Episode #256 |11.11.25
Phish: Community, Hippie Crack, and the Nitrous Mafia
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A parking lot ruled by shady nitrous oxide dealers. And a bandleader whose addiction nearly killed him. This is the story of Trey Anastasio and Phish – and their improbable comeback.
Sources
Between Me and My Mind (2019, dir. Steven Cantor)
Bittersweet Motel (2000, dir. Todd Phillips)
The Phishing Manual: A Compendium to the Music of Phish, by Dean Budnick
Inside the Nitrous Mafia, an East Coast Hippie-Crack Ring (Village Voice)
After Forty Years, Phish Isn’t Seeking Resolution (New Yorker)
Four Days With Phish, America’s Greatest Jam Band for 40 Years and Counting (GQ)
Trey Anastasio on Phish, Jam Bands and Staying Together Forever (NY Times)
Trey Anastasio interview 2004 (WTF with Marc Maron)
Phish: The Biography, by Parke Puterbaugh
Traveling drug ring selling nitrous oxide busted at Phish concert (Fox Baltimore)
It’s a gas, gas, gas (BKMAG)
Brooklyn Steel Nitrous Mafia (Phish.net)
Getting High on Nitrous: Meet the Phish Fans Sucking 'Hippie Crack' Outside Madison Square Garden (Newsweek)
12 Arrested For Selling And Distributing Laughing Gas After Concert (CBS Baltimore)
Party with gas, play with fire: the dangerous renaissance of 'whippets' in the music scene (LA Times)
67 canisters of nitrous oxide found outside Fenway after Phish show (WCVB)
Nitrous Oxide Seized at RFK (Washington Post)
Hippy Crack and the Nitrous Mafia – Still Going Strong After All These Years (Fox 29 News)
The Wacky History of Nitrous Oxide: It's No Laughing Matter (DOCS Education)
Choosing Our Own Religion: A Diary of Big Cypress & The Long Gig, Twenty Years Later (Live for Live Music)
Ex-Phish singer arrested in N.Y. (Rutland Herald)
Phish Wins 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Fan Vote (Billboard)
Grant County Sheriff’s Office seeks suspects who attacked Phish fans at The Gorge (Inlander)
Joe Louis Allen and Samir Poles v. Phish and Live Nation (Washington State Court of Appeals)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/after-forty-years-phish-isnt-seeking-resolution
https://www.gq.com/story/trey-anastasio-phish-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame
https://www.gq.com/story/four-days-with-phish
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/24/magazine/trey-anastasio-phish.html
https://www.villagevoice.com/inside-the-nitrous-mafia-an-east-coast-hippie-crack-ring/
https://www.bkmag.com/2024/06/18/its-a-gas-gas-gas/
https://forum.phish.net/forum/show/1379849749#page=1
https://www.newsweek.com/nitrous-phish-fans-hippie-crack-madison-square-garden-new-york-city-646022
(https://cwbchicago.com/2016/06/laughing-gas-sales-lead-to-2-arrests.html
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Zeth Lundy.
Mixed by Matt Beaudoin.
DISGRACELAND theme song, “Crenshaw Space Boogie,” written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava, and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak