WEBVTT - Phish: Community, Hippie Crack, and the Nitrous Mafia 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:15.800 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:21.320 story about community, about four self described dorks from Vermont 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.279 who built one of the most devoted fan bases in 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:28.440 rock history. It's a story about making music with your 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:33.120 friends and about musical euphoria. But it's also about the 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:39.479 shadows darkening the margins, about hippie crack hissing tanks and 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.720 the nitros mafia. And it's about how a seemingly idyllic 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:48.519 scene could be infiltrated by hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.360 This is a story about fish, which means it's a 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:57.000 story about I don't know, man, is it great music? 0:00:57.880 --> 0:00:59.640 Unlike that clip? I played a few at the top 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.600 of the show show that definitely wasn't great music. That 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:07.080 was a preset loop from my melotron called Peace, Love 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:12.000 and ice Cream MK one. I played you that loop 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.200 because I can't afford the rights to slow Motion by 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.760 Juvenile featuring Soulja Slim. But why would I play you 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:24.080 that specific slice of ass successfully backed up Cheese? 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:25.000 Could I afford it? 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.759 Because that was the number one song in America on 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.240 August fifteenth, two thousand and four, and that was the 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.640 day that Fish played what was billed as their final show, when. 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:39.840 In fact, no one, not even the band. 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:45.200 Knew that their story was far from over. On this episode, 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:50.320 four Dorks, Musical Euphoria, Shadows on the Margins, Hippie Crack, 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:57.279 The Nitrous Mafia, and Fish. I'm Jake Brennan and this 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:22.760 is this Graceland. Earlier this year, in the spring of 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:27.079 twenty twenty five, Phish was one of fourteen musical acts 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.040 nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.079 and though they didn't get in, they dominated the discourse 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:38.239 surrounding the nomination in voting process because they received the 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.000 largest number of fan votes in Hall of Fame history, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.760 over three hundred and twenty nine thousand votes, to be exact, 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.040 and that's nearly fifty thousand more votes than the runner 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.880 up Bad Company received. Now, the fan vote isn't part 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.639 of the official vote, so that doesn't count toward getting 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.200 you inducted, but it does offer an outlet for jo 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.200 Q public to expresses a pain. And here's the thing 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.440 about Fish's three hundred and twenty nine thousand votes. Many 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.840 myself included, were shocked to discover that a band that 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.320 has never had a single on the Billboard Hot one hundred. 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.359 A band that has only been nominated for one Grammy 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.480 in their forty plus year career, A band that, frankly 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.440 has always seemed a little goofy, that that band has 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.200 so many Joe Q publics hiding in the woodwork. And 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:26.560 I can explain this Fish Hall of Fame. 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.200 Phenomenon in one word. Community. 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.040 Fish's devoted fan base as a ride or die community 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.080 that began assembling at Keggers on Friends Farms in the 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.800 mid nineteen eighties and then evolved into record breaking multi 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.000 day freak flag festivals in far flung parts of New 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:48.280 England in the nineties, eventually staging the largest ticketed concert 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:52.200 on Earth for the millennium, some eighty five thousand people strong, 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.680 on and on through unpredictable Halloween shows, marathon New Year's 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:58.560 Eve sets, and record breaking runs. 0:03:58.360 --> 0:03:59.800 At Madison Square Garden. 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:05.800 And so, when Fish's guitarist and primary songwriter Trey Anastasio 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.240 first received the call from his manager that he and 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:10.960 his three bandmates. 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.720 Bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist. 