Chicago-based cannabis company goes public Feb 18th 1971 was the first night of the Grateful Dead's famous six-night stand at the historic Capital Theater in Port Chester, NY. Jeremy Bergstein joins Larry Mishkin, Jim Marty and Rob Hunt to talk about growing up seeing shows at The Cap and reflecting on the impact that these shows had on the band for the next 50 years. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin https://podconx.com/guests/jim-marty https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt https://deadheadcyclist.com/
Chicago-based cannabis company goes public
Feb 18th 1971 was the first night of the Grateful Dead's famous six-night stand at the historic Capital Theater in Port Chester, NY. Jeremy Bergstein joins Larry Mishkin, Jim Marty and Rob Hunt to talk about growing up seeing shows at The Cap and reflecting on the impact that these shows had on the band for the next 50 years.
https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin
https://podconx.com/guests/jim-marty
https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt
[00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Welcome to the deadhead cannabis show. The podcast that combines talk about the grateful dead with the latest cannabis industry news. I'm Larry, Michigan from the Hoban law group. And I'm speaking today from finally sunny, but very cold and under two feet of snow, Chicago, as I tell everyone, it's the biggest waste of snow since we don't have any mountains but I am joined today by my co-hosts and two of my favorite Deadheads, Jim Marty [00:01:00] from bridge West County and Rob hunt from Lenay holdings.
Gentlemen, welcome. Jim, can you give us a little bit about some of the cannabis news that we're going to be talking about on today's show? Sure. Larry lots going on big public offering. Let you say the name. So we get it exactly right. Verano and Illinois entity did go public. That's correct.
And we'll be touching on that. That's for those of us in Illinois, it's not surprising to see. But for the rest of the cannabis industry, I think it's a a good thing.And we will hear from Rob on that. And in addition, Rob, welcome to the show. What do you got for us? It all lined up on the grateful dead site today.
Thanks, Larry. I think today, I hard not to go into the show without talking about the legendary run at the Porchester Capitol theater in late February of 1971. For all of you out there that are familiar with it, it was a six night run in port Chester, New York in a small Victorian theater that saw the introduction of six new grateful dead songs, including Bertha, greatest story ever told war frat loser, bird song, and playing in the band.
I believe. Pretty amazing run that when we [00:02:00] look back on it was pivotal in the the grateful Dead's history, as well as being a period where right after a bad period with Lenny Hart as the accountant for the grateful dead. Saw the departure of Mickey Hart from the band for a period of time that happened after the first night of the Capitol theater shows.
So lots of talk about obviously Birdsong being an an homage to a, to Janis Joplin's life. Lots of things that came out of that run and lots of discuss about that venue. So with that, we're also really excited to have with us today as a guest, Jeremy Bergstein. Jeremy and I both grew up in the same part of New York, right?
On either sides of the Porchester Capitol theater. And for both of us, as as high school kids, it was really our hometown venue. And so I thought in honor of the the discussion today, I would have someone else that can really relate to what happened inside that room and why the place is so magical.
Not only back in 1971, But everything that's happened inside the Porchester Capitol theater, since with bands like fish and max Creek and every reggae artist you can think of. And, as kids, when we thought about going to shows, before we were really old enough to go into New York to go see Ms.
G [00:03:00] shows at Madison square garden to go to Irvin Plaza or some of the other really big venues for us, the hometown theater was the Porchester cap. And all I know is I've got some amazing memories of that room. So Jeremy, welcome to the show. And, once you tell us a bit about yourself and your experience with the Porchester capital theater.
Oh, man. Thanks Rob. And thanks guys for having me on yeah, Jeremy Bergstein owner of the science project, a marketing firm in New York city, worked with everyone from Nike to Estee Lauder and a lot of fashion brands back in the day. I built some of the first W holiday windows back in the day been, involved in marketing and been in the area for a long time, but I'm not before the grateful dead took me all over the country and on tour and joined me up with friends and community and people in every far reach of of the U S.
Ultimately the world, it all started for us in this little nook above New York city where we ran around the woods and [00:04:00] then ran over to the Capitol theater to basically this awesome little bubble. That we saw insane, like ripping music at just all the time. And it's, it's always hard to walk into those crazy rooms and think about the fact that your favorite brand band in the world like was in there at one point, but, obviously saw tons of fish there taught tons of max Creek there saw eco mouse there.
