1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:15,800 Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a 2 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:21,320 Speaker 1: story about community, about four self described dorks from Vermont 3 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,279 Speaker 1: who built one of the most devoted fan bases in 4 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:28,440 Speaker 1: rock history. It's a story about making music with your 5 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 1: friends and about musical euphoria. But it's also about the 6 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:39,479 Speaker 1: shadows darkening the margins, about hippie crack hissing tanks and 7 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: the nitros mafia. And it's about how a seemingly idyllic 8 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:48,519 Speaker 1: scene could be infiltrated by hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. 9 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: This is a story about fish, which means it's a 10 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: story about I don't know, man, is it great music? 11 00:00:57,880 --> 00:00:59,640 Speaker 1: Unlike that clip? I played a few at the top 12 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: of the show show that definitely wasn't great music. That 13 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:07,080 Speaker 1: was a preset loop from my melotron called Peace, Love 14 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: and ice Cream MK one. I played you that loop 15 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:15,200 Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to slow Motion by 16 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:19,760 Speaker 1: Juvenile featuring Soulja Slim. But why would I play you 17 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:24,080 Speaker 1: that specific slice of ass successfully backed up Cheese? 18 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 2: Could I afford it? 19 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,759 Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on 20 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: August fifteenth, two thousand and four, and that was the 21 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: day that Fish played what was billed as their final show, when. 22 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 2: In fact, no one, not even the band. 23 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:45,200 Speaker 1: Knew that their story was far from over. On this episode, 24 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:50,320 Speaker 1: four Dorks, Musical Euphoria, Shadows on the Margins, Hippie Crack, 25 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:57,279 Speaker 1: The Nitrous Mafia, and Fish. I'm Jake Brennan and this 26 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 1: is this Graceland. Earlier this year, in the spring of 27 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:27,079 Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, Phish was one of fourteen musical acts 28 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 29 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:34,079 Speaker 1: and though they didn't get in, they dominated the discourse 30 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:38,239 Speaker 1: surrounding the nomination in voting process because they received the 31 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 1: largest number of fan votes in Hall of Fame history, 32 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 1: over three hundred and twenty nine thousand votes, to be exact, 33 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,040 Speaker 1: and that's nearly fifty thousand more votes than the runner 34 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,880 Speaker 1: up Bad Company received. Now, the fan vote isn't part 35 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:54,639 Speaker 1: of the official vote, so that doesn't count toward getting 36 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,200 Speaker 1: you inducted, but it does offer an outlet for jo 37 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:01,200 Speaker 1: Q public to expresses a pain. And here's the thing 38 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: about Fish's three hundred and twenty nine thousand votes. Many 39 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:07,840 Speaker 1: myself included, were shocked to discover that a band that 40 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:10,320 Speaker 1: has never had a single on the Billboard Hot one hundred. 41 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:13,359 Speaker 1: A band that has only been nominated for one Grammy 42 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:16,480 Speaker 1: in their forty plus year career, A band that, frankly 43 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: has always seemed a little goofy, that that band has 44 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:24,200 Speaker 1: so many Joe Q publics hiding in the woodwork. And 45 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:26,560 Speaker 1: I can explain this Fish Hall of Fame. 46 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 2: Phenomenon in one word. Community. 47 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: Fish's devoted fan base as a ride or die community 48 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,080 Speaker 1: that began assembling at Keggers on Friends Farms in the 49 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: mid nineteen eighties and then evolved into record breaking multi 50 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,000 Speaker 1: day freak flag festivals in far flung parts of New 51 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,280 Speaker 1: England in the nineties, eventually staging the largest ticketed concert 52 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 1: on Earth for the millennium, some eighty five thousand people strong, 53 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:56,680 Speaker 1: on and on through unpredictable Halloween shows, marathon New Year's 54 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:58,560 Speaker 1: Eve sets, and record breaking runs. 55 00:03:58,360 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 2: At Madison Square Garden. 56 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: And so, when Fish's guitarist and primary songwriter Trey Anastasio 57 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 1: first received the call from his manager that he and 58 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: his three bandmates. 59 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 2: Bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist. 60 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: Page McConnell, and drummer John Fishman have been nominated for 61 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,800 Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame, His initial reaction wasn't that it 62 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: was a win for the four of them. He said 63 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:28,359 Speaker 1: it was a win for the community. Years earlier, in 64 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, that community unexpectedly surged in number when 65 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 1: Jerry Garcia died at the age of fifty three, and 66 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,359 Speaker 1: thousands of Deadheads were left looking for another band that 67 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:44,200 Speaker 1: they could pour their energy into. Like the Grateful Dead, 68 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,560 Speaker 1: Phish was just as much a movement as it was 69 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:51,560 Speaker 1: a musical experience, with fans following them from town to 70 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,599 Speaker 1: town and showed a show like a movable village. This 71 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:58,400 Speaker 1: is one of many comparisons that have been made of 72 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 1: the two groups for decades. And yes, both bands love 73 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:04,560 Speaker 1: to improvise, and both are better known for their live 74 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 1: shows and their studio albums. That said, musically speaking, at least, 75 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:13,280 Speaker 1: Fish is more like a fever dream hybrid of Yes 76 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: talking