sautéing the sound! The crowd was excited and several of us had family in attendance. I personally had both of my parents, my cousin/brother Kevin and my college buddy Chris Geremia. They have been my biggest supporters during my entire career in music.

Early the next morning we had to catch another flight. This time it was to Denver, where we did a 2-night run on the 30/31st at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom. The first night was with RJD2. He flew all the way from Philly to mix up the night. He is really good at what he does. It was a great blend having him on the bill supporting the show. Willie Waldman and Rob Wasserman joined us both nights on stage to stir up the hype. New Years is always fun. We had a great crowd and the energy went from simmering to boiling. We played 3 sets for the public and then snuck in 2 more sets in the after hours. I think the party went until close to daylight and way beyond the amount of Jagar shots recommended for one night. Denver is another one of those towns that has a great music community. They just keep on giving!

Finally on the 1st, we had our one and only day off. I went to see "The Great Debaters."
It's an excellent movie with Denzel Washington.

Our run ended with 2-soldout nights in Vail, Colorado. These shows were overflowing and packed with energy. Our family friend Pete Blick spun both nights before, and in between Particle's sets. Not only is he a good DJ, but also he's a solid guide on the mountain. He took Kevin and I all over the white colored and snow covered Disneyland.

About half way through the day, whom do we run into but Flavor Flav (Public Enemy), at the bottom of chair 3? He's the last person I would have thought to run into on the mountain. The guy was having a blast though. He even had his white clock strapped around his neck under his jacket and was the life of the party. Before we took a run together, we rapped for a few moments about a show we did in Dallas at the American Airline Arena a few years back. When I asked him if he remembered the show he said, "OOOOHHH Yeah, I remember," with a look that said trouble was had that night. I think lots of green was involved, not the kind with Dead President's on it! It's a Rock-N-Roll day when you blaze the entire mountain and ski/board down to play a show. We also had Christian Basso (Little Hercules) sit in on bass, Derek Van Scoten (Cabaret Diosa) on guitar, and Scotty Stoughton, the owner, kicking rhymes with us.

The run was a great success. I want to wish you all a Happy New Year, and an abundant 2008! I hope to see you out there somewhere soon.

Peace to you,
Darren Pujalet

The gang backstage

New Years Eve

Darren and Robbie Krieger

Darren on the Mountain with Flavor Flav

San Francicsco