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.400 Page McConnell, and drummer John Fishman have been nominated for 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.800 the Hall of Fame, His initial reaction wasn't that it 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.680 was a win for the four of them. He said 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:28.359 it was a win for the community. Years earlier, in 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:33.640 nineteen ninety five, that community unexpectedly surged in number when 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.000 Jerry Garcia died at the age of fifty three, and 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.359 thousands of Deadheads were left looking for another band that 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.200 they could pour their energy into. Like the Grateful Dead, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.560 Phish was just as much a movement as it was 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.560 a musical experience, with fans following them from town to 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.599 town and showed a show like a movable village. This 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.400 is one of many comparisons that have been made of 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.080 the two groups for decades. And yes, both bands love 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.560 to improvise, and both are better known for their live 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:09.640 shows and their studio albums. That said, musically speaking, at least, 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.280 Fish is more like a fever dream hybrid of Yes 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.880 talking heads in the Rocky Horror Picture Show than they 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:18.880 are the second coming of the Grateful Dead, and even 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:23.200 that is a reductive description. But Fish fans welcome the 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.480 incoming wave of dead Heads with open arms because one 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:28.760 of the things that both bands do share is their 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.960 love of community. It's designed as an idyllic circle of 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.440 fellow travelers, one that hangs on every note and chases 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.039 the euphoric high at the center of an extended jam, 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.040 perhaps aided in part by the high of some weed 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.799 or mushrooms. You can get caught up in that high 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.680 and caught up in the music, in the swirl of 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.440 people dancing around in ecstasy, the lights flashing from the stage, 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.599 the band reaching the next rung, the next precipice, the 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.560 sustain and Tray's guitar ringing out for what feels like 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:03.680 an eternity, and suddenly the seeming idyllic community becomes the 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.400 perfect mark for the darkness. 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:07.479 Loitering there in the margins. 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:15.640 Twenty seventeen, Madison Square Garden. The house lights come on 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.320 and you're still reeling over that set list, and they 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.120 covered Jimmy's Bold as Love and Radioheads Everything in its 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:28.400 Right Place and then encored with Frankenstein. Some dude next 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:30.560 to you is bitching that they didn't play fuck your Face. 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.360 There's always a dude complaining that they didn't do this 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:34.200 or didn't do that. 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.159 You don't care, though you're on cloud nine. 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.360 The gummy you took kicked in early in the second set, 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:42.880 and it didn't matter if they didn't play fuck your face, 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:48.000 because fish literally fucked your face. Okay, not literally, but 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.360 it really felt like they did. As ridiculous as that sounds, 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.800 that you don't even care if someone hears you say that, 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.239 because it's the truth. It's all part of this wave 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.760 you've been writing, and you keep writing it as you 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:01.919 push your way toward the exit with the rest of 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.520 the crowd, and you pass through the door and out 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.760 onto the street, and now you're hit in that fucked 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.040 face of yours with clouds of weed and cigarette smoke. 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.080 They both smell sweet in the summer heat, and though 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.560 you don't smoke personally, the scent and the aroma coated 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.840 and humid air, it's all wrapped up in the experience, 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:28.360 and so is the hissing. It's like that Joni Mitchell record, 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.080 but instead of the hissing of summer lawns, this is 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.160 the hissing of nitrous tanks on asphalt. You hear them 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.200 whistling as soon as you're outside. Now you turn and 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.640 see twelve or thirteen tank rats sitting on the sidewalk, 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:47.200 slouched against the wall, balloons in their hands, stone to 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.040 the gills on gas. One of them, falls over and 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.480 hits his head on the pavement, and another says that 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.680 he thinks his head is floating away, but he says 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.760 it with speech that's so slur that you can only guess. 0:07:58.560 --> 0:07:59.880 That that's what he's talking about. 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:04.640 And then the balloon people, the cellars, the pushers, they're 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.040 pushing up against you, blocking you from walking down the street. 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.080 One of them is yelling in your face, it is 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.640 cold right off the tank. One for ten bucks or 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.040 four for twenty. What do you want? He thrusts the fissful, 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:21.640 swollen balloons in your direction, red and yellow and pink, daring. 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:22.520 You to try to step around it. 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.160 You know he's not gonna let you get away that easily, 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:26.840 because that's what these guys do. 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:30.360 They intimidate, they're overbearing, and they. 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.240 Do it all while keeping their heads on a swivel. 