heads in the Rocky Horror Picture Show than they 77 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,880 Speaker 1: are the second coming of the Grateful Dead, and even 78 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: that is a reductive description. But Fish fans welcome the 79 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 1: incoming wave of dead Heads with open arms because one 80 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: of the things that both bands do share is their 81 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,960 Speaker 1: love of community. It's designed as an idyllic circle of 82 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 1: fellow travelers, one that hangs on every note and chases 83 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:39,039 Speaker 1: the euphoric high at the center of an extended jam, 84 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:42,040 Speaker 1: perhaps aided in part by the high of some weed 85 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:45,799 Speaker 1: or mushrooms. You can get caught up in that high 86 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:48,680 Speaker 1: and caught up in the music, in the swirl of 87 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:52,440 Speaker 1: people dancing around in ecstasy, the lights flashing from the stage, 88 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,599 Speaker 1: the band reaching the next rung, the next precipice, the 89 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: sustain and Tray's guitar ringing out for what feels like 90 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:03,680 Speaker 1: an eternity, and suddenly the seeming idyllic community becomes the 91 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 1: perfect mark for the darkness. 92 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:07,479 Speaker 2: Loitering there in the margins. 93 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 1: Twenty seventeen, Madison Square Garden. The house lights come on 94 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: and you're still reeling over that set list, and they 95 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: covered Jimmy's Bold as Love and Radioheads Everything in its 96 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:28,400 Speaker 1: Right Place and then encored with Frankenstein. Some dude next 97 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 1: to you is bitching that they didn't play fuck your Face. 98 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:33,360 Speaker 1: There's always a dude complaining that they didn't do this 99 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:34,200 Speaker 1: or didn't do that. 100 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,159 Speaker 2: You don't care, though you're on cloud nine. 101 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,360 Speaker 1: The gummy you took kicked in early in the second set, 102 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:42,880 Speaker 1: and it didn't matter if they didn't play fuck your face, 103 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:48,000 Speaker 1: because fish literally fucked your face. Okay, not literally, but 104 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:51,360 Speaker 1: it really felt like they did. As ridiculous as that sounds, 105 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:53,800 Speaker 1: that you don't even care if someone hears you say that, 106 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:57,239 Speaker 1: because it's the truth. It's all part of this wave 107 00:06:57,279 --> 00:06:59,760 Speaker 1: you've been writing, and you keep writing it as you 108 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:01,919 Speaker 1: push your way toward the exit with the rest of 109 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: the crowd, and you pass through the door and out 110 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: onto the street, and now you're hit in that fucked 111 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:11,040 Speaker 1: face of yours with clouds of weed and cigarette smoke. 112 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:15,080 Speaker 1: They both smell sweet in the summer heat, and though 113 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:18,560 Speaker 1: you don't smoke personally, the scent and the aroma coated 114 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,840 Speaker 1: and humid air, it's all wrapped up in the experience, 115 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 1: and so is the hissing. It's like that Joni Mitchell record, 116 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 1: but instead of the hissing of summer lawns, this is 117 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: the hissing of nitrous tanks on asphalt. You hear them 118 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,200 Speaker 1: whistling as soon as you're outside. Now you turn and 119 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 1: see twelve or thirteen tank rats sitting on the sidewalk, 120 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:47,200 Speaker 1: slouched against the wall, balloons in their hands, stone to 121 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 1: the gills on gas. One of them, falls over and 122 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: hits his head on the pavement, and another says that 123 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:55,680 Speaker 1: he thinks his head is floating away, but he says 124 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: it with speech that's so slur that you can only guess. 125 00:07:58,560 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 2: That that's what he's talking about. 126 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: And then the balloon people, the cellars, the pushers, they're 127 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: pushing up against you, blocking you from walking down the street. 128 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 1: One of them is yelling in your face, it is 129 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 1: cold right off the tank. One for ten bucks or 130 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,040 Speaker 1: four for twenty. What do you want? He thrusts the fissful, 131 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:21,640 Speaker 1: swollen balloons in your direction, red and yellow and pink, daring. 132 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 2: You to try to step around it. 133 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 1: You know he's not gonna let you get away that easily, 134 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:26,840 Speaker 1: because that's what these guys do. 135 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 2: They intimidate, they're overbearing, and they. 136 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:32,240 Speaker 1: Do it all while keeping their heads on a swivel. 137 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:35,680 Speaker 1: The cops rarely come down on these guys, but still 138 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:38,439 Speaker 1: they run around like animals have just been released from 139 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:41,240 Speaker 1: a cage, and they're always aware that one wrong move 140 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:41,840 Speaker 1: will send. 141 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:45,400 Speaker 2: Them back there. God, you can't stand these fucking balloon people. 142 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: They're a trashy blemish on an otherwise chill scene. And 143 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:52,319 Speaker 1: it's not just the gas like whatever, man, no shame, 144 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:55,320 Speaker 1: and how one gets one's rocks off. It's more about 145 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 1: how they block the exits and gum up the works. 146 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: And right then a car siren whoops nearby, and the 147 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:05,640 Speaker 1: dealer who was crowding you suddenly vanishes, no doubt, off 148 00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:07,960 Speaker 1: to another patch of real estate right around the corner. 