Mourning the lost of Neil Peart one of rocks greatest percussionist. Larry Mishkin and Jim Marty move from jam bands to pay tribute to Rush and their unparalleled drummer. They also review the Phish Madison Square Garden New Years shows. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin https://podconx.com/guests/jim-marty https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt
Mourning the lost of Neil Peart one of rocks greatest percussionist. Jim Marty and Larry Mishkin move from jam bands to pay tribute to Rush and their unparalleled drummer. They also review the Phish Madison Square Garden New Years shows.
https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin
https://podconx.com/guests/jim-marty
https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt
Jim Marty: [00:00:00] So. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Deadhead Cannabis show. Glad to have you aboard. We got lots to talk about today. It's now 20/20. We'll have a review of the Grateful Dead shows in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. I was lucky enough to attend the two shows in San Francisco. We also have Larry Mishkin on the line. Hello, Larry.
Larry Mishkin: [00:00:58] Jim, how are you doing? Happy New Year to you.
Jim Marty: [00:01:00] Very good. As many of you know, Larry is an attorney with Hovan Law and he's in he's in Chicago. So we're gonna talk about the first week of Cannabis legal Cannabis adult years sales in Illinois. So that'll be very interesting. But I think we want to start out with some current news. We want to mourn the passing of Neil Peart of Rush, the big rock star and liver was brain cancer. He died just before he turned 70. So that's a real hit, a real blow to the rock n roll world.
Larry Mishkin: [00:01:34] You know, Jim, it is. And it's kind of interesting because when I was driving to my office this morning, one of the radio stations was was having a retrospective of rock stars that have died recently. And they were playing a lot of Russian music. And I didn't quite put two and two together. And so, you know, we just were about to hop on the show here. And you mentioned it to me and I went they checked it out. And the truth is, you know, of course, the passing of everybody is sad and the passing of a musician is sad. But Russia is one of those bands that I think, you know, probably unfairly to them kind of got lost in the shuffle of the late 70s, early 80s, big hair, loud bands that they were just kind of, you know, seen as one of those. But when, in fact, you know, they've improved over the test of time and and I think you were mentioning that you saw them recently that, you know, these guys are survivors of they're great musicians. They wrote all of their own songs. They have, you know, many, many albums out. And although I've never seen them in concert, what I hear is that they put on one hell of a show. Do you agree with that?
Jim Marty: [00:02:37] I was lucky enough to see them a few summers ago at Red Rocks and. Yeah, Geddy Lee has the voice of Rush, great singer, a great guitar player, and Neil Peart story. You know, he was successful enough in his music career that he could afford to travel in an RV that pulled along an enclosed trailer behind it with his motorcycles in it. And if the weather was nice, he'd get out and jump on his motorcycle and travel to the next show on his motorcycle. I think there was also a story about how he lost a daughter. Maybe you have that story, Larry.
Larry Mishkin: [00:03:10] Yeah, he lost his daughter and his wife a few years ago. And I know vaguely remember hearing about it. And I just you know, we checked online to confirm that. And they were they were they were talking about how I was in a 10 month period for his wife and his daughter passed away and how he finally was able to try and get back into the game. And, you know, it took some time out of him, but I guess that goes all the way back to really 97 in 98. But it's once again, it's kind of like a fascinating story. And, you know, we tend to put a lot of our focus on the Grateful Dead and Fish and bands like that. And I think it's important to state that it's not being done with the purpose of excluding other rock and roll bands. Lord knows there's many, many, many of them out there that wouldn't necessarily come to mind. And the definition of Grateful Dead like jam band. But you know, you can't ignore musicians like Rush in the success that they had over the years and that when they lose a founding member of the band you don't like with any like we saw with Dad and you know, we see with a lot of other bands, what does that mean for their long term success? They replace them. Can they find somebody new in one of the things that I didn't know about him, Jim. But I now learning more about as I look at this is that he was also one of the lyricists for the band. So, you know, he's he's responsible for many of those songs that they put out there that worked, you know, a real staple during my high school and early college years when F.M. Radio was what we had to listen to. And Rush started a ton of airplay back in those days.
Jim Marty: [00:04:39] Yeah, he was a great, great drummer. Like I said, I was lucky enough to see him a few years ago. So we'll we'll come back around to music because we need to talk about some of the New Year shows that dad and company did as well as Phish. But let's talk a little Cannabis and Larry, fill us in on how things are going in Illinois. We've had a week or so now of adult years legal Cannabis a little bit I've read is that the first weekend was 11 million in sales statewide. And there's a shortage of product with you. And I have discussed several times on our shows that we're anticipating a lack of supply. But tell us what's going on.
Larry Mishkin: [00:05:21] Well, you know, it's funny that you say that. And because my smart ass answer that I had in mind to give all right back at you was I'm sure you can tell me, because we've been talking about this for months. You know how this would play out. You've certainly seen it enough times, you know, and I've read about it enough times. And and sure enough, you know, on New Year's Day, the lines were around the block. One of my son, she was of age. And you can do that kind of thing, went down to the local adult use dispensary in Evanston and was thrilled to see nobody waiting to get inside the door until he walked up. There was met by a met by a very large fellow who told him that was a four to five hour wait, and he could give his name and go read somewhere in the area, and they would let him know where would they post him. He had five minutes to show up to solve. After a little while, he decided that he would go back another day and and took his leave from there. But they had a number of filed really at all. The dispensaries lines around the block in the first five days generated ten point eight million dollars in sales. Another all out sold. You know, they sold what they had. They sold it fast.
Jim Marty: [00:06:21] How these the supplies, the deletion correcting itself?
Larry Mishkin: [00:06:26] Well, you know, fortunately, it did. You know, we're going through a lot of aches and pains. The law specifically calls for there to be a constant supply of medical, but there isn't. And I was at my medical dispensary recently and was disappointed to see that they had no flour at all. And they only had one type of concentrate and almost no edibles and really were short on just about everything. And, you know, nobody is going to say exactly why or how. But of course, a lot of it's all getting funneled over to the adult use side to try and develop those markets and build their brands in that side of the industry. So it's a little bit frustrating. And of course, it's also frustrating because the whole argument as to why the program should go forward at this point in time with just the medical cultivators, was there impassioned pleas that because the medical program had been doing so poorly, they had never been growing on their full canopy space and now by, you know, expanding out to the 400000 square feet or whatever they had? But that, of course, they would be more than enough to make up for anything else and they would be able to get enough product on the shelf. And so now they're doing it and they've run out. Now, the other thing was the state did because we're now in the middle of the bill. But just the beginning of the licensing application period for cultivation, infusion and transportation.
Larry Mishkin: [00:07:41] So we've kind of rolled right into this one pretty quick, right out of the other one. What we didn't realize because the state had really publicized this before was like they did with the medical dispensaries where each one was entitled to get a matching adult used dispensary. The medical cultivators of 20, 20 of them, 40 facilities were each entitled to get an adult use one for the same size. Now, the application process for the cultivation here in Illinois is going to be for what they call a craft grow, meaning you're only getting a maximum of 5000 square feet of cannabis space. So that was already going to be passed, you know, make some money on when competing with 20 wide-scale growers. But now, in essence, by the time these licenses are awarded, they'll be competing with 40 low scale groves. So it's going to be a very, very challenging to see how this all works out. But that part will go where it goes in the meantime. I think that the people of Illinois have made it very clear that they're strongly in favor of adult use cannabis. And it is going to be a challenge now to to get enough product in there, not only to now shop with what the adult used market is looking for it, but to make sure the medical patients and the medical dispensaries have sufficient amounts for their for their medical patients.
Jim Marty: [00:08:56] Yes. And although 5000 square feet in states like Colorado, that's not necessary, economically viable, because here in Colorado, they also compete with hundred thousand square cultivators. But initially, there will be demand for all the products. Even those 5000 square foot cultivation will help meet the supply demand equation. Know whenever you have a new industry, it takes a while to sort that out. We're seeing imbalances here, not just in Colorado and other states. An imbalance in the Hemp side. Smokeable Hemp is very much in demand right now. CBD products are very much in demand. I even heard a CBD advertisment on Rush Limbaugh the other day. CBD everywhere in the issue there. For instance, we have a client here, a Bridge West client who has two hundred thousand pounds of Hemp that tested out very well. But the labs are all backed up, the extraction labs that make the oils and extractions that go into the CVT products. They're all backed up. So there's more products out there via biomass Hemp. That's not getting extracted because we don't have enough extraction labs in the country yet.