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.680 The cops rarely come down on these guys, but still 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.439 they run around like animals have just been released from 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.240 a cage, and they're always aware that one wrong move 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:41.840 will send. 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.400 Them back there. God, you can't stand these fucking balloon people. 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.760 They're a trashy blemish on an otherwise chill scene. And 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.319 it's not just the gas like whatever, man, no shame, 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.320 and how one gets one's rocks off. It's more about 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:57.800 how they block the exits and gum up the works. 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:02.120 And right then a car siren whoops nearby, and the 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.640 dealer who was crowding you suddenly vanishes, no doubt, off 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:07.960 to another patch of real estate right around the corner. 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:15.400 Nitrous has always been around long before Fish. The Dead 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.880 themselves were huffing gas through old army surplus aspirators in 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:23.160 the seventies, but that was before the nitrous racket became organized, 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.680 before it was controlled by dons and bosses and kingpins 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.360 who were pulling the levers and calling the shots behind 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.640 closed doors. It was before the balloon people were bringing 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.320 more than tanks full of gas to fish shows. They 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:37.920 were bringing guns and knives in order to scare off 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.360 the competition. And it was long before they were known 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.280 not only as balloon people, but by a far more 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:50.320 menacing name, the nitrous Mafia. There's a much more innocent 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.080 view of the nitrous scene in Todd Phillips's documentary on 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:57.080 Fish Bittersweet Motel, which includes this moment where a girl 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.439 huffs some gas and dances around and then hundreds fans 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:04.720 get Buck naked for an impromptu photoshoot. That footage is 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.240 from the mid nineties, and it was right around this 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.600 time that for the first time, Trey Anastasia was really 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.600 beginning to notice the depth of the drug culture surrounding 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.880 his band. It was also at this time, roughly thirteen 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.640 years after Fish began, the Tray began to participate in 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.160 the drug culture as well. Listen, I know that sounds 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.760 weird thirteen years in to first get into drugs when 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.560 you're in the band Fish, But Trey was a self 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:37.480 described dork. All the guys in Fish were dorks. Many 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.679 and their crew, though, were doing harder drugs, but Trey 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.959 had no idea. He had his head down, his nose 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:47.679 to the grindstone, completely immersed in the music he was creating. 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.880 But just like the nitros mafia's minions pedaling fatties to 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:57.240 every warm body passing by, that harder stuff was out there. Coke, 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.640 heroin and the kind of drugs that trick you into 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.360 thinking that you're making the community stronger by doing them, 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:06.199 when in fact they are separating you from the pack 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.760 so that the drugs have you to themselves, and then 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.000 they bleed you dry, until you yourself are just another 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:18.240 shadow out on the fringes, and maybe even worse, maybe dead. 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.280 And Trey himself was about to find out some of 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:57.040 these truths the only way you can, sometimes the hard way. 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:00.880 Long before nitrous oxide was known on the jam bands 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.240 circuit as hippie crack, it was more commonly referred to 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:09.040 as laughing gas. It was first synthesized in seventeen seventy 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.920 two by the English chemist and philosopher Joseph Priestley, and 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.160 some of its initial applications were to treat patients with 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:20.640 lung diseases and other illnesses. These days you know it 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.000 as the stuff your dentists has you inhale when he 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.240 needs to gouge away your gums with a lethal scalpel. 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.440 But as early as seventeen ninety nine there was evidence 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.679 of nitrous being used not for medicine but for recreation. 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:39.120 Seventeen ninety nine, in England and in America, an entertainer 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.440 would pretend to be a doctor, pick someone from the audience, 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.560 bring them on stage, have them huff some gas, and then, 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.679 for the amusement of the paying crowd, the audience member 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:53.280 high on nitrous would quote laugh, sing, dance speaker fight, unquote. 