149 00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:15,400 Speaker 1: Nitrous has always been around long before Fish. The Dead 150 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 1: themselves were huffing gas through old army surplus aspirators in 151 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:23,160 Speaker 1: the seventies, but that was before the nitrous racket became organized, 152 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,680 Speaker 1: before it was controlled by dons and bosses and kingpins 153 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:29,360 Speaker 1: who were pulling the levers and calling the shots behind 154 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,640 Speaker 1: closed doors. It was before the balloon people were bringing 155 00:09:32,679 --> 00:09:35,320 Speaker 1: more than tanks full of gas to fish shows. They 156 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:37,920 Speaker 1: were bringing guns and knives in order to scare off 157 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: the competition. And it was long before they were known 158 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 1: not only as balloon people, but by a far more 159 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:50,320 Speaker 1: menacing name, the nitrous Mafia. There's a much more innocent 160 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:53,080 Speaker 1: view of the nitrous scene in Todd Phillips's documentary on 161 00:09:53,160 --> 00:09:57,080 Speaker 1: Fish Bittersweet Motel, which includes this moment where a girl 162 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:00,439 Speaker 1: huffs some gas and dances around and then hundreds fans 163 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:04,720 Speaker 1: get Buck naked for an impromptu photoshoot. That footage is 164 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,240 Speaker 1: from the mid nineties, and it was right around this 165 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,600 Speaker 1: time that for the first time, Trey Anastasia was really 166 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:14,600 Speaker 1: beginning to notice the depth of the drug culture surrounding 167 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:18,880 Speaker 1: his band. It was also at this time, roughly thirteen 168 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,640 Speaker 1: years after Fish began, the Tray began to participate in 169 00:10:22,679 --> 00:10:26,160 Speaker 1: the drug culture as well. Listen, I know that sounds 170 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: weird thirteen years in to first get into drugs when 171 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:32,560 Speaker 1: you're in the band Fish, But Trey was a self 172 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:37,480 Speaker 1: described dork. All the guys in Fish were dorks. Many 173 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:40,679 Speaker 1: and their crew, though, were doing harder drugs, but Trey 174 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:43,959 Speaker 1: had no idea. He had his head down, his nose 175 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:47,679 Speaker 1: to the grindstone, completely immersed in the music he was creating. 176 00:10:48,679 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: But just like the nitros mafia's minions pedaling fatties to 177 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:57,240 Speaker 1: every warm body passing by, that harder stuff was out there. Coke, 178 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: heroin and the kind of drugs that trick you into 179 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:03,360 Speaker 1: thinking that you're making the community stronger by doing them, 180 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:06,199 Speaker 1: when in fact they are separating you from the pack 181 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:10,760 Speaker 1: so that the drugs have you to themselves, and then 182 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: they bleed you dry, until you yourself are just another 183 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:18,240 Speaker 1: shadow out on the fringes, and maybe even worse, maybe dead. 184 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:22,280 Speaker 1: And Trey himself was about to find out some of 185 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:57,040 Speaker 1: these truths the only way you can, sometimes the hard way. 186 00:11:58,040 --> 00:12:00,880 Speaker 1: Long before nitrous oxide was known on the jam bands 187 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:04,240 Speaker 1: circuit as hippie crack, it was more commonly referred to 188 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 1: as laughing gas. It was first synthesized in seventeen seventy 189 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:12,920 Speaker 1: two by the English chemist and philosopher Joseph Priestley, and 190 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:16,160 Speaker 1: some of its initial applications were to treat patients with 191 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: lung diseases and other illnesses. These days you know it 192 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 1: as the stuff your dentists has you inhale when he 193 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:27,240 Speaker 1: needs to gouge away your gums with a lethal scalpel. 194 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: But as early as seventeen ninety nine there was evidence 195 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:33,679 Speaker 1: of nitrous being used not for medicine but for recreation. 196 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:39,120 Speaker 1: Seventeen ninety nine, in England and in America, an entertainer 197 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:42,440 Speaker 1: would pretend to be a doctor, pick someone from the audience, 198 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:45,560 Speaker 1: bring them on stage, have them huff some gas, and then, 199 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:48,679 Speaker 1: for the amusement of the paying crowd, the audience member 200 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:53,280 Speaker 1: high on nitrous would quote laugh, sing, dance speaker fight, unquote. 201 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:56,240 Speaker 1: And that's according to a poster advertising one such event 202 00:12:56,440 --> 00:13:00,000 Speaker 1: from way back when the allure of a nitrous high 203 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:03,760 Speaker 1: is that it's fast and cheap. You disconnect from your 204 00:13:03,760 --> 00:13:07,359 Speaker 1: body for thirty to sixty seconds, float off into oblivion, 205 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:09,679 Speaker 1: and then it's over and all you want is another hit. 206 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,640 Speaker 1: But ask any dentists who's not Steve Martin in a 207 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 1: little Shop of horrors, and they'll tell you that the 208 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 1: danger of even one hit of nitrous is that it 209 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:22,600 Speaker 1: starves your brain of oxygen, and then best case scenario, 210 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:26,800 Speaker 1: you're fainting in falling in cracking your head open. Worst 211 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:31,079 Speaker 1: case you're suffering a seizure of brain damage. These days, 212 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:34,720 Speaker 1: hippie crack is no longer confined to shakedown steep, which 213 00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: is the tailgating area outside any content venue where you 214 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:41,680 Speaker 1: buy grilled cheese's, hash brownies, handmade jewelry, bumper stickers, and 215 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:45,920 Speaker 1: whatever other wearers the vendors are hustling that day. These days, 216 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:51,280 Speaker 1: it's big business pulling down big money nitrous Mafia crews 217 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:54,800 Speaker 1: out of hubs like Philly have little overhead, often employing 218 00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:56,840 Speaker 1: dealers straight out of the pen on the cheap to 219 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,360 Speaker 1: sling gas that shows. The balloon men say up in 220 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,560 Speaker 1: one spot, one guy filling, another handling the cash, a 221 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:06,320 Speaker 1: third on the lookout, and within ten minutes they've sold 222 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:10,200 Speaker 1: hundreds of balloons and pocketed thousands of dollars, always ready 223 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 1: at a moment's notice to jump to another spot if 224 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:16,120 