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| Photo courtesy of the photonz |
| The Photonz van was, and is
a recognized symbol of their music coming to town.
Here it faces the horizon they rode into when
they toured the Lower 48. |
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By By Sally Carraher
Northern Light
“I graduated high school in ’92
and by ’93 I was full-time on tour with the Grateful
Dead. 160 shows later after Jerry had passed, it was the
summer of ’97 and my friend that I had done all my
East Coast tours with really wanted to come to Alaska…We
arrived in AK on July 4th of 1997. Somehow we found our
way to Girdwood that night and camped by the river…in
the morning the Forest Fair was in full swing and we had
no idea what we had stumbled into. It was here that I first
witnessed The Photon Band. A month later I would see them
at their first and only Talkeetna Bluegrass appearance.
I became a fair-weather Alaskan…and
would seek out the Photonz schedule upon arriving for the
summer every year. The Photonz definitely filled the jamband
void in Alaska in the late ‘90s.
Always changing up the set list from night
to night and always promising a huge party, no matter what
town, gave them the same appeal as the Dead, so I would
go check them out in almost every town they played during
those summers.”
Excerpt from an e-mail letter from
Rob Shatzer
Publisher of AK This Month
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| Photo courtesy of the photonz |
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| Photo courtesy of the photonz |
| The Photonz hanging out with
their friends at IceWood Farms in Delta, Alaska
back in the day. The Girdwood band has covered
locations all over Alaska for six years. |
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| Photo courtesy of the photonz |
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Realizing when to let go can be a hard thing to do.
The Photon band was conceived six years ago when Girdwood
musicians Pete Townsend, Romero Begay and Steve Norwood
joined together at Max’s Bar and Grill. Since then,
with Benjamin Robinson (who recently left the band), Tony
Restivo and Toby Pearloff (the newest member), it’s
been a strange but wonderful trip through Alaska, nationwide
tours and three album releases. Now people are coming to
grips with what life will be like without the Photonz.
Though recognized as an Alaska band, none of the Photonz
are originally from the state, a fact that seems to make
their success together seem mystically fated somewhere in
the cosmos, up to where their funky rhythms and flowing
melodies have always reached, like lighting riding backwards
up to its creator.
It was Begay who first announced he was leaving to travel.
“Because all of them bring a distinct presence to
the band [is] why they won’t call it The Photonz without
Romero Begay…he ads the psychedelic sound to the band,”
Shatzer said.
Townsend first met Begay four years before that show,
when both worked the summer of 1995 in Denali Park. They
played together in their down time. Later in Girdwood, Townsend
and Norwood had started playing together and Begay decided
he wanted in on it. The band has been playing Girdwood,
among other towns across the largest state, ever since.
The band decided the Photonz just can’t go on without
all their parts, and so now Townsend is thinking of leaving
too, headed back to his native Wisconsin.
“I’m sure The Photonz music will come out
in some way, shape or form [in my new music],” Townsend
said.
“I’m going to go to Mexico for a month and
chill out,” Restivo said. “I don’t know
if I’m going to seek out music right now, I’ll
let it seek me out. That’s how the Phontonz happened.”
A personal favorite of Townsend’s was the Halloween
show they played at the Fourth Avenue Theatre in Anchorage
in 1999, with bands Gangly Moose and Stov.
“We came out as a heavy metal band and played some
Motley Crew and AC/DC. It was a packed show.,packed house.”
Restivo will keep jamming at his house and at open mics.
He said Townsend, Norwood, Pearloff and he have loosely
talked about still playing together, although under what
name no one knows, but some Photonz licks would probably
work themselves into any such endeavor.
“I know I’ll play because I’ll always
play somehow,” Restivo said.
His favorite Photonz gig was the 1998 Cantwell show, which
is pictured inside the live album.
“It was 500 people who were all in tune and I think
that night we just felt like rockstars,” Restivo said.
“Those guys have been around town forever,”
Kelly Nichols, Beartooth Theatre Pub and Grill manager said.
“I think they have faced a challenge that a lot of
Alaska bands have, that they get good and then the wheels
have to come off the track and they have to leave. I wish
them the best of luck.”
Some of Nichols’ favorite memories of the band are
from the many collaborative events the Photonz participated
in with names like the Denali Cooks and Leftover Salmon.
“The night they opened for Leftover we had a good
time. They partied afterward and they held their own with
those boys – and those boys are proverbial rock stars,”
Nichols said.
“The first time I ever hung out with The Photonz
was a trip to Fairbanks in the winter of ’01,”
Shatzer said. “One of these shows in Fairbanks would
mark the debut, and incidentally, the only performance of
Jimmy Buffet’s ‘Margarita Ville.’ I was
beat after the first show. So I went into the back room
to sleep, while they proceeded to drain three bottles of
tequila that were around. About seven in morning I woke
up on the floor and one band member, thinking he was in
the bathroom, was standing at the edge of the bed, urinating
on the bed in which laid another band member. After which
he crawled into this bed and proceeded to pass out.
“Needless to say both of them woke up when I started
dying with laughter,” Shatzer said.
“The old First Taps were my favorite to see the
Photonz,” UAA student Cornelia Rogg said. “The
original First Taps when the atmosphere was a little different
and it was a little less organized. I love their van. It’s
funny because you can see it around town and you know ‘Oh,
the Photonz must be playing somewhere.’”
The Phontonz are not an Alaskan-kept secret either –
the group has traveled all over the Lower 48 and the Hawaiian
islands, playing with legendary bands and musicians. Topping
off the list of co-jammers over the years is Grateful Dead
drummer Bill Kruetzman, funk drummer Zigaboo Modeliste and
the String Cheese Incident.
The last three Photonz shows will celebrate their time
together in the same way they’ve always celebrated
– through their music, their presence, their friendships
and their partying.
Oct. 16 is Anchorage’s night to say good-bye when
the Photonz play at the Alley, 900 W. Fifth Ave, Then the
band’s first home gets the guys for one last weekend
at Max’s Oct. 24 and 25.
But they definitely will not go quietly into the night.
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