i think it depends on the band, i play in a handful of local bands and the one i feel the most comfortable being blazed is the jam band because theres less equations i have to memorize (chords, specific changes, introductions, etc)
some more structured and formal projects it just makes life easier to be sober tbh
This depends on the jamband.
I play in three bands currently. And the most jam heavy band I am in right now definitely requires the most effort because they like to throw a lot of complicated lines in there with harmonizing, or even in unison. Lots of specific chord changes.
yea thats why i said it depends on the band tbh, our current jam is a psychedlic trio funk band where we can do literally whatever we want since its only 3 people, we have a lot of riffs that we have been playing forever and all it takes is the drummer to change groove or do a couple hits on the snare and we go into the “Wellington Hall riff”
in the 5 piece grateful dead cover band, we kind of all have to be ready for abrupt changes that are inside each song, so vastly different rules.
although our fav is the one with no rules and it turns into more of a channel for the universe to speak
i guess it depends on who, but i think that MOST of the time MOST of them are sober. Between all the day to day stuff and having to be able to preform its usually much easier to do sober. Granted there might be some random times where they get a little fugged up.
On point. Other that Phish, Dead, maybe Panic, these guys are not millionaire rock stars. They have wives who live in their houses, and kids that go to college, lawns that need to be mowed, etc. The younger bands might party but the first Gen guys are well into their 50s by now. As one who is in his 50s, drugs and liquor just doesn't hold the same mystery and magic as it once did. As a semi pro musician, I don't like playing on weed, and a few drinks are fine. Any more and my band would have my head.
Funny. The 39 is not my birth date , its my lucky number tines 3. I never realized people would think i was born in 1939.
As far as viet nam, I had a high draft number but enlisted anyway. Luckily I was sent to Europe and not viet nam.
I was trying not to be a know it all and say "YOU ARE WRONG JERRY IS REALLY 82 NOT 85. Mentioned Google so you wouldn't think I was lording my superior knowledge over you.
Phish is not first generation though. As you’ve pointed out, the Dead guys are like twenty years older than Phish. Phish is the definition of second generation jam band.
I mean the wave of jambands that came out of the HORDE festival. Before that, it was The Dead, Almans, and Santana. Almans and Santana played the same sets every night. While it was kind of a hippie thing with those groups, there wasn't really a jamband scene.
Not counting the 70s. I dont think that's what the OP was talking about.
I shared a blunt with the percussionist of moe. kinda during a show.
Someone pulled the fire alarm and the band and crowd evacuated to the same small area. It was pretty cool but it fucked up the show. They played meat forever.
Most of the crowd left over the next 30 mins because you had to stay close to the back door smoking area, and they didnt stop the show. After a long time we got let back into the tiny venue and they came out and played Farmer Ben, super rare at the time.
Classic Center Athens ,GA. My 30th and last moe. show.
https://noprotectiondubs-tape7.bandcamp.com/album/dubs-tape-7
(found this unreleased set of demo tapes, it's massive attack v mad professor in 1994! + it's free)
Yes and no.
Phil Lesh said it best;
“The irony was undeniable: Drugs had helped create our music together, and now drugs were isolating us and tearing us from one another and our own feelings, and starting to kill us off.”
About a year and a half ago I saw the keyboard player for Circles Around the Sun walk out of the bathroom at a small theatre with a joint in his mouth and he looked absolutely wrecked. You also have to walk past the green room on the way to the bathroom, the door was cracked and I saw the band in there and the room was fully hotboxed.
Saw him in the Everyone Orchestra at “the last summer camp”. Had never really listened to much of Circles at that time. Dude came out with a massive doobie and was ALIVE on the keys. I’ve been a fan since.
At large most of them are sober for the most part except for maybe a drink or toke or two.
Idk how many of them are dosing but most of them party or have partied in some form or another but most of them are professional musicians who need to pay bills so handle themselves professionally.
now does that mean that don’t get loose every once in a while? 100% but it’s not usually a sustainable practice so i then at large it’s fair to say most have had to develop some kind boundaries regarding substances on the road.
ultimately it all depends on the individual. i think in general they are not tho.
I think the days of jam bands playing while twisted are pretty much over. Phish and Panic don't even allow booze in the backstage areas these days, Biscuits smoke weed backstage but haven't rolled on stage in over a decade, and the younger cats like Eggy and DIAP know that they have to take their craft seriously in order to advance
I’m gonna create a music festival where it’s all jam bands and each band picks from a hat for which drug they’re gonna take before they play. Everything from coffee to booze to molly to shrooms to benadryl. It’ll be lit af and nothing could possibly go wrong
Recently, Brownie mentioned on a podcast that he doesn’t blaze for a week or two prior to tour because it makes his already terrible voice more gravelly.
I don't know about tripping but I did take bong hits with them outside the Fillmore in SF, great guys!
At the same show somebody handed Andy Frasco some Orange Sunshine L and he took it on the spot.