Speaker 1: five O is moving in, because there's only an issue 225 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:20,720 Speaker 1: if you're caught selling. The DEA doesn't regulate it. It's 226 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 1: not classified as a controlled substance. It's legal to own nitrous, 227 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:28,040 Speaker 1: it's just illegal to purchase or sell it for the 228 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:31,840 Speaker 1: purpose of getting high. You'd think, however, that you'd hear 229 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:35,440 Speaker 1: more about nitrous dealers getting busted, But the mafia is 230 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: highly organized, and the mafia is also a cutthroat, and 231 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,200 Speaker 1: with the increased presence at Fish shows and other music 232 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:46,360 Speaker 1: festivals came increased tactics to dominate the market by any 233 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:50,440 Speaker 1: means necessary. In two thousand and nine, according to one 234 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: Fish fan, a parking lot of Tendant was beaten to 235 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,520 Speaker 1: shit by a nitrous dealer outside of show in Portland, Maine. 236 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: That same year, at the gathering of the Vibes Festival, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 237 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:03,680 Speaker 1: where Fish was not performing By the Way, a twenty 238 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:06,000 Speaker 1: nine year old man was found dead of an apparent 239 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:09,200 Speaker 1: drug overdose, but fans online were quick to point fingers 240 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 1: at the Nitrous Mafia, saying that they'd beaten him with 241 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:19,160 Speaker 1: a tank prior to his death many years earlier. In 242 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:23,440 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, the year Fish first formed in Burlington, Vermont, 243 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 1: the only viable connection between Nitrous and rock and roll 244 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:29,800 Speaker 1: was this one bootleg going around to the Grateful Dead 245 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:33,000 Speaker 1: show in Baltimore from the year prior, the one where 246 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:35,960 Speaker 1: Jerry and Phil Lesh were allegedly taking hits from a 247 00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:39,440 Speaker 1: nitrous tank on stage while Phil did a psychotic reading 248 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: of Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven. But this was 249 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:48,000 Speaker 1: a more naive time. The Nitrous thing was a real, 250 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:51,160 Speaker 1: if you know, you know kind of deal. In nineteen 251 00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:54,520 Speaker 1: eighty three, Bernie Sanders was in his second term as 252 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: Burlington's mayor, and Ben and Jerry had just created that 253 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:01,120 Speaker 1: cow design that would become so ubiquitous they're popular but 254 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 1: still hyper local ice cream, and Trey Anastasio was about 255 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,320 Speaker 1: to transfer from UVM to Goddard College, where he composed 256 00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:11,640 Speaker 1: a concept album called The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday 257 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:15,080 Speaker 1: as his senior study. And just like Bernie and Ben 258 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 1: and Jerry Trey, along. 259 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:18,800 Speaker 2: With Mike Page and Fishman, was. 260 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:23,040 Speaker 1: Interested in something completely different than what was being offered. 261 00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:27,560 Speaker 1: So that's what Fish delivered. Their regular performances at a 262 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: local bar called Nectar's were marathon affairs, three sets per night, 263 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:35,960 Speaker 1: each set increasingly less traditional and more abstract, and they 264 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,960 Speaker 1: tried to not repeat themselves, not just in how they 265 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 1: played a song, but in what songs they chose to play. 266 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:45,720 Speaker 1: So from very early on, the promise of a Fish 267 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:50,000 Speaker 1: show was a promise of something unexpected, which included their 268 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 1: improvisations where moments of great transcendence would frequently emerge from 269 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:59,400 Speaker 1: even greater moments of absurdity, and experiencing that transcendence, well, 270 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:01,800 Speaker 1: it's like watching a movie in a crowded theater. It 271 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 1: just hits different when you're surrounded by a community. That 272 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:11,679 Speaker 1: community grew on grassroots DIY level through the nineteen eighties 273 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:15,000 Speaker 1: and into the nineties. When major labels flush with cash 274 00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:19,360 Speaker 1: could not corral enough new bands, Fish signed to Elektra, 275 00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:22,719 Speaker 1: who released their third studio album, A Picture of Nectar, 276 00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:26,960 Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two, while simultaneously reissuing their first two 277 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:31,240 Speaker 1: independent releases, Junta and lawn Boy. All three records were 278 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:35,720 Speaker 1: marked by a signature combination of goofiness and virtuosity, but 279 00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:39,640 Speaker 1: a picture of nectar boasted the single chalk Dust Torture, 280 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:43,680 Speaker 1: which endeared them to the likes of David Letterman. More 281 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,919 Speaker 1: albums followed, more fans too, and before long, tens of 282 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,479 Speaker 1: thousands of devotees seventy thousand to be precise, were shutting 283 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:54,000 Speaker 1: down the two lane stretch of I ninety five running 284 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:56,520 Speaker 1: up northern Maine all the way to Louring Air Force Base, 285 00:17:56,560 --> 00:17:59,439 Speaker 1: where a Fish staged a two day festival called the 286 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:03,919 Speaker 1: Great Went in August of nineteen ninety seven. They turned 287 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:06,760 Speaker 1: the tiny town of Limestone into the biggest city in 288 00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 1: the state of Maine. That weekend, just as the members 289 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 1: of Fish were beginning to tune into a dangerous new frequency, 290 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:20,879 Speaker 1: Trey was drooling. The saliva oozed from the side of 291 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:25,160 Speaker 1: his mouth and ran down his chin. More followed, glistening 292 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:27,959 Speaker 1: in the red hairs of his beard. He was totally 293 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:31,000 Speaker 1: out of it. His mouth hung open, his eyes were 294 00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:33,120 Speaker 1: rolling into the back of his head, and his. 295 00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:35,000 Speaker 2: Mind was just gone. 296 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:39,760 Speaker 1: He heard someone laughing by his side. He slowly turned 297 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:42,480 Speaker 1: his head, only now having the slightest realization that he 298 00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:47,240 Speaker 1: was a slobbering mess, only the slightest though. He was 299 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:50,159 Speaker 1: so fucked up. And that's when he saw the big 300 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:55,680 Speaker 1: black mustache. Oh yeah, that's right, Carlos Santana was there. 