I was telling Rob about a hilarious story where I happened into a Johnny winter concert by mistake there when I was younger. But. Yeah. One of the all time great rooms and that 71 run is just, when you like, just legend on so many different levels, like Rob was saying, so it's great to be on here and talk about Talk about it with you guys.
So one of the things I really remember from the Capitol theater, Jeremy was when I first went there, I couldn't even drive a car yet. So one of us had to have our mothers come pick us up after the show. So I always remember being so terrified by how high we were walking out of that [00:05:00] place. And if my mom was one of those picking us up, she'd always pull up right in front of the venue and we'd walk out where you didn't have that breather of walking to the parking lot and going, okay, get your head together.
I literally walk out the front door and there'd be mom sitting there in the car parked, and I'd be tripping so hard or just, the high out of my gourd. With four of my friends, like, all right, guys pulled together. We gotta get in the car now, like after just seeing, some ridiculous show.
So I remember I think my first experience at the Capitalocene max Creek, which for anyone that grew up in the Northeast was a Rite of passage. You saw them all the time and if it wasn't at the cap, you were seeing Wednesday nights in Providence, Rhode Island at the living room.
But, the cap was one of those places where you're like, okay, it's so close to home that your parents are definitely there. You're not taking the train back. You're not just front and center. So I don't know if you have any experiences like that as well. For me, it was walking out of max Creek shows just terrified by who's gonna be parked in front of the venue.
I was going to go. I was going to tell him a hilarious story that, it's such a random story, but we were one day. Me and a bunch of friends had all spoken with all of our other friends. We were going to go and see eco mouse [00:06:00] at a. At the cap and it was like, you'd go and call people from everywhere around.
Obviously everyone was on landline. So it was a a loose plan best. And we, that day was like a hot summer day, like thunder storms, building all day. And we were all super high, like running around a reservoir up by us. And I was a good amount North that was like more, certainly more more of the woods.
And we were swimming in reservoirs and. Pretty much had no, had no business going anywhere after this. And we decided to try to head to the cap, had somebody drive us to the cap and there were thunderstorms building the entire time. And it was cosmic on our way down there, like thunder, lightening, crackling overhead, the summer storm, like building and we somehow got out of this car.
Got there. Went into this show, they took our tickets. We were so psyched. The CE mouse looked around this amazing lobby when you walk in and there's [00:07:00] staircases that come down and, people right. When you walk in and I looked around, I was like, man something just doesn't look right.
And I looked at my friends and it was a whole bunch of motorcycles over there. Leather everywhere. And obviously not the eco mouse crew, none of our friends there. And I remember turning into a guy who saw the link, confused look on my face. I was like, what's what show is this? And he was like, this is Johnny winter.
Yeah. Yeah. So we had gone and come out somehow ended up in the Johnny winter concert and he saw how confused we were and he convinced us to stay. And. We ended up seeing just some of the most amazing music. It was, I had never even heard of Johnny winter. He came out albino long white hair. It was all these motorcycles and it was not the scene I expected, but it was, we were probably.
15 and 16 years old. So it was our living room to say the least and agree that us the same. It was a good one. [00:08:00] Yeah. I was afraid you were going to tell me that you guys left. That's good. That you stayed and got to hear him. He was a legend that's that's exciting stuff. Robert, this is it's great out there.
And one of the things you touched on, which, Shouldn't escape notice in all of this cause you're right. Is that even by the, when you guys were seeing them which I'm gonna assume was what I I don't want to guess at how old you are. Exactly. But sometime in the nineties maybe.
The dead had long stopped playing there obviously. And , not that we're going to get into it today, but eventually, I've got a list of Famous old theaters where I've seen shows where the dead played, but obviously I never got to see the dead there and it's whoever else I'm going in to see, I spent half the show wondering what it would have been like to be there, listening to the dead instead of who I'm listening to.
But luckily for us, as far as these shows go, we don't have to wonder very much because two of them have been preserved for posterity a few years ago, they released. Three from the vault, which was the second night, the 19th, but then just this past summer, when they released the American beauty 50th anniversary, they also slapped on there [00:09:00] the 18th, the first night.