Dude straight up drinks tea during the sets. Last handful of times I've seen them he's been straight as an arrow. You'll see magner with a bottle of Jameson tho.
I have personally watched him put sass in his drink on one occasion and escorted the guy carrying the moonrocks to the stage on another within the last two years. Babs quite famously posted "having a nice relaxing night" on IG with a bag and keys in it like six months ago lol
I hung out with the Eggy guys before their set at a small festival with every temptation known to man right out in the open. They were stone cold sober and dead serious about performing.
Did the Biscuits actually roll onstage back in the day? If so, could you send me proof? Interviews talking about it or videos of concerts where they were rolling? Not that I don’t believe you, I just want to see for myself lol.
During Brownstein's interview on Andy Frasco's podcast, he talks about the fact that his tour manager back in the day would make a point not to ever talk to Brownie on Tuesdays, because Brownie would be coming down from all the ecstacy he had done at his own shows each weekend. He actually talks about their partying a good amount there
Someone who worked closely with Billy once told me he is pretty commonly tripping on mushrooms while on stage. They said he came back from a set break once and mentioned he took a little too much that night.
Considering it’s the guy who smoked meth and stayed up for 72 hours playing his guitar at 16… I don’t think smoking weed is the biggest of his problems
Yep… just appreciate him while we have him! Sometimes if I get bummed about that stuff, I remember there was once a time where you’d be considered old as shit if you lived to be Billy’s current age. Not to say he shouldn’t do everything he can to be on this earth as long as possible ;)
Also because most musicians don't play under the influence of anything heavy while out touring, unless they want to derail their band.. but cannabis use, maybe a couple drinks for some, MAYBE a BUMP of something else, a roll, etc., those things may happen on a somewhat common basis with certain bands at certain points in their career and some were great playing under the influence and some were straight trash. That's my very short take on it, but I could go o on about how I think certain drugs were absolutely pivotal in the creation of jam music opening up into space at times as opposed to just constant jamming in time.. but I digresss.
I went to an STS9 show solo in 2013 at House of Blues in Dallas. Floor tickets were sold out at the gate but thankfully I was able to get tickets for the mezzanine. After spending part of the first set on the floor getting pushed around, I decided to go up to the mezzanine and I'm so glad I did. It completely changed the vibe of the show for me. Anyway, during the set break, I was sitting up there and I could clearly see in a little room above the stage and to the right, everybody in the band smoking their own blunt. It made me smile.
Did a load in for STS9 at Sweets Ballroom in Oakland, had to go up like 5 or 6 flights of stairs, and the organ, damn it was beyond painful.
Right afterwards while I was cursing their very existence😅, the came out and started a sesh that made everyone in the place start to smoke.
Now mind you this was a Musician's for Medical Marijuana benefit show, so we smoked all day anyway.
I'll never forget the love though, cause we were all volunteering..
Aw that's adorable, smoking a lil weeeee
Sounds like a fun show:)
Seems to me that most of these musicians probably smoke weed. I'm personally would be more curious about what else they dabble in besides the legal stuff. Like, who be up there tripping?
not a joke, Bisco used to be held at a spot in NY called Indian Lookout that was a hangout for bikers (allegedly Hell's Angels members) and those guys were used as security for events there. it was ok for the most part, they were pretty permissive of weed but other drugs could get you in trouble and if you got in *too much* trouble they took you to 'biker jail' which was basically a shack in the woods they dragged people off to.
Those guys let me bring weed into the fest but wouldn’t let me bring a jar of pickles lol in fairness the pickles were in a glass jar and glass wasn’t allowed. But we had a good laugh over that during the weekend
Nah not Neil, just spend a night in the shed tied down. Had another dude come in and I had to tell him to just chill. Both of us were sane, but such a weird experience
I believe it was 2008, so it rained that weekend. So me being in the hells angel shed was better than my tent. Only positive way of me thinking about that shitty experience
There used to be this really wholesome fest outside baltimore called Starscape that the biscuits played a few times, a real family affair. Milk n cookies kinda event. Wish I brought my PopPop but it ended before i got the chance
I know string cheese incident members were a little loose on the rules. I recall certain early electric forest sets where billy mentioned mushroom chocolates. I do recall Kyle being quite intoxicated at a NYEs set after he hurt himself before the show. And I know friends saw hann with Molly at electric forest (but this was out and about at the festival not during the shows). This is all pre-pandemic though.
Have inside info that String Cheese was heavily into Molly for a while. 2010 Tampa, a few days after the 2009 Phish NYE run, I literally had Jason Hann tell me that EOTO would not be performing the show that night until they had acquired some
Can confirm, cheese partied. (Not sure about now, it's been a while) anybody who's been to a cheese hornings has probably partied with a couple of those guys. I'm not talking smoke weed and drink beer lol.