301 00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 1: He'd forgotten where he was for a minute. 302 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,360 Speaker 2: There I who was with him. 303 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,720 Speaker 1: Santana was laughing harder and louder, now nodding his head 304 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:09,960 Speaker 1: in approval as Trey fell deeper into oblivion. Trey then 305 00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:12,440 Speaker 1: turned to look down at his own hands and realized 306 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:14,560 Speaker 1: that he'd been holding a single sustained note on his 307 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 1: guitar this entire time. There was an audience of thousands 308 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:23,240 Speaker 1: out there watching as his epic solo came to its conclusion. 309 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:28,120 Speaker 1: Trey had gone into a trance state, drooling all over 310 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,600 Speaker 1: himself on stage, and he did this while getting ridiculously high. 311 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:33,919 Speaker 2: On the music. 312 00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:39,000 Speaker 1: And the song ended, the crowd roared, and Trey leaned 313 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:41,720 Speaker 1: over to Santana, who had graciously sat in with Fish 314 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:44,480 Speaker 1: for a few songs, and apologized for making such a 315 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,879 Speaker 1: fool of himself drooling in front of Carlos. It was 316 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: embarrassing and Santana shook his head. Nothing to apologize for, 317 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,679 Speaker 1: he said, you were tapped into something special. You know 318 00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:59,000 Speaker 1: you've gone somewhere good when you start drooling like that. 319 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:03,480 Speaker 1: This was the recent memory replaying in Trey's head as 320 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:05,879 Speaker 1: he stood on stage at the Great Went Festival and 321 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:09,439 Speaker 1: scanned the community of seventy thousand Fish fans gathered before him. 322 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:13,439 Speaker 1: Just like he'd once tapped into something good with Santana, 323 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,520 Speaker 1: he was now tapping into something with each and every 324 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,960 Speaker 1: person out there. But this was a long way from 325 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:23,240 Speaker 1: three sets a night at Nectar's. This was much bigger 326 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:26,520 Speaker 1: than signing on the dotted line with Electra. This had 327 00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:28,800 Speaker 1: gone bigger than he could have ever imagined it to be. 328 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,520 Speaker 1: It was scary big, the kind of big that changes 329 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:36,160 Speaker 1: you whether you wanted to or not. And things were 330 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:40,760 Speaker 1: changing out there. More people meant more drugs and not 331 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:44,840 Speaker 1: just nitrous but coke and dope, and more hissing tanks 332 00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: and more empty balloons trampled under foot across the grounds 333 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,280 Speaker 1: at Mooring Air Force Base. When the weekend was finally over, 334 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,840 Speaker 1: Trey was oblivious to most of these things. He just 335 00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:57,960 Speaker 1: saw a sea of people, and he could sense that 336 00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:01,280 Speaker 1: as the sea grew in size, so did the potential 337 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:04,240 Speaker 1: for a giant wave to build up and come crashing 338 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,879 Speaker 1: down on everything. In fact, he was so wrapped up 339 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:10,760 Speaker 1: and playing in the music and cultivating one of the 340 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,080 Speaker 1: biggest communities in rock and roll history, that he couldn't 341 00:21:14,119 --> 00:21:17,119 Speaker 1: see that not only was that wave indeed incoming, but 342 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:22,359 Speaker 1: it was already hovering over the backstage scene. Cocaine and 343 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,920 Speaker 1: heroin weren't just new mainstays out in the parking lot, 344 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 1: and on shakedown the crew had been doing them too, 345 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:33,280 Speaker 1: but just hiding them. Once Trey's eyes were really opened, 346 00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:36,800 Speaker 1: and once he himself began to partake, all of those 347 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:40,399 Speaker 1: substances were suddenly now out in the open, and the 348 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,760 Speaker 1: shadow of that giant wave began to turn the daylight 349 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:45,200 Speaker 1: into darkness. 350 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this. We're, We're, We're. 351 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:05,359 Speaker 1: January two thousand. Trey watched from his window seat as 352 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,200 Speaker 1: the plane climbed into the clear blue sky in Florida 353 00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:12,480 Speaker 1: receded in the distance below. From this far up, he 354 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:14,919 Speaker 1: could still see the site below where Fish Should just 355 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:19,440 Speaker 1: staged the largest ticketed concert of the millennium. Big Cypress, 356 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:22,720 Speaker 1: was a three day festival on a Seminole Indian reservation 357 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:26,640 Speaker 1: outside Miami, and big was the understatement of the year. 358 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,639 Speaker 1: For months, Cruz worked to build what was essentially a 359 00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:36,640 Speaker 1: small city that had a general store, a downtown, a boardwalk, 360 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:41,040 Speaker 1: a post office, two Ferris Wheels, art installations, even a 361 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:45,720 Speaker 1: radio station, and like all Fish festivals, the sole performer 362 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: was Fish. They played numerous times over numerous days, including 363 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:54,119 Speaker 1: a marathon set that went from midnight on New Year's 364 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:57,080 Speaker 1: Eve all the way to sunrise on New Year's Day 365 00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 1: that seven uninterrupted hours to give her take, So naturally, 366 00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:08,800 Speaker 1: Trey was exhausted. In the next seat over, Fishman nudged him, 367 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:11,199 Speaker 1: and Trey turned to look at his best friend and 368 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:15,920 Speaker 1: band made him nearly seventeen years Hey Man, Fisherman said, 369 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:19,679 Speaker 1: I feel like we're on a train, you know. Trey 370 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:24,600 Speaker 1: furrowed his brow. Dude, we're on a plane right now. Yeah, 371 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:27,719 Speaker 1: I don't mean literally, Fisherman said. It feels like we 372 00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:30,320 Speaker 1: the band, are on this train that's going like one 373 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:32,960 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty miles an hour and we're about to 374 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,920 Speaker 1: crash into a brick wall. Trey knew exactly what Fisherman meant. 