Larry Mishkin: [00:10:08] That's an industry that's going to have to come alive. And as you know, Wolf, we can't because we're we're running into the same thing here in Illinois. What I'm planning right now is that as many people coming into my office, it's like like how to get set up. There have been Destry. As they do in the marijuana industry, the same is true for us. Well, look, there's no competition to get a license and you can pretty much grow anywhere as long as you can have it classified as quote unquote farmland on the Illinois tax code. And I never really had bothered to look at it before, but apparently it was very flexible in what it allows to be considered as farmland. You can be up and running. Yes. The biggest problem, of course, is what do you do with all that biomass after you harvest it? And I know that there's a lot of companies out there that are trying to grow and develop themselves to the point where they can step in and they can take that biomass and they can process it and sell it. Asked for CBD or just as likely for industrial uses. Right. Who would which was the was sort I just read is now going to start making door panels out of Hemp. One of my may have been for it. And you know, to me that's just that's still that's the very beginning, right. As soon as one car company does it and the other car companies see it's less expensive and it's safer and everybody's going to make the change and then we're gonna find ourselves in a position where we don't have enough Hemp. So, you know, that will be very interesting, too.
Jim Marty: [00:11:24] Very interesting, you know. Only two or three years old now. So as far as an industry goes, certainly a lot of sorting out to be done there. There's a lot of expenses involved with having two hundred thousand pounds of Hemp in your barn. You constantly have to be cycling it, rotating it, checking the humidity, putting it through demystification processes so it doesn't get moldy. So there's a lot of expense involved when you have a barn full of Hemp couple hundred thousand pounds that you're trying to move a lot of challenges back onto the Cannabis side of things. Missouri, I think I mentioned on a prior broadcast that on Christmas Eve 2019, the cultivation license were awarded in Missouri. And the challenge there is under the myth, Missouri rules, you have to be up and operational within 12 months of getting your license. So every day counts. We're working very hard in Missouri to build buildings, to build cultivation, is trying to get up and running and, you know, three or four months with prefabricated metal buildings that you can buy the kit and get 50000 square feet of cultivation up and running very quickly. So what's going on in the Cannabis world will keep an eye on Illinois and yeah, a lot of getting a lot of phone calls on Hemp as well.
Dan Humiston: [00:12:56] I want to take a quick break to thank you for listening to today's show as the exclusive Cannabis podcast network. We're constantly adding new Cannabis podcast to support our industry's growth, and that's why we're so excited to welcome the Seed to Sound podcast to our network. The team and see the sound is produced over 50 Exciting and thought-provoking Cannabis podcast. And now you can listen to all their previous episodes in all their new episodes and M.J. Ball's knockout. So welcome seed sound. Stay tuned for a new exciting Cannabis podcast on the MGP Bulls Cannabis Podcast Network.
Jim Marty: [00:13:41] What else is going on there in Chicago, landmark?
Larry Mishkin: [00:13:45] Well, you know, this has been good and this has kept us busy and we're very excited by going forward with it, which is all very nice on the music scene. We're about to head into a busy month of January. Tedeschi Trucks is coming in the middle of January to do their now fifth annual four night residency at the Chicago Theater. They actually break it off. They do a Friday and Saturday night. Then they take the week off or they go other places to play. And then they come back and do the following Friday and Saturday nights. And usually one of the nights they'll bring in another band to play with them. Is it open with them or go to actually come out and play with them for a little while? So it's something that in Chicago we look forward to in the middle of winter. The Chicago theater is a beautiful place. It's easy to get to. And those are really good shows. But actually, the week before it, US trucks in January, I'll be running to see North Mississippi All-Stars will come into play in a very, very small venue just south of the loop in an old German neighborhood with something that looks like a big beer hall. And they've turned it into a lovely show center and they're and everything and I think a great performances and great bands. And I'm a big fan of Luther Dickinson in North Mississippi, All Star. So I'm looking forward to that one, too.
Jim Marty: [00:14:54] Yes, I've seen them a few times at Red Rocks. Great band. I was lucky enough to see the two shows in Los Angeles of Dead and Company in the twenty twenty eight.
Larry Mishkin: [00:15:05] All right. Yeah. Let's.
Jim Marty: [00:15:06] Let's talk about those four minute talked about the twenty seventh in such a great show. Wonderful sound at the forum. And then the second night I was hoping to get a couple of my favorites, Eyes of the World and Uncle John's band but didn't get any of my favorites. Instead we got along very spacey lost sailor s.A circumstance. And the first set that one of my real favorites might take away from two nights of a company, they almost had renamed Bob Weir and Company because he sings probably 80 90 percent of the songs. So I was a little disappointed with the second night in L.A. and then I saw the song this and all that. They had saved all the favorites for New Year's Eve. They did a big third set. We had the eyes of the world. They had the Uncle John's band. So the last night of the four night run in San Francisco had all the real Grateful Dead standards, the sugar magnolia at midnight, all the things that everybody loves.
