Masters of jam

It’s a Friday night in the Lone Star State, and three of the four members of the Los Angeles funk-techno-jam quartet Particle are hanging out at the only club in town where they could be considered rock stars. It’s called the Vibe, and dreadlocked heads turn to the bar where keyboard player Steve Molitz and bassist Eric Gould are sitting.

One twentysomething, bedecked in a Phish shirt and ratty jeans, takes out his camera and snaps a stealth picture. Molitz tries to deflect two girls who first compliment him on the band’s set earlier that day at the Austin City Limits music festival, then cling to him; later in the night, he would introduce them to some friends and try to slink away. They follow him instead.

Those fans have company. Particle, which celebrates its third anniversary with a show Saturday at the El Rey Theatre, has wowed the jam-band masses at gigs such as the Bonnaroo Music Festival near Nashville, where they played a set of more than five hours to a crowd of 20,000. Yet the foursome also earned an afternoon slot at the alt-rock-leaning Coachella fest -- a remarkable feat for a band without a record deal.

“We embrace the jam scene, because that’s where we come from,” Molitz says, “but we definitely have aspirations to head in a more mainstream direction.”

For now, though, that mainstream approval seems distant.

The quartet does have an album (recorded with producer Tom Rothrock, best known for his radio-friendly work with Beck and Coldplay) it is shopping, but for now Molitz and his mates concentrate on their kinetic live shows.

Their all-instrumental, keys-driven take on “Whole Lotta Love” at the Austin festival provided a great example of the classic rock-influenced disco-funk that’s become Particle’s calling card.

So when the Vibe’s house band, Groovin’ Ground, invites Molitz on stage, it takes only a bit of chiding to get him behind the keyboards. That’s when things change.

The band and their guest launch into the Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime.” Molitz becomes animated, then frenetic, playing single-note lead lines and tumultuous fills while bopping his shaggy-black-bearded head and glancing up to make sure the crowd is with him.

They are. And soon, so are Gould and Particle drummer Darren Pujalet, who, along with Molitz, help Groovin’ Ground finish off the set. Though guitarist Charlie Hitchcock is missing, the set closes with a distinctly Particle-ish improv session, Gould and Pujalet hammering away at syncopated-rhythm boom-boom grooves while Molitz keeps the band’s melody grounded in whole-note chords and oscillating analog-synth noise.

“They’re music sluts,” says Particle’s promotion manager, Erik Koral, defending the threesome’s spontaneous jamming.

But that’s simplifying things: To Particle, this is an essential part of what’s becoming an increasingly viable organic career arc.

In the jam-band world, the most important ingredient isn’t record sales or marketability but word-of-mouth; the band is well aware that many of the same kids who are at the show tonight will be back at the Vibe tomorrow, packed in to watch Particle headline a late-night set.

To Molitz, Pujalet and Gould, playing with Groovin’ Ground is a sign of good faith -- and a way to ensure the audience is aware of the next night’s show.

There’s nothing more important to Particle than making sure people show up to see them. “Our audience plays as much of a role in what happens that night as the band does,” Molitz says. “If the audience, in the middle of a breakdown, starts clapping, Darren will drop out and let them carry the beat for a while. We try to keep things communal.”

But as important as the audience has been to Particle’s success, the band’s secret has been both manager Jonathan Shank’s connections (a college buddy of his was essential to booking the band at Bonnaroo) and the foursome’s undeniable work ethic, both onstage and off.

Says Galactic drummer Stanton Moore, who’s been a frequent guest of the band, “I usually walk off stage from playing with them for 10 or 15 minutes sweating more than I do when I play any of my own [full-length] gigs.”

That energy, coupled with playing 100-plus shows a year, has given Particle an inner-circle celebrity rare for a club band.

So when they’re done with tonight’s jam session, Groovin’ Ground’s singer watches them leave the stage with a grin that makes him look like he just finished playing with Hendrix; it’s not a long shot to think that this was the defining musical moment in his life.

But for the boys in Particle, it’s just another night on the road.

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Particle

Where: El Rey Theatre,

5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.

When: Saturday, 8 p.m.

Price: $17.50

Info: (323) 936-4790