375 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 2: He was so right. 376 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:44,160 Speaker 1: The touring the ever expanding community. The bigness of it all, 377 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:47,760 Speaker 1: the fame and now the drugs. Not only was it 378 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: all a super annoying cliche, but it all spelled danger 379 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:57,760 Speaker 1: dead ahead. So at the moment that they were at 380 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:00,560 Speaker 1: their height, after performing for around eighty five five thousand 381 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:04,399 Speaker 1: people at the largest ticketed y two k concert, Fish 382 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:08,560 Speaker 1: went on hiatus. But the infrastructure that Fish had spent 383 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:12,159 Speaker 1: years refining, and the bad actors conducting business in the 384 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:17,120 Speaker 1: shadows of that infrastructure, none of that went anywhere. While 385 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:20,879 Speaker 1: Fish were away. Festival organizers drew heavily from the band's 386 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:24,840 Speaker 1: innovations to create Bonnaroo, now one of the largest annual 387 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:27,800 Speaker 1: music festivals in the country when it's not being canceled. 388 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 1: But I digress and in two thousand and one, federal 389 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:35,199 Speaker 1: agents along with the d C Police, arrested thirty people 390 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:38,560 Speaker 1: outside RFK Stadium, where the Dave Matthews Band were headlining 391 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 1: a show. The Fed seized black tar, heroin, ecstasy, wheed mushrooms, 392 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:47,479 Speaker 1: and forty tanks at nitrous oxide, each weighing between two 393 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 1: hundred and three hundred pounds, and none of the suspects 394 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:53,760 Speaker 1: charged with distribution of hippie crack were actually from d C. 395 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,480 Speaker 1: By the way, they were from New Jersey, New York 396 00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 1: and Philadelphia, the alleged hub of one of the large 397 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:05,879 Speaker 1: Nitros mafia operations in the country. This was the world 398 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,800 Speaker 1: that Fish found waiting for them when they finally returned 399 00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:11,119 Speaker 1: from their hiatus on New Year's Eve of two thousand 400 00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 1: and two. Over the next year and a half, they 401 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:16,639 Speaker 1: tried to pick up where they left off, but during 402 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:20,240 Speaker 1: their break, Trey had become addicted to OxyContin following some 403 00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,640 Speaker 1: dental surgery. In the moment he was back on the bus, 404 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:27,480 Speaker 1: back on the plane, backstage, he fell back into his 405 00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:32,880 Speaker 1: old habits in his mind. These habits cocaine, for instance, 406 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:35,639 Speaker 1: would help him do the work, help him stay up 407 00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,240 Speaker 1: longer and later for those mega intense, hours long sets 408 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:42,960 Speaker 1: that the community craved. But the secret addictions that once 409 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,240 Speaker 1: threatened to send Fishes out of control train into the 410 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:48,120 Speaker 1: brick wall, and they were now about to drop Trey 411 00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:52,240 Speaker 1: from a plane at thirty thousand feet with no parachute. 412 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,280 Speaker 1: The drugs shut him off from the band, shut them 413 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 1: off from the fans, and shut them off from the community, 414 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,280 Speaker 1: from his friends, from his family. So it was decided 415 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,320 Speaker 1: it Fish didn't stop for good. This time, then it 416 00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:09,680 Speaker 1: was very possible that Tray was going to die, which 417 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,080 Speaker 1: is ironic because that's exactly the kind of language used 418 00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: to describe Coventry. The Festival Fish staged in upstate Vermont 419 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,159 Speaker 1: in August of two thousand and four. It was billed 420 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:23,359 Speaker 1: as their farewell show, but some fans weren't calling it 421 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:30,880 Speaker 1: a farewell. They were calling it a funeral. You wake 422 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: up inside your tent to the sound of torrential rain 423 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:37,679 Speaker 1: beating down. You're soaking wet. There's so much water that 424 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,440 Speaker 1: it's seeping inside the tent and everything is a sopping, 425 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,080 Speaker 1: stinky mess. And when the rain lets up, you stumble 426 00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:47,840 Speaker 1: outside and your whole world is now mud. Your feet 427 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:50,520 Speaker 1: sink into the ground, and as you pull one foot 428 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:54,080 Speaker 1: back out, the goopy mud just pulls the sneaker right 429 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:57,640 Speaker 1: off with this gross sucking sound. And now fuck, your 430 00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:00,920 Speaker 1: other sneaker just got pulled off too, and you're like, whatever, man, 431 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:01,760 Speaker 1: fuck it, Just leave. 432 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:03,280 Speaker 2: The shoes and go barefoot. 433 00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:06,760 Speaker 1: So now you're walking from the campsite to where the 434 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:09,440 Speaker 1: stage is, and the mud is completely caked around your 435 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,560 Speaker 1: feet up to your ankles. It's a long walk, but 436 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:15,159 Speaker 1: not nearly as long as the walk that some of 437 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,040 Speaker 1: the other sixty seventy thousand people here had to endure 438 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,560 Speaker 1: when they decided to abandon their cars in the highway 439 00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,119 Speaker 1: and leave most of their gear behind in march thirty 440 00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:26,600 Speaker 1: something miles just to be here. You've never seen traffic 441 00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:28,919 Speaker 1: like that before, and you've never seen this many empty 442 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:30,280 Speaker 1: balloons all over the ground. 