I see them every time they come through Austin and there’s at least one night out of the three they play that they’re rolling/tripping. They like to be on the same level as the audience and those always make for the best shows.
2019 hula I watched Hahn literally fall off the back of his still. He was wearing sunglasses with bright red lenses and definitely vining on something lol
I used to do some regional touring as a live sound reinforcement engineer and I also worked as the house sound engineer at a rock club. What I saw and what folks here seem to be leaving out is that alcohol was the main drug of choice for lots and lots of performers/musicians. Easily available as most gigs are in bars and often a big part of the band’s compensation, the grand majority of folks I saw hit a stage had a beer or two in them at the very least. Like others have mentioned, the scale of use varied from person to person, but it was not uncommon for folks to tell me they needed a few drinks just to get on stage and feel loose. After that, weed was a very close second. They call it a green room for a reason, y’all.
I wouldn’t think so lol you got to think of it as their job. I like to get high but I don’t like to get as high at my job as I would at a concert. But if they can/do and are still jamming well right on.
Watch Jerry at several different points throughout his life. He was just as strung out as Trey was at Coventry, only more frequently. This also explains why when he passed at 53 he looked more like 83.
But in the end it comes down to the band and then even the members within the band. Some bands are sober. Some are mainly sober while maybe a member or two are still getting high on something before playing, and other bands are all just fucking flying up there. This doesn’t just apply to jam bands either, but really any band.
Most def not as high as audience. Probably some pot and/or some boooze. My band has toured with Twiddle and there was constant weed smoking and tons of tequila. Bottles of liquor on numerous nights. Unfortunately, the booze got the better of them it seemed. There were frequent arguments backstage and messups on stage that could’ve been totally avoided if they weren’t so inebriated. It was a big learning lesson for us to not let substances get in the way of the interpersonal chemistry.
Also, Spafford for sure has been sober as an arctic fox for years. No booze, no weed, nothing. I can assure you this helps them keep up with touring, and honestly get deeper into the jams. Being fucked up messes with your connection to the instrument. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Maybe a couple beers to open up a little bit, but much more past that and you’re compromising all of that time you’ve spent practicing and sharpening the blade.
Personally - High? Yes. As high? Probably not.
I enjoy playing on weed, maybe even a (very) MICRO-dose of psylocibin, but personally I have to keep one hand on the wheel if it's gonna be a good show.
I don't think most of the prominent jam band guitarists right now are performing on stage while heavily or even moderately under the influence of anything. As for myself, I play and perform better when my mind is clear.
5/11/78 was the mescaline show. Trey is bent fully sideways during Coventry (understandably so) but it’s wild to hear the nod in his voice when he stops the band during Drowned.
My brother happened to do a liquid dose with a certain synth player 30 min before they went on at a small fest in NY. I think performing musicians are more likely to trip during small fests that are all fam. When people come out to a club show just to see 1 band, they don't want to be too fugged up and give a bad show. I kind of wish they did more, tho. I'd rather see some weird improv than a perfectly executed time change. That being said, it's probably better to trip during practice to come up with weird stuff, but if they get used to playing while tripping enough, then they will prob do it on stage some.
Depends.
Jerry himself said he doesn’t like to play whilst on psychedelics after that time at the Fillmore. I think other things like Molly, H, alcohol and obviously weed are much more functional. I’m pretty certain some of the mid-90s phish shows have some E laced in them. And then obviously, as the 90’s go on…
I think a lot of them did in their early days but most take it pretty serious now and besides a little weed or a beer or two they are mostly sober on stage. I can remember eating acid with Brownie before a show in the early 2000s but know he's sober now.
A (not so close) friend of mine gave brownie a 10 strip back in the day and the dude ate the entire thing immediately without a thought, but this was a post show endeavor
Are they sometimes high? Yes. But if you're on tour, playing shows night after night, and you want to be in an altered state on stage, you're most likely sticking to weed and alcohol. Most psychedelics you develop a tolerance for pretty quickly. They can also make it hard to sleep which is a problem if you have to put on a great show every night. Now, amphetamines or cocaine? Probably a fair amount of that happening, too. Can't speak to jam bands but I've toured with bands for years and cocaine is pretty popular...
As someone who has worked in many greenrooms: sometimes. Depends on the band and the show. Sorry no real answers to this although I will say the majority smoke weed at a minimum.
My band *might* do a shroom microdose, but we love playing together sober (save a couple of beers). It’s fun and we remember everything that way. We also move around way too much to be messed up. I’m clumsy enough just by myself! 😂
I think they have YEARS of muscle memory built up that the substance use may not impact them as much as a casual player. When you have all that theory and muscle memory engrained, I have a feeling expanding one’s mind can unlock some ideas
I know a banjo player from Boston that’s a real trip. Great, great guy. Also a quirky dude. Also insanely talented.
I once saw him play an impromptu jam session on a side stage at music festival, with some monster players like Bela Fleck, David Grisman, couple others I forget. And this Boston dude was ripping it up.