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.240 And that's according to a poster advertising one such event 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.000 from way back when the allure of a nitrous high 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.760 is that it's fast and cheap. You disconnect from your 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:07.359 body for thirty to sixty seconds, float off into oblivion, 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:09.679 and then it's over and all you want is another hit. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.640 But ask any dentists who's not Steve Martin in a 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:15.800 little Shop of horrors, and they'll tell you that the 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.040 danger of even one hit of nitrous is that it 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:22.600 starves your brain of oxygen, and then best case scenario, 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.800 you're fainting in falling in cracking your head open. Worst 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:31.079 case you're suffering a seizure of brain damage. These days, 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.720 hippie crack is no longer confined to shakedown steep, which 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.480 is the tailgating area outside any content venue where you 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.680 buy grilled cheese's, hash brownies, handmade jewelry, bumper stickers, and 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.920 whatever other wearers the vendors are hustling that day. These days, 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:51.280 it's big business pulling down big money nitrous Mafia crews 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.800 out of hubs like Philly have little overhead, often employing 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:56.840 dealers straight out of the pen on the cheap to 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.360 sling gas that shows. The balloon men say up in 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.560 one spot, one guy filling, another handling the cash, a 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.320 third on the lookout, and within ten minutes they've sold 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:10.200 hundreds of balloons and pocketed thousands of dollars, always ready 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.160 at a moment's notice to jump to another spot if 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.120 five O is moving in, because there's only an issue 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:20.720 if you're caught selling. The DEA doesn't regulate it. It's 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:25.080 not classified as a controlled substance. It's legal to own nitrous, 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.040 it's just illegal to purchase or sell it for the 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.840 purpose of getting high. You'd think, however, that you'd hear 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.440 more about nitrous dealers getting busted, But the mafia is 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.640 highly organized, and the mafia is also a cutthroat, and 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.200 with the increased presence at Fish shows and other music 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:46.360 festivals came increased tactics to dominate the market by any 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:50.440 means necessary. In two thousand and nine, according to one 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.400 Fish fan, a parking lot of Tendant was beaten to 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.520 shit by a nitrous dealer outside of show in Portland, Maine. 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.000 That same year, at the gathering of the Vibes Festival, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.680 where Fish was not performing By the Way, a twenty 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.000 nine year old man was found dead of an apparent 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.200 drug overdose, but fans online were quick to point fingers 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.920 at the Nitrous Mafia, saying that they'd beaten him with 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:19.160 a tank prior to his death many years earlier. In 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.440 nineteen eighty three, the year Fish first formed in Burlington, Vermont, 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.840 the only viable connection between Nitrous and rock and roll 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:29.800 was this one bootleg going around to the Grateful Dead 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.000 show in Baltimore from the year prior, the one where 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.960 Jerry and Phil Lesh were allegedly taking hits from a 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.440 nitrous tank on stage while Phil did a psychotic reading 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.960 of Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven. But this was 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:48.000 a more naive time. The Nitrous thing was a real, 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.160 if you know, you know kind of deal. In nineteen 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.520 eighty three, Bernie Sanders was in his second term as 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.880 Burlington's mayor, and Ben and Jerry had just created that 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.120 cow design that would become so ubiquitous they're popular but 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.800 still hyper local ice cream, and Trey Anastasio was about 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.320 to transfer from UVM to Goddard College, where he composed 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.640 a concept album called The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.080 as his senior study. And just like Bernie and Ben 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.120 and Jerry Trey, along. 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:18.800 With Mike Page and Fishman, was. 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:23.040 Interested in something completely different than what was being offered. 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.560 So that's what Fish delivered. Their regular performances at a 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.560 local bar called Nectar's were marathon affairs, three sets per night, 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.960 each set increasingly less traditional and more abstract, and they 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.960 tried to not repeat themselves, not just in how they 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.840 played a song, but in what songs they chose to play. 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.720 So from very early on, the promise of a Fish 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:50.000 show was a promise of something unexpected, which included their 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:54.560 improvisations where moments of great transcendence would frequently emerge from 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:59.400 even greater moments of absurdity, and experiencing that transcendence, well, 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:01.800 it's like watching a movie in a crowded theater. It 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:07.000 just hits different when you're surrounded by a community. That 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.679 community grew on grassroots DIY level through the nineteen eighties 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:15.000 and into the nineties. When major labels flush with cash 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:19.360 could not corral enough new bands, Fish signed to Elektra, 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.719 who released their third studio album, A Picture of Nectar, 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.960 in nineteen ninety two, while simultaneously reissuing their first two 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:31.240 independent releases, Junta and lawn Boy. All three records were 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:35.720 marked by a signature combination of goofiness and virtuosity, but 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.640 a picture of nectar boasted the single chalk Dust Torture, 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.680 which endeared them to the likes of David Letterman. More 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:47.919 albums followed, more fans too, and before long, tens of 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.479 thousands of devotees seventy thousand to be precise, were shutting 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.000 down the two lane stretch of I ninety five running 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.520 up northern Maine all the way to Louring Air Force Base, 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.439 where a Fish staged a two day festival called the 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.919 Great Went in August of nineteen ninety seven. They turned 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.760 the tiny town of Limestone into the biggest city in 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.080 the state of Maine. That weekend, just as the members 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.040 of Fish were beginning to tune into a dangerous new frequency, 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:20.879 Trey was drooling. The saliva oozed from the side of 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:25.160 his mouth and ran down his chin. More followed, glistening 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:27.959 in the red hairs of his beard. He was totally 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.000 out of it. His mouth hung open, his eyes were 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.120 rolling into the back of his head, and his. 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:35.000 Mind was just gone. 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.760 He heard someone laughing by his side. He slowly turned 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.480 his head, only now having the slightest realization that he 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:47.240 was a slobbering mess, only the slightest though. He was 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:50.159 so fucked up. And that's when he saw the big 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:55.680 black mustache. Oh yeah, that's right, Carlos Santana was there. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:58.800 He'd forgotten where he was for a minute. 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.360 There I who was with him. 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.720 Santana was laughing harder and louder, now nodding his head 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.960 in approval as Trey fell deeper into oblivion. Trey then 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.440 turned to look down at his own hands and realized 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:14.560 that he'd been holding a single sustained note on his 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:19.480 guitar this entire time. There was an audience of thousands 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.240 out there watching as his epic solo came to its conclusion. 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.120 Trey had gone into a trance state, drooling all over 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.600 himself on stage, and he did this while getting ridiculously high. 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:33.919 On the music. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.000 And the song ended, the crowd roared, and Trey leaned 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.720 over to Santana, who had graciously sat in with Fish 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.480 for a few songs, and apologized for making such a 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.879 fool of himself drooling in front of Carlos. It was 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:53.080 embarrassing and Santana shook his head. Nothing to apologize for, 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.679 he said, you were tapped into something special. You know 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.000 you've gone somewhere good when you start drooling like that. 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.480 This was the recent memory replaying in Trey's head as 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.879 he stood on stage at the Great Went Festival and 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.439 scanned the community of seventy thousand Fish fans gathered before him. 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.439 Just like he'd once tapped into something good with Santana, 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.520 he was now tapping into something with each and every 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.960 person out there. But this was a long way from 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.240 three sets a night at Nectar's. This was much bigger 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.520 than signing on the dotted line with Electra. This had 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:28.800 gone bigger than he could have ever imagined it to be. 