443 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:32,080 Speaker 2: It's like a rainbow. 444 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:36,040 Speaker 1: Caked and shit, someone told you that you were camping 445 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:39,320 Speaker 1: out in nitrous Alley, and damn, that sounds about right. 446 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,080 Speaker 1: If not for the pouring rain, you would have been 447 00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:44,760 Speaker 1: kept up all night by the symphony of hissing gas tanks. 448 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:47,679 Speaker 1: You passed by a kid doing a line on the 449 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,680 Speaker 1: hood of Avovo Sadan Royal blue and beat to shit 450 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,720 Speaker 1: in the contrast to that big white line of coke 451 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:55,120 Speaker 1: is visually arresting. 452 00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:56,879 Speaker 2: It's like bolded text. 453 00:27:57,720 --> 00:27:59,560 Speaker 1: You never would have seen this kind of thing way 454 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,080 Speaker 1: out in the open like this back in the Great 455 00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,960 Speaker 1: Went days. Another guy walks by you and exhales whatever 456 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,840 Speaker 1: they're smoking, and well, shit, man, it's not weed and 457 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,639 Speaker 1: it's not tobacco. And the dude's smoking it looks like 458 00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:14,359 Speaker 1: he's about to hit the deck you wonder if the 459 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,560 Speaker 1: Mud will swallow them whole, and maybe the Mud won't 460 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:22,439 Speaker 1: want them today. And when you finally get to the 461 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,399 Speaker 1: stage and Fish finally comes out for one of that 462 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,080 Speaker 1: weekend sets, You're like, what the fuck is going on? 463 00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:34,320 Speaker 1: It's obviously very emotional. Page is up on that jumbo screen, 464 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,040 Speaker 1: playing keyboards and trying to sing, but he keeps bursting 465 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:37,840 Speaker 1: out in tears. 466 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:40,360 Speaker 2: But then when he's not crying, he's. 467 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:44,160 Speaker 1: Sort of half assing it. You wonder is he on something? 468 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:49,520 Speaker 1: Trey is definitely on something. His voice is raspy, he 469 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:53,280 Speaker 1: keeps fucking with his aunt, and then Trey's crying too. 470 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:54,880 Speaker 2: Something about the. 471 00:28:54,880 --> 00:29:00,360 Speaker 1: Whole vibe is off, and that vibe lingers on long 472 00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:04,440 Speaker 1: after Coventry is over. But you go back home and 473 00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:07,000 Speaker 1: every time you listen to Fish, all you can think 474 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,080 Speaker 1: about is the Mud and the cocaine on the hood 475 00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:11,720 Speaker 1: of that vogo and nitrous Sally and Trey looking like 476 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,720 Speaker 1: he's knocking on death's door. It used to be so joyous, 477 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,440 Speaker 1: and now the absence of that joy is the only 478 00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: thing you could feel. And then you wonder, is this 479 00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:27,520 Speaker 1: It was the whole thing, the music, the people, the community, 480 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:29,480 Speaker 1: was that all too good. 481 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:44,840 Speaker 3: To be true? 482 00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:45,400 Speaker 2: All right, dudes. 483 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:47,400 Speaker 1: A little later in this episode, I'm gonna mention a 484 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:51,960 Speaker 1: murder that happened outside of Fish Concert in Hampton, Virginia, 485 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,720 Speaker 1: from just a few months ago this year, and how 486 00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:59,680 Speaker 1: that tragedy has been linked to the so called Nitrous Mafia. Unfortunately, 487 00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:01,840 Speaker 1: we didn't have time in this full episode to get 488 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 1: into the details of that particular story. But if you 489 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,720 Speaker 1: want to hear that whole story, and trust me, it 490 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,280 Speaker 1: is a wild one, you can hear it in this 491 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:14,440 Speaker 1: week's brand new mini episode of Disgraceland, which is available 492 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,600 Speaker 1: only to our All Access members. Just go to disgracelandpod 493 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:19,840 Speaker 1: dot com to sign up and to hear that bonus 494 00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,400 Speaker 1: mini episode right now, all right, We're to get back 495 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:29,640 Speaker 1: to our main story here on Fish. On December fifteenth, 496 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:32,360 Speaker 1: two thousand and six, a little over two years after 497 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 1: Fish took what was said to be their final bow 498 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,160 Speaker 1: at the disastrous Coventry Festival, forty two year old Trey 499 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:42,280 Speaker 1: Anastasio was pulled over in Whitehall, New York. It was 500 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:44,760 Speaker 1: around three thirty in the morning, and the cop had 501 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,320 Speaker 1: witnessed the black Audi swerving in and out. 502 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:48,560 Speaker 2: Of its lane. 503 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,240 Speaker 1: Upon a search, of the vehicle. Trey was found to 504 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:55,000 Speaker 1: be in possession of Vikingin, percocet, and xanax, all three 505 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:59,280 Speaker 1: of which were prescribed to someone else, but also the 506 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:03,719 Speaker 1: cop found heroin traded in even weigh one hundred pounds. 