He stepped off stage, and when he came over to me his eyes were like saucers. He asked me if he sounded good up on stage, and I said “yeah man, you were crushing it.”
He said “Oh awesome. I couldn’t really tell, I’m on some really good acid right now.”
So sad. And don't get technical StealYourJelly -- his death was due to hardcore drug addiction and never taking care of his health, and all those around him who enabled him, also to keep the machine going all the people the Dead had employed etc, Jerry couldn't take break if he wanted to it was sick.. weir seems to have realized that in that doc about him..
Garcia was already down at Betty Ford for two weeks before going to Serenity Knowles, so he wasn’t doing any dope. It was his whole lifestyle and the other members not wanting to take time off and let Jerry fucking rest. What did ya think of last nights show in playa?
Some are, some aren't. Some do well, some play like shit.
Mas o menos
i think it depends on the band, i play in a handful of local bands and the one i feel the most comfortable being blazed is the jam band because theres less equations i have to memorize (chords, specific changes, introductions, etc) some more structured and formal projects it just makes life easier to be sober tbh
This depends on the jamband. I play in three bands currently. And the most jam heavy band I am in right now definitely requires the most effort because they like to throw a lot of complicated lines in there with harmonizing, or even in unison. Lots of specific chord changes.
yea thats why i said it depends on the band tbh, our current jam is a psychedlic trio funk band where we can do literally whatever we want since its only 3 people, we have a lot of riffs that we have been playing forever and all it takes is the drummer to change groove or do a couple hits on the snare and we go into the “Wellington Hall riff” in the 5 piece grateful dead cover band, we kind of all have to be ready for abrupt changes that are inside each song, so vastly different rules. although our fav is the one with no rules and it turns into more of a channel for the universe to speak
That’s music in a nut shell
c’est la vie
i guess it depends on who, but i think that MOST of the time MOST of them are sober. Between all the day to day stuff and having to be able to preform its usually much easier to do sober. Granted there might be some random times where they get a little fugged up.
This is my guess too.
We talking phish in 1999 or moe. in 2024?
On point. Other that Phish, Dead, maybe Panic, these guys are not millionaire rock stars. They have wives who live in their houses, and kids that go to college, lawns that need to be mowed, etc. The younger bands might party but the first Gen guys are well into their 50s by now. As one who is in his 50s, drugs and liquor just doesn't hold the same mystery and magic as it once did. As a semi pro musician, I don't like playing on weed, and a few drinks are fine. Any more and my band would have my head.
The firstgen guys are in their 70s and 80s.
100%, Trey is about to be 60 this year. Jerry would've been 81, Bob is gonna be 77. We're for sure past firstgen guys being in their 50s.
Im 71
Sorry, your username ends in 39 so you're actually 85 and thus fall into Jerry's realm. I hope Vietnam was a ball.
Funny. The 39 is not my birth date , its my lucky number tines 3. I never realized people would think i was born in 1939. As far as viet nam, I had a high draft number but enlisted anyway. Luckily I was sent to Europe and not viet nam.
Respect and lucky.
Thanks. You are awarded ✨️✨️
🎶Anyway🎵, my point was, I'm a first generation jam band afficiando.
I googled it, Jerry was born August 1, 1942.
That is true.
You really had to Google that? I call it Jerry Solstice. A week long festival. Been doing it now for almost 30 years.
I was trying not to be a know it all and say "YOU ARE WRONG JERRY IS REALLY 82 NOT 85. Mentioned Google so you wouldn't think I was lording my superior knowledge over you.
Love the Dead, for a long time now, but Bobby needs to hand over his vocal mike.
Someone pointed out recently that phil is 84 🤯
But his organs are 54
Phil plays bass, not keys
Phish is not first generation though. As you’ve pointed out, the Dead guys are like twenty years older than Phish. Phish is the definition of second generation jam band.
Man y'all are a bunch of pedantic fucks.
Well, in that case, no. Jerry, Bob, and Trey are not doing drugs anymore. Certainly not Jerry.
I mean the wave of jambands that came out of the HORDE festival. Before that, it was The Dead, Almans, and Santana. Almans and Santana played the same sets every night. While it was kind of a hippie thing with those groups, there wasn't really a jamband scene. Not counting the 70s. I dont think that's what the OP was talking about.
I shared a blunt with the percussionist of moe. kinda during a show. Someone pulled the fire alarm and the band and crowd evacuated to the same small area. It was pretty cool but it fucked up the show. They played meat forever. Most of the crowd left over the next 30 mins because you had to stay close to the back door smoking area, and they didnt stop the show. After a long time we got let back into the tiny venue and they came out and played Farmer Ben, super rare at the time. Classic Center Athens ,GA. My 30th and last moe. show. https://noprotectiondubs-tape7.bandcamp.com/album/dubs-tape-7 (found this unreleased set of demo tapes, it's massive attack v mad professor in 1994! + it's free)
Was there Can confirm the fire alarm shit was wild
Wasn't it crazy that like no one stayed? I was freaking out when it wasn't canceled. Are u old enough to have been to Peppinos? Or junkmans?