So we've got the first two nights Preserved as only a, the grateful dead and Dan Healy, whoever was doing the sound at the time, Betty Cantor could preserve it. And quite frankly,to hear them and to read about them, really makes you there's lots of great dead shows out there.
And there's a big anniversary coming up at the end of this month that we'll have to decide if we're going to talk about, which is the four shows at the Fillmore West when they basically, Each night played out there. A dark star St. Stephen 11. Good luck. Good love and sweet love, light sweet. And those were famous, but these shows.
Or different because those shows were very trippy kind of you had to be in the right frame of mind. These shows were just high power, energy that combined some of that. But I I look at them as the coming out party for the new grateful dead. They came out and they said, here we are. The other stuff we did is always going to be a part of us.
We've got this whole new. Book full of material, and we're just going to lay it all out on you here. And unlike, just American beauty and some of that, some of these songs that they [00:10:00] released or songs that never made it onto albums, never made it onto grateful dead albums. And to me, that's pretty amazing too.
The number of songs in their repertoire that we all take for granted that never came out on vinyl. And so when they say they broke out, Bertha people might, Bertha, what the hell where's Bertha, where, how do I find this song? And yet they played it the next night and the night after that and kept playing it so that when a young Larry, Michigan saw his first dead show in 1982 at in California they came out the first night and opened with Bertha.
And so somehow it all just felt like, that should always be the first song that they play. And I don't know about you, but what I like about listening to these songs is the audience is cheering the audience. It doesn't take long to really get into them. They figure out right away.
These are great tunes. And Rob, you were listing off some of the first time ever plaids. Yeah. The the first night saw. I believe the first Bertha, the first greatest story, the first loser, the first play in the band, the first war frat. And then the next night saw the first bird song in the first deal. It's the first Wharf rat and it was sandwiched [00:11:00] in the dark star.
It was a dark star war, that dark star. It was a beautiful jams thrown in, the beautiful gem. And they cheer on war frat. Like they've never even, they've never even heard this song and it goes in there and everyone is just it's. From another planet. That thing has led me down so much, like Garcia, archeology of where these like weird, guitar.
Risks come from. And yeah, I they've never, they never heard that and just the audience is just cruising right along and so into it. Awesome. Later David Gans was interviewing Phil lash. I saw this recorded once and they were talking about it and Ganz played for him. The beautiful gym. Phil teared up and said, that was us at our peak.
That was us creating, magic that everybody bought into forever. And, there we were, and to go back and to hear it again, as, as an older person is very intense stuff. Yeah. That was amazing. That's a great jam. That alone is worth listening to that. I can't even imagine what they were thinking back then.
What I find so amazing about this is that [00:12:00] all seven songs, I don't think they were. I think they were just. Playing right. They just, they came out like it wasn't even psychedelic, it was rock and roll. It is all seven songs that they released never left the repertoire. Those aren't ones that, they shelf for a period of time and then brought back.
Those are seven songs that stayed as part of the staples, literally for the next 24 years, which is really rare. And especially when you're going to really solve them at the same time. And there's lots of other times in their history where they've released three or four songs in the beginning of the year.
And by the end of the year, they've already put two of them away. So to have seven that just stayed all the way through and became, proud favorites all the way through the rest of their career is really what made this run so special. What's even more amazing to me about it is that some of these songs were so raw.
That for instance, I point to greatest story and playing to me, those songs came of age on the Europe, 72 tour. They, I ha I happened to have the box set cause I'm stupid like that. And I spend my money on strange things, but I've listened to, to all of those shows and you listen to.
Greatest story from the very [00:13:00] first night of the tour to the very last night. And all of a sudden it's really developed into the greatest story that we knew today. And the same thing with playing in the band just completely evolved. And yet, almost a year before that tour here, they are trading them out for the first time of the greatest story is, they don't even quite have the lyrics exactly right yet.
And, they're just jamming on a very basic tune that still has to be filled out, but. For any of us, who've heard a rip and greatest story, in the mid 1980s, it's nice to know where it came from. And those seven songs ended up being scattered around different albums and solo work of Garcia's loser, I think is an Jerry Garcia solo as is a bird song.