507 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:07,480 Speaker 1: Now he sat alone in a cell inside the Whitehall 508 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,240 Speaker 1: police station, charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance 509 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 1: DWI and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle because 510 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 1: his driver's license had been suspended. The station's phone was 511 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,280 Speaker 1: ringing off the hook. Reporters from all over the country 512 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:27,040 Speaker 1: were ravenous for details. They asked so many questions, primary 513 00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:31,360 Speaker 1: among them heroin. This guy was doing heroin. This was 514 00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:35,400 Speaker 1: a self described dork. Dorks don't do junk. It's hard 515 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,360 Speaker 1: to know if these kinds of thoughts were floating around 516 00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:40,440 Speaker 1: in Trey's head while he sat in lock up for 517 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:42,600 Speaker 1: a day or two, but we do know what he. 518 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:43,280 Speaker 2: Was listening to. 519 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:47,560 Speaker 1: His polite cooperation led to an officer handing him a 520 00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,160 Speaker 1: transistor radio and a pair of headphones to help pass 521 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,880 Speaker 1: the time. Trey scanned the radio dial for a station 522 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,120 Speaker 1: and found mostly fuzz Since the village of Whitehall is 523 00:31:57,200 --> 00:31:59,960 Speaker 1: kind of in the middle of nowhere, his thumb slow 524 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,360 Speaker 1: turned the dial, and then there he got. 525 00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:04,320 Speaker 2: Something and he turned it on. 526 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,960 Speaker 1: You up, and the music came through the shitty headphones, 527 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:10,680 Speaker 1: one hundred percent funky and one thousand percent prophetic. It 528 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:16,320 Speaker 1: was a song Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder. Stevie's lyrics 529 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,160 Speaker 1: hit him like one of his transcendental jams, hit an 530 00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:23,440 Speaker 1: audience of seventy thousand. Yes, his last time on earth, 531 00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:25,680 Speaker 1: he lived a whole lot of sin, And yes, he 532 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:28,800 Speaker 1: was so glad that he knew more now than he 533 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,520 Speaker 1: knew then. And fuck yes, he was so damn glad 534 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:34,320 Speaker 1: that he was going to get to try it all again. 535 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,760 Speaker 1: One traffic stock and one Stevie Wonder song was all 536 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:43,840 Speaker 1: it took. Trey pled guilty to possession, began a fourteen 537 00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 1: month court mandated recovery program, and then got back to 538 00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:48,880 Speaker 1: the reason he did it all in the first place, 539 00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 1: the community. First, that looked like hundreds of hours of 540 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:57,120 Speaker 1: community service, grubbing toilets and picking up trash. Once that 541 00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:01,160 Speaker 1: was done, Trey's focus became the community, the one he'd 542 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,080 Speaker 1: helped to create and build up so many years earlier. 543 00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:07,400 Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, Fish made their triumphant return 544 00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,520 Speaker 1: to the stage led by a sober Tray, and they 545 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,560 Speaker 1: had never sounded better. The same fans who said the 546 00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:17,959 Speaker 1: coventry felt like a funeral also said that this moment 547 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,120 Speaker 1: felt like a resurrection. Now, that didn't mean that the 548 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:25,720 Speaker 1: darkness and the scene had been completely lifted. In twenty eighteen, 549 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:30,400 Speaker 1: almost a decade into Fish's renaissance, two fans were violently 550 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:34,080 Speaker 1: attacked at a show at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington State, 551 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,160 Speaker 1: and again just earlier this year, in twenty twenty five, 552 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:40,960 Speaker 1: a man was stabbed to death outside of Fish show 553 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,920 Speaker 1: in Hampton, Virginia. Many online looked to pin these acts 554 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,920 Speaker 1: of violence on the culture that the Nitrous Mafia had 555 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:52,080 Speaker 1: created out on the margins. The Tray and Fish had 556 00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:56,760 Speaker 1: taken back the center because their story wasn't one of 557 00:33:56,840 --> 00:34:00,719 Speaker 1: mud and defeat and coke and Nitrous is a story 558 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: of community and how being a part of that community 559 00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:08,640 Speaker 1: can keep you out of the clutches of disgrace. I'm 560 00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:36,040 Speaker 1: Jake Brennan and this his Disgraceland. All right, thanks for 561 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,919 Speaker 1: listening to this episode of Disgraceland. Question of the Week 562 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:40,319 Speaker 1: for you guys that I want you to call me 563 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:42,359 Speaker 1: six p one seven nine oh six, six six three eight, 564 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:44,239 Speaker 1: Leave me a voicemail with your answer, Send me a 565 00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:48,120 Speaker 1: text with your answer. Is this what music do you 566 00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,799 Speaker 1: like listening to most when you are well, you know, hi, 567 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:53,360 Speaker 1: stoned a little. 568 00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:53,960 Speaker 2: Under the influence? 569 00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:55,080 Speaker 1: What are you listening to? 570 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:55,799 Speaker 2: What are you vibing on? 571 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:57,719 Speaker 1: Is it fish? Is it the Grateful Dead? Is it 572 00:34:57,840 --> 00:34:59,960 Speaker 1: someone else? You don't have to be stoned to do it? 573 00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:01,640 Speaker 1: Just you know what I mean, that thing where you 574 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:03,359 Speaker 1: just listen. You just want to mellow out, You just 575 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,800 Speaker 1: want to chill. You want those specific kind of vibes. 576 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,399 Speaker 1: Six one seven nine oh six six six three eight 577 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,240 Speaker 1: voicemail and text to let me know at disgrace lampod 578 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,760 Speaker 1: on the socials Disgrace lampod at gmail dot com. Email 579 00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:21,240 Speaker 1: here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly 580 00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:24,440 Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for 581 00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:26,840 Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page 582 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:30,120 Speaker 1: at disgracelampod dot com. Rate and review the show and 583 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:34,080 Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook at disgracelamppod 584 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 1: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com, slash at disgracelampod 585 00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:39,880 Speaker 1: rock a roller. 586 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:45,120 Speaker 2: He's a bad man.