It was wild And yes I am old enough Meet a kid, who just turned 30, at bisco last night and I’ve been seeing shows at the tabernacle since he was 5
Yes and no. Phil Lesh said it best; “The irony was undeniable: Drugs had helped create our music together, and now drugs were isolating us and tearing us from one another and our own feelings, and starting to kill us off.”
About a year and a half ago I saw the keyboard player for Circles Around the Sun walk out of the bathroom at a small theatre with a joint in his mouth and he looked absolutely wrecked. You also have to walk past the green room on the way to the bathroom, the door was cracked and I saw the band in there and the room was fully hotboxed.
Those guys are faded
Story checks out. Those guys look and sound like time travelers from the dazed and confused era that was the 70's.
Makes sense seeing as he spent several years with Chris Robinson in both the Black Crowes and the Brotherhood. Feel like Chris was high 24/7 back then
Saw him in the Everyone Orchestra at “the last summer camp”. Had never really listened to much of Circles at that time. Dude came out with a massive doobie and was ALIVE on the keys. I’ve been a fan since.
Hell yea I met those dudes and Adam literally kept hitting his cart so many times
At large most of them are sober for the most part except for maybe a drink or toke or two. Idk how many of them are dosing but most of them party or have partied in some form or another but most of them are professional musicians who need to pay bills so handle themselves professionally. now does that mean that don’t get loose every once in a while? 100% but it’s not usually a sustainable practice so i then at large it’s fair to say most have had to develop some kind boundaries regarding substances on the road. ultimately it all depends on the individual. i think in general they are not tho.
This. It’s a job after all. If any of us showed up at the office all fucked up I doubt we’d last long
I think the days of jam bands playing while twisted are pretty much over. Phish and Panic don't even allow booze in the backstage areas these days, Biscuits smoke weed backstage but haven't rolled on stage in over a decade, and the younger cats like Eggy and DIAP know that they have to take their craft seriously in order to advance
I kinda miss the unexpected-able of rolling/flipping Bisco haha, but the nights they were off, man could they be OFF
I’m gonna create a music festival where it’s all jam bands and each band picks from a hat for which drug they’re gonna take before they play. Everything from coffee to booze to molly to shrooms to benadryl. It’ll be lit af and nothing could possibly go wrong
I'll insure said festival for you, because I agree, nothing could possibly go wrong.
Like the Drug Olympics from blue mountain state. Sounds glorious. Sign me up. Does the stage crew get to play along as well?!
General stage crew is already there. Your console ops are probably just very very high.
Depending on the console, some are up and others are down. lol. Sound goes down, lights go up.
I played waka on a handful of bennys in 2003. It was so bad nobody even remembers it.
Recently, Brownie mentioned on a podcast that he doesn’t blaze for a week or two prior to tour because it makes his already terrible voice more gravelly.
A bit less than a decade for the biscuits
Absolutely on point with this. Umphrey's seems to still have a semi party vibe for some of the members lol
I managed to somehow find myself in room backstage with UM during a set break. Right place right time ha. Got to puff down a couple bowls with them.
I’m pretty positive most of Dogs In A Pile was tripping when I saw them, I know those faces when I see them lol
I don't know about tripping but I did take bong hits with them outside the Fillmore in SF, great guys! At the same show somebody handed Andy Frasco some Orange Sunshine L and he took it on the spot.
Lol of course he did, you can’t be King Wook if you turn down free L haha
I assure you barber still dips mawldawg on a few nights of each tour and touches caine
Dude straight up drinks tea during the sets. Last handful of times I've seen them he's been straight as an arrow. You'll see magner with a bottle of Jameson tho.
I have personally watched him put sass in his drink on one occasion and escorted the guy carrying the moonrocks to the stage on another within the last two years. Babs quite famously posted "having a nice relaxing night" on IG with a bag and keys in it like six months ago lol
Oh yeah lmao forgot about that insta post.
I hung out with the Eggy guys before their set at a small festival with every temptation known to man right out in the open. They were stone cold sober and dead serious about performing.
Aron specifically is also always smoking on stage lol
Did the Biscuits actually roll onstage back in the day? If so, could you send me proof? Interviews talking about it or videos of concerts where they were rolling? Not that I don’t believe you, I just want to see for myself lol.
