Last summer, When Particles Collide needed a little focus. An audio engineer who worked with the band on past releases suggested singer/guitarist Sasha Alcott and drummer Chris Viner write on a theme. Before the duo could flesh one out, two of their friends died in a car accident in their hometown of Bangor.
Suddenly, When Particles Collide had a laserlike focus.
By late fall, the pair had six songs about the hole the deaths left in the tiny city in Maine — you can stream an exclusive track from the “This Town” EP at Jed Gottlieb’s BostonHerald.com blog Guestlisted.
“A week after this happened, we looked at each other and said, ‘What are we a band for if we can’t respond to this?’” Alcott said from New Hampshire’s Phillips Exeter Academy, where she teaches chemistry. “So we wrote a record from the perspective of this close-knit downtown community.”
When Particles Collide — which plays an EP release party May 29 at the Middle East — cram and crush so much into 21 minutes. Remembrances of and open letters to their lost friends. Punk rock fury and heavy metal crescendos. Delicate melodic turns, plodding rumblings, serpentine guitar lines and little snatches of humor.
The duo accumulated a catalog of dark, dirty, sexy, loud rock ’n’ roll. With its intense, cathartic vocals and sonic courage, “This Town” tops everything the band has done.
When you write such an honest, emotional set of songs, you have to sing them, live them, on stage for years. Alcott doesn’t consider that a bad thing.
“If you’re going to do it right and respect the work and your audience, you have to show that grief every time and tap in to real emotions,” she said. “That’s our job, to connect people through music. It doesn’t have to be morose, there can be joy, and there’s a lot of playfulness in the record, but it has to be real.”
In only a year, When Particles Collide has embedded itself in the Boston scene: a killer run in the April 2014 Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble, a trophy for best new artist at the Boston Music Awards in December and live sets at two Boston Herald Guestlisted concerts. But When Particles Collide remains a Bangor band. And now they have made a definitive Bangor record.
“The love we’ve experienced in Boston has been overwhelming, and we love being part of the Boston music scene,” Alcott said. “But our family is Bangor, Bangor is our home.”
We’re lucky When Particles Collide have found a happy second home here. Everyone’s lucky the pair has the craft and commitment to turn tragedy into great art.
When Particles Collide, with Butterknife, Mad Anthony and The Color and Sound, at the Middle East, Cambridge, May 29. Tickets: $10; mideastoffers.com.