Larry Mishkin: [00:16:02] And it's it looks like a lot of fun. And I was sorry that I wasn't there. And meanwhile, on the opposite coast, our fish was throwing down four wonderful nights at the at Madison Square Garden there. You know, there are new unofficial official home. My son was ultra, so I was getting regular reports. And they they really played some good shows leading up to New Year's Eve. But of course, on New Year's Eve, they did themselves with a with a wild performance. You can go on YouTube and see how there they were, each on elevated platforms in different colors with color, coordinated dancers directly below them. And, you know, it just looked like crazy. Fine. And that apparently treys platform malfunctioned and didn't come down to the ground. So he got stuck up there for a little while. And I just I don't know the whole story, but, you know, it sounded like exactly the change of craziness that fish fans thrive on. And, you know, that makes their concerts, you know, a little more out of the ordinary. You rarely see Mick Jagger get stuck in one of those big screens that's dragging them out around the audience or anything. But, you know, sure enough, there is tray stuck up there on his platform. Not being able to do anything, get a real kick out of that.
Jim Marty: [00:17:09] Yes. I didn't see it, but I heard that they had to bring one of the other platforms up to rescue him and he had to climb out of his, you know, 50 feet above the stage and climb into one that worked and Trace stayed calm through the whole thing. But kind of scary acrobatics.
Larry Mishkin: [00:17:28] Yeah. I mean, it really is if you think about it. Yes, he did. And Mishkin Law and fans are turned out to be a lot of fun. And instead of something, something else also may have been.
Jim Marty: [00:17:37] And let's lighten up. Let's lighten up the Internet and social media. I guess they did about a 30 minutes, Liza.
Larry Mishkin: [00:17:44] I was just going to say not to be lost in all this. Talk about their technical glitch and everything is way that people still go to see them. And they did. They threw down, I think, with a 38 minute tweezer. And what I love about this is, you know, much in the same way the Deadheads was, oh, my God, delicious in the setlist that they played this and to that and to this. The fish fans do look at that also. Oh, Dave. It's a 38 minute tweezer. They just did some shows recently where they had another two. And I forget which one it was. Were they they they jam the hell out of it for 30 or 40 minutes. And and everybody was, you know. Oh, did you see that? You know, the belong tweezer last night. And I love that about them. That's what makes them finding cancer ratings that they can take a tune that they played 50 times, 100 times, 1000 times. And just by extending it out by five, 10 minutes, it's like, you know, a brand new song all over again. And the whole community goes wild and. It's wonderful self-promotion in that respect, but it's just a lot of fun, I think.
Jim Marty: [00:18:42] Well, what we're talking about fish. I have heard some more of the Philadelphia shows with a play that the Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Philharmonic. And check out the ways one of the finest place I've ever heard was that in just early December at the Philadelphia shows.
Larry Mishkin: [00:19:03] Well, that's always a good tune and that's good for him to play.
Jim Marty: [00:19:05] Very good. Well, I think that what I have for today, Larry. Anything else?
Larry Mishkin: [00:19:10] Gosh, you know, if we had the time and the energy, you know, we can keep going on forever. It's one thing that I would like to do because I would like to just throw out there is a little tease for our listeners that we are working on putting together a show and a couple of weeks. And while we don't have all the details worked out just yet. We hope it involves someone who has really strong ties into the Grateful Dead and dating company community who might be able to share some funny stories and other insights with us that day. Perhaps we spend a little bit of extra time focusing on the dead side of things. But stay tuned to our show. And as we know more details, we will let you know about them.
Jim Marty: [00:19:50] Yes, that's very exciting. We have some very prominent guests coming up this morning. All sides of this, including some people perhaps that are not in favor of Cannabis legalization. Some other people who are going to talk about how the bankruptcy laws come into play or Cannabis business owners who end up with large tax bills. So we got lots of great topics coming up. We never seem to run out of things to talk about, but that's all for this episode.
Larry Mishkin: [00:20:18] So, Larry, unless you have anything else, though, Jim, I would just say to everyone and enjoy the week. And thank you for listening, as always, and keep listening to the Grateful Dead and enjoying marijuana and listening to us.
Jim Marty: [00:20:31] Well, thank you, Larry. And Jim Mardy here saying over and out of.
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