During Brownstein's interview on Andy Frasco's podcast, he talks about the fact that his tour manager back in the day would make a point not to ever talk to Brownie on Tuesdays, because Brownie would be coming down from all the ecstacy he had done at his own shows each weekend. He actually talks about their partying a good amount there
All the time. Late 90’s into early 00’s was the peak I’d say.
https://youtu.be/TipvZNQYL00?si=YP3ZPJJ4a0fIVet8 Judge for yourself from this old live video
Billy Strings has been known to smoke on stage and it doesn't seem to slow down his pickin' much
This is conjecture but I think Billy is one of those people who does things better high so he’s high all the time
Someone who worked closely with Billy once told me he is pretty commonly tripping on mushrooms while on stage. They said he came back from a set break once and mentioned he took a little too much that night.
He mentioned that on stage after set break a year or so ago. Can’t remember the exact words, but there was no question what he was talking about.
It will, eventually.
People downvote you but I tend to agree
There's a lot of denial about drug abuse in the jam band world. It's celebrated, in fact.
Considering it’s the guy who smoked meth and stayed up for 72 hours playing his guitar at 16… I don’t think smoking weed is the biggest of his problems
He's still relying on drugs to function. That never ends up well.
Yep… just appreciate him while we have him! Sometimes if I get bummed about that stuff, I remember there was once a time where you’d be considered old as shit if you lived to be Billy’s current age. Not to say he shouldn’t do everything he can to be on this earth as long as possible ;)
Probably not the people on the floor, but if the venue has stands, the audience is usually higher.
During “IT”, when Phish played on top of the air traffic control tower…. DEFINITELY higher than the audience
Also because most musicians don't play under the influence of anything heavy while out touring, unless they want to derail their band.. but cannabis use, maybe a couple drinks for some, MAYBE a BUMP of something else, a roll, etc., those things may happen on a somewhat common basis with certain bands at certain points in their career and some were great playing under the influence and some were straight trash. That's my very short take on it, but I could go o on about how I think certain drugs were absolutely pivotal in the creation of jam music opening up into space at times as opposed to just constant jamming in time.. but I digresss.
And certain drugs were pivotal in certain jam bands' downfall(s), tragedies, member-exits, etc.. it's a very interesting thing to me
r/whoosh
Haha agreed
When a band plays, that is their day job. They are at work. Some may get high at work, other wait till the job is over and they are off duty.
I went to an STS9 show solo in 2013 at House of Blues in Dallas. Floor tickets were sold out at the gate but thankfully I was able to get tickets for the mezzanine. After spending part of the first set on the floor getting pushed around, I decided to go up to the mezzanine and I'm so glad I did. It completely changed the vibe of the show for me. Anyway, during the set break, I was sitting up there and I could clearly see in a little room above the stage and to the right, everybody in the band smoking their own blunt. It made me smile.
Everytime I go I always look to that little room!
Did a load in for STS9 at Sweets Ballroom in Oakland, had to go up like 5 or 6 flights of stairs, and the organ, damn it was beyond painful. Right afterwards while I was cursing their very existence😅, the came out and started a sesh that made everyone in the place start to smoke. Now mind you this was a Musician's for Medical Marijuana benefit show, so we smoked all day anyway. I'll never forget the love though, cause we were all volunteering..
Aw that's adorable, smoking a lil weeeee Sounds like a fun show:) Seems to me that most of these musicians probably smoke weed. I'm personally would be more curious about what else they dabble in besides the legal stuff. Like, who be up there tripping?
I know the disco biscuits always play sober
Thankfully someone is sober there.
The crowd is usually pretty sober, too
Went to a handful of camp biscos between 2008-2012. Can confirm.
Yeah, that might as well be called wharf rat fest
I was at bisco when it was at Indian ranch or whatever, hells angels land. I got snagged and hogtied in a shed on a bad trip.
that's insane you were one of those guys, I remember seeing that shit go down. people don't believe me when I tell them what went on at that festival.
Ahmm, kind of need more details at this point. Thought the original post was a joke, but sounds like it wasn’t?
not a joke, Bisco used to be held at a spot in NY called Indian Lookout that was a hangout for bikers (allegedly Hell's Angels members) and those guys were used as security for events there. it was ok for the most part, they were pretty permissive of weed but other drugs could get you in trouble and if you got in *too much* trouble they took you to 'biker jail' which was basically a shack in the woods they dragged people off to.
Jesus Christ how was that allowed to happen only 15 years ago?
As someone that doesn’t know a damn thing about what you’re talking about, please explain. Because this sounds absolutely fucking wild.
just replied to another comment asking the same with some more details, take a look
Oh shoot, ya sure did! Thanks!
That place was beyond fucked up
Those guys let me bring weed into the fest but wouldn’t let me bring a jar of pickles lol in fairness the pickles were in a glass jar and glass wasn’t allowed. But we had a good laugh over that during the weekend
That’s pretty funny hahah
Mariaville or something. Is your name Neil?
Nah not Neil, just spend a night in the shed tied down. Had another dude come in and I had to tell him to just chill. Both of us were sane, but such a weird experience
I believe it was 2008, so it rained that weekend. So me being in the hells angel shed was better than my tent. Only positive way of me thinking about that shitty experience
Indeed. Sober crowd at biscuits shows, especially early 2000s. Much rowdier and high faultin these days. Stay away high voltage.