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.520 It was scary big, the kind of big that changes 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.160 you whether you wanted to or not. And things were 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.760 changing out there. More people meant more drugs and not 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.840 just nitrous but coke and dope, and more hissing tanks 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:48.280 and more empty balloons trampled under foot across the grounds 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.280 at Mooring Air Force Base. When the weekend was finally over, 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.840 Trey was oblivious to most of these things. He just 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:57.960 saw a sea of people, and he could sense that 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.280 as the sea grew in size, so did the potential 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.240 for a giant wave to build up and come crashing 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.879 down on everything. In fact, he was so wrapped up 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.760 and playing in the music and cultivating one of the 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.080 biggest communities in rock and roll history, that he couldn't 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.119 see that not only was that wave indeed incoming, but 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:22.359 it was already hovering over the backstage scene. Cocaine and 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.920 heroin weren't just new mainstays out in the parking lot, 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.960 and on shakedown the crew had been doing them too, 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:33.280 but just hiding them. Once Trey's eyes were really opened, 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.800 and once he himself began to partake, all of those 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.399 substances were suddenly now out in the open, and the 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.760 shadow of that giant wave began to turn the daylight 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:45.200 into darkness. 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.480 We'll be right back after this. We're, We're, We're. 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:05.359 January two thousand. Trey watched from his window seat as 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.200 the plane climbed into the clear blue sky in Florida 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:12.480 receded in the distance below. From this far up, he 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:14.919 could still see the site below where Fish Should just 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:19.440 staged the largest ticketed concert of the millennium. Big Cypress, 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.720 was a three day festival on a Seminole Indian reservation 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:26.640 outside Miami, and big was the understatement of the year. 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:31.639 For months, Cruz worked to build what was essentially a 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:36.640 small city that had a general store, a downtown, a boardwalk, 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:41.040 a post office, two Ferris Wheels, art installations, even a 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:45.720 radio station, and like all Fish festivals, the sole performer 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:51.200 was Fish. They played numerous times over numerous days, including 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.119 a marathon set that went from midnight on New Year's 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.080 Eve all the way to sunrise on New Year's Day 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:02.600 that seven uninterrupted hours to give her take, So naturally, 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:08.800 Trey was exhausted. In the next seat over, Fishman nudged him, 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:11.199 and Trey turned to look at his best friend and 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:15.920 band made him nearly seventeen years Hey Man, Fisherman said, 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:19.679 I feel like we're on a train, you know. Trey 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:24.600 furrowed his brow. Dude, we're on a plane right now. Yeah, 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:27.719 I don't mean literally, Fisherman said. It feels like we 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:30.320 the band, are on this train that's going like one 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:32.960 hundred and fifty miles an hour and we're about to 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:37.920 crash into a brick wall. Trey knew exactly what Fisherman meant. 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:39.080 He was so right. 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:44.160 The touring the ever expanding community. The bigness of it all, 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:47.760 the fame and now the drugs. Not only was it 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:52.000 all a super annoying cliche, but it all spelled danger 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:57.760 dead ahead. So at the moment that they were at 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:00.560 their height, after performing for around eighty five five thousand 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:04.399 people at the largest ticketed y two k concert, Fish 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.560 went on hiatus. But the infrastructure that Fish had spent 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.159 years refining, and the bad actors conducting business in the 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:17.120 shadows of that infrastructure, none of that went anywhere. While 0:24:17.119 --> 0:24:20.879 Fish were away. Festival organizers drew heavily from the band's 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:24.840 innovations to create Bonnaroo, now one of the largest annual 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:27.800 music festivals in the country when it's not being canceled. 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:31.080 But I digress and in two thousand and one, federal 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:35.199 agents along with the d C Police, arrested thirty people 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:38.560 outside RFK Stadium, where the Dave Matthews Band were headlining 0:24:38.600 --> 0:24:44.000 a show. The Fed seized black tar, heroin, ecstasy, wheed mushrooms, 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:47.479 and forty tanks at nitrous oxide, each weighing between two 0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:50.800 hundred and three hundred pounds, and none of the suspects 0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:53.760 charged with distribution of hippie crack were actually from d C. 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:56.480 By the way, they were from New Jersey, New York 0:24:56.520 --> 0:25:00.000 and Philadelphia, the alleged hub of one of the large 0:25:00.280 --> 0:25:05.879 Nitros mafia operations in the country. This was the world 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:08.800 that Fish found waiting for them when they finally returned 0:25:08.800 --> 0:25:11.119 from their hiatus on New Year's Eve of two thousand 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:14.000 and two. Over the next year and a half, they 0:25:14.040 --> 0:25:16.639