What a great song. The greatest story is on ACE as is playing in the band. I believe, feel the, stripped down it's so stripped down to, without Mickey, like burnt, like they're all so beautiful, but it's like, Garcia's on alligator and it's really jangly guitar. There's [00:14:00] no. Yeah, it's really it feels very spare and just a beaut, mostly a beautiful results but play in particular feels very stripped down.
And then there's some bird songs that are alike and I love them just the way they are, but they're definitely like, not as full throated and filled out as they were in later. Look for me, my experience with that. And, I guess it just speaks to the age that I came of age with the dead was touch of gray.
I heard touch of gray for the first time on tour in 1982, and it didn't come out on an album until 1987. I remember the first time I heard them playing the studio cut on the radio and I was just dumbfounded. It was, it was like a completely different song almost. To just watch that song unfold over the years and to becoming ultimately, standard.
You really get the sense of how they would do that and really develop these songs on stage. But I agree with you, Jeremy, I love the early stripped down versions of them, because this is like the, this is the basis of the entire song. This is the germ of the whole thing.
Yeah. We would be remiss not to [00:15:00] mention smokestack lightening from the next night is just ripping like on the 19th. Is so good. And pig pen is just it's so full throated and so full bore and he's howling. And it's it's definitely my favorite smokestack lightening. Definitely one of my favorite tunes from the run too.
I think that's true. And I think that one of the things about this run it, this may also be, pig pens. Finest moment, right? Pig pen was an essential part of the psychedelic scene, but he was like a square peg in a round hole. He may do cause he could make do. And he knew how to wrapped her and love light and all that other stuff.
But these are pig pen kind of songs. These are, these are the kinds of songs that he could really get into and he could really do his thing on. And I agree with you smokestack lightening. Listen to you. I went back and listened to three from the vault the other night to get ready for this.
And I forgot that it was on there and, they get to that and it just rips like, yeah, I was lucky to hear the dead plate a few [00:16:00] times, but not like this.
So Jeremy, I want to shift the conversation over to what you're doing now in marketing, in the cannabis industry. Yeah, sure. I'd be happy to, although I could literally talk about this views all the time for so long. Like it's such a joy. I've been in marketing for a while. I've been more in like experience experiential marketing and creating experiences for people.
And a lot of that really comes from my background in creating experiences in some of those, some of those seeds were laid and some of the stuff that we're talking about right now and just the deep journeys of the mind, the body, the soul and then, our sort of formative years as we grew up with this type of stuff, and then all scattered across the far reaches of [00:17:00] the United States and the world to go and, get on the road, just just like we all wanted to do.
And, I ended up back in New York as a New York city public high school teacher. I was a science teacher literally in like tough New York city public school, still like maybe the coolest job that I ever had, all of it led to great experiences for me.
And, I entered into. Advertising from a digital perspective was always very involved in kind of digital innovation. I was, some of the things that I've done that I was most honored to do is work on New York city holiday windows. Like I did the first digital windows at Barney's it Bloomingdale's at Saks fifth Avenue, like really grand experiencial, big sort of cultural moments that would get, Tens of millions of people to look at them and get excited.
Whether you were lived in New York city or you were there from a another country, another continent and other state, or just nearby. And I've always, it's been tough for us in New York. I [00:18:00] have to be honest with you. You felt like a little bit on the outside of cannabis. You're like, there's this whole revolution going on in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, California, and all these other great States and and the East coast and largely a lot of new England, although it started to trickle into Maine and.
Massachusetts recently, it's been a little bit on the outside and every time you'd go out West and you'd see just the evolution and the sort of maturation of what. All of you guys and everybody is really doing with it. It's just so awesome. I've, for me, I've started to just think about what I could add to what I could add to the kind of building it and doing something great with it.
And for me, it's, creating great experiences and doing something special on a grand level and, always seen the opportunity with not everybody smokes. Weed anymore, but it, everybody usually has a experience that's powered some sort of like amazing experience that they have had, either with music or [00:19:00] friends or the outdoors, or some sort of creative venture where it's been a spark for them.
And that's been a durable thing. That's it's always been going on from the forties, fifties. Who knows how long before that, but it's powered everything from. Jazz to rock and roll writers, dancers, musicians, all different kinds of creative forces of it's been a friend and an ally.