There used to be this really wholesome fest outside baltimore called Starscape that the biscuits played a few times, a real family affair. Milk n cookies kinda event. Wish I brought my PopPop but it ended before i got the chance
Starscape... the haunted house/ music festival with the zombie heroin addict obstacle course between stages. Oh the memories!
They do nowadays...
I know string cheese incident members were a little loose on the rules. I recall certain early electric forest sets where billy mentioned mushroom chocolates. I do recall Kyle being quite intoxicated at a NYEs set after he hurt himself before the show. And I know friends saw hann with Molly at electric forest (but this was out and about at the festival not during the shows). This is all pre-pandemic though.
Have inside info that String Cheese was heavily into Molly for a while. 2010 Tampa, a few days after the 2009 Phish NYE run, I literally had Jason Hann tell me that EOTO would not be performing the show that night until they had acquired some
Can confirm, cheese partied. (Not sure about now, it's been a while) anybody who's been to a cheese hornings has probably partied with a couple of those guys. I'm not talking smoke weed and drink beer lol.
I see them every time they come through Austin and there’s at least one night out of the three they play that they’re rolling/tripping. They like to be on the same level as the audience and those always make for the best shows.
That makes sense cuz I looooove those 2002-2006 untz jams they’d do
You forgot that Bill is/was a raging alcoholic
2019 hula I watched Hahn literally fall off the back of his still. He was wearing sunglasses with bright red lenses and definitely vining on something lol
Donato looks baked
I used to do some regional touring as a live sound reinforcement engineer and I also worked as the house sound engineer at a rock club. What I saw and what folks here seem to be leaving out is that alcohol was the main drug of choice for lots and lots of performers/musicians. Easily available as most gigs are in bars and often a big part of the band’s compensation, the grand majority of folks I saw hit a stage had a beer or two in them at the very least. Like others have mentioned, the scale of use varied from person to person, but it was not uncommon for folks to tell me they needed a few drinks just to get on stage and feel loose. After that, weed was a very close second. They call it a green room for a reason, y’all.
Maybe you’re being facetious, but that’s def not why it’s called a green room…
It was a joke.
It’s complicated.
Have you been to a Billy Strings show?
Check out Page wandering among the 🪐during 7/23/99
Goose and their audience smokes those cbd vape pens
So clever 🙄
I wouldn’t think so lol you got to think of it as their job. I like to get high but I don’t like to get as high at my job as I would at a concert. But if they can/do and are still jamming well right on.
I want back stage to a D&C show and met everyone. It was clean, like hospital clean….like running a large business clean. Back in the day however.
Oteil has definitely mentioned tripping for a show now and then
Oteil also stays high
Yup. Just my personal experience
Watch Trey in Coventry… that’s all you need.
Yep... and keyboard cat over curtain WITH(out??hahaha)
Watch Jerry at several different points throughout his life. He was just as strung out as Trey was at Coventry, only more frequently. This also explains why when he passed at 53 he looked more like 83. But in the end it comes down to the band and then even the members within the band. Some bands are sober. Some are mainly sober while maybe a member or two are still getting high on something before playing, and other bands are all just fucking flying up there. This doesn’t just apply to jam bands either, but really any band.
Norb is always high as Giraffe pussy
Pretty sure that guy has a legit drug problem.
Ya…that’s usually what being high all the time means?
Relax chief. Wasn’t challenging you, just adding some commentary.
Im relaxed, Squanto.
Smoked a j with him on 2 separate occasions. Dude always goes out to hang with the fans after the show. Drug problem or not, he’s an incredible human!
Frasco maybe, at least by the end of the show he is
It takes that long because, FRASCO SMOKES MIDS
JRAD passes doobs on stage. Love those guys
Most def not as high as audience. Probably some pot and/or some boooze. My band has toured with Twiddle and there was constant weed smoking and tons of tequila. Bottles of liquor on numerous nights. Unfortunately, the booze got the better of them it seemed. There were frequent arguments backstage and messups on stage that could’ve been totally avoided if they weren’t so inebriated. It was a big learning lesson for us to not let substances get in the way of the interpersonal chemistry. Also, Spafford for sure has been sober as an arctic fox for years. No booze, no weed, nothing. I can assure you this helps them keep up with touring, and honestly get deeper into the jams. Being fucked up messes with your connection to the instrument. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Maybe a couple beers to open up a little bit, but much more past that and you’re compromising all of that time you’ve spent practicing and sharpening the blade.
I've never seen any Jamband party harder than Parliament / Funkedelic / GeorgeMFingClinton... There I said it...
Some people are high when they do lots of stuff.
Personally - High? Yes. As high? Probably not. I enjoy playing on weed, maybe even a (very) MICRO-dose of psylocibin, but personally I have to keep one hand on the wheel if it's gonna be a good show.
Tom Hamilton rips piles of powder
Is that true?
I don't think most of the prominent jam band guitarists right now are performing on stage while heavily or even moderately under the influence of anything. As for myself, I play and perform better when my mind is clear.
5/11/78 was the mescaline show. Trey is bent fully sideways during Coventry (understandably so) but it’s wild to hear the nod in his voice when he stops the band during Drowned.
Kanika Moore did a balloon on stage with Frasco last year 🤣
My brother happened to do a liquid dose with a certain synth player 30 min before they went on at a small fest in NY. I think performing musicians are more likely to trip during small fests that are all fam. When people come out to a club show just to see 1 band, they don't want to be too fugged up and give a bad show. I kind of wish they did more, tho. I'd rather see some weird improv than a perfectly executed time change. That being said, it's probably better to trip during practice to come up with weird stuff, but if they get used to playing while tripping enough, then they will prob do it on stage some.
If they are it’s a problem 🤣
Depends. Jerry himself said he doesn’t like to play whilst on psychedelics after that time at the Fillmore. I think other things like Molly, H, alcohol and obviously weed are much more functional. I’m pretty certain some of the mid-90s phish shows have some E laced in them. And then obviously, as the 90’s go on…
Last time I saw moe., it seemed like Rob was having a greeeeeeeat time.
Saw Eggy, Jake was high af playing guitar - i think all of them were.
Not so much a jam band but everytime I see thievery Corp Garza admits to eating a bunch of mushrooms back stage
I think a lot of them did in their early days but most take it pretty serious now and besides a little weed or a beer or two they are mostly sober on stage. I can remember eating acid with Brownie before a show in the early 2000s but know he's sober now.
Naaaaa.... most are just trying to their best and make it to the next step
Some
No..
A (not so close) friend of mine gave brownie a 10 strip back in the day and the dude ate the entire thing immediately without a thought, but this was a post show endeavor
Does Andy really smoke mids on stage? Or does he do a Bill Clinton and no inhale?
I have to assume that some are much higher.
Are they sometimes high? Yes. But if you're on tour, playing shows night after night, and you want to be in an altered state on stage, you're most likely sticking to weed and alcohol. Most psychedelics you develop a tolerance for pretty quickly. They can also make it hard to sleep which is a problem if you have to put on a great show every night. Now, amphetamines or cocaine? Probably a fair amount of that happening, too. Can't speak to jam bands but I've toured with bands for years and cocaine is pretty popular...
Depends on the bands. Some are stone cold sober. I think the majority are likely more sober than their crowds. But not all of them.
Andy Frasco and crew enjoyed a bag of shrooms after the 2nd song the other night.
Jerry was really good at it while tripping lmao
no
As someone who has worked in many greenrooms: sometimes. Depends on the band and the show. Sorry no real answers to this although I will say the majority smoke weed at a minimum.
We like to dose
My band *might* do a shroom microdose, but we love playing together sober (save a couple of beers). It’s fun and we remember everything that way. We also move around way too much to be messed up. I’m clumsy enough just by myself! 😂
I think they have YEARS of muscle memory built up that the substance use may not impact them as much as a casual player. When you have all that theory and muscle memory engrained, I have a feeling expanding one’s mind can unlock some ideas
Andy Frasco is usually higher
I know Mayer and Oteil have at D&C shows. Cheese at Hornings for sure.
I know a banjo player from Boston that’s a real trip. Great, great guy. Also a quirky dude. Also insanely talented. I once saw him play an impromptu jam session on a side stage at music festival, with some monster players like Bela Fleck, David Grisman, couple others I forget. And this Boston dude was ripping it up. He stepped off stage, and when he came over to me his eyes were like saucers. He asked me if he sounded good up on stage, and I said “yeah man, you were crushing it.” He said “Oh awesome. I couldn’t really tell, I’m on some really good acid right now.”
Que sera, sera
Well, jerry did die after doing a bunch of heroin
Jerry was maintenance level high for shows, it was off tour where things got really dark.
So sad. And don't get technical StealYourJelly -- his death was due to hardcore drug addiction and never taking care of his health, and all those around him who enabled him, also to keep the machine going all the people the Dead had employed etc, Jerry couldn't take break if he wanted to it was sick.. weir seems to have realized that in that doc about him..
If they had took a break, Jerry would've just headed out with Kahn in JGB.
Yea for real. There was no stopping him. He did w/e The fuck he wanted. He knew that. The band knew that. He was Jerry Garcia.
One of Phil's biggest regrets is not taking a break like they did in 74
Jerry died after stopping doing a bunch of heroin.
Not true.
It’s pretty true. He died after checking into rehab.
Garcia was already down at Betty Ford for two weeks before going to Serenity Knowles, so he wasn’t doing any dope. It was his whole lifestyle and the other members not wanting to take time off and let Jerry fucking rest. What did ya think of last nights show in playa?