And so I'm bringing something that'll be really quite special in the experiencial realm that I think will really You don't get a lot of different people excited. It's, not just for the straight geeks, it's not just for the like, insider growers, although I have a lot of respect and it was, I was there many years ago as well, but this is for this is for the masses.
I prefer not to think of it as it's not for everybody, but it will be inspired by, cannabis inspired where the colors are brighter and the notes are sweeter. You guys will have to wait to see the industry going in terms of national brands [00:20:00] and brand loyalty. Right now it's very diverse.
There's no interstate traffic, everything, all the States are silos. So they have their own, best of and favorites in each state, but nothing national. What do you see the future in, in marketing with cannabis? Oh man, that's such a, it's such a interesting question. I've looked so much, like I love great experiences, right?
How people experience a brand and an exp experience. In that is not just what it's what you feel, especially with something like this, where you really are having an experience with the. That's really fairly intimate. Because of this single state operation brands are being built in these kind of silos, if you will.
And it also means that kind of their infrastructure and the retail infrastructure is being contained and in these small little nooks. So it's interesting to see how how they're tackling how they're tackling becoming larger multi-state brands and because [00:21:00] retail and advertising and marketing is limited right now, it's it's like growing a tree and the tree is all, is being trained in certain directions. These brands are growing in very limited directions because they're only begin being given sunlight in certain places. It's really very. Interesting to see, but I do see obviously like national interest in, there is such a desire out there, but the brands are really at their infancy right now.
There's very few brands that I see as like real mature brands. We've obviously The brands that I've worked with especially like a Nike that was just such a great brand to work with was so mindful of every facet of their brand. It wasn't a name. It was how it was talked about each image, each emotion, each feeling each behavior was reallylooked at.
To really mature these brands really starting to think about all the different. Facets of the direct to consumer brand is there's [00:22:00] still so much open space out there. And this is just such an emotional area. Like it's a beautiful plant, and what it's brought to the world and what it's brought to all of us.
So there's so much like ripe. Territory to build great brands out there and you can see them growing. I just hope that they're given more sunlight in terms of, advertising in terms of retail. So they're not as limited. Yes. I often wonder what the industry will look like in 2030s, which is only nine, nine years away.
And No, here's, what's interesting about the product and the plant is it's new, it's in its infancy, but it's been around for thousands of years at the same time. So it's a very interesting place that we're in here in the cannabis industry right now, as a, I think we'll see movements to legalize it nationally or decriminalize it nationally.
So upcoming episodes of the deadhead cannabis show will not be boring. I'm sure not Jeremy. I, what really sticks out for me is that I've [00:23:00] long argued that. Ultimately the success of cannabis as an industry is going to fall on the shoulders of guys like you. And it's all a matter ultimately of, what I call normalizing.
And although we have legal cannabis in a lot of places, it's still really not normalized anywhere yet. Maybe in Colorado, it is maybe in Northern California, it is, but in most other places, and I can certainly say here in Illinois, It's far from normalized and that creates real problems for people.
And if we're going to have a product that's going to come on the market and we're going to tell people it's legal and it's okay to use this. We ha we as a society have to move past this idea of still. Judging people and shaming people for choosing to use a product that has, for most people, they still think of it in terms of reefer madness, and even though maybe they laugh it off, they don't laugh all of it off.
And they still have that floating out there. It's guys like you, that, that, that change the public perception of a product. And I think it's great that a guy Who has the background. You have both in the industry and, the frame of reference [00:24:00] from the grateful dead and things like that.
That's a great start. It's education, Larry, that's, I always count my like years being a teacher and a guide as being like my most formative of them. What, you always hit your head against the wall and you're like, why don't people see you? And I remember the first time I walked into a dispensary in Colorado.
And, it was a moment. And I was like, I remember going back and having that minute in my head and being like, you told yourself, like this is, this is only added great things to. Everybody's live. So I hope I get, I hope I can bring, my brand of warm IX, warmth and experiential and education to whatever I do in the arena.
There was an article that came out in the last week or so by Eric Spitz was the fellow's name. And he said something in that article that I've known instinctively for a long time and occasionally have voiced it, but he finally came out and said, people love marijuana. They like alcohol, they [00:25:00] like nicotine and they also like marijuana and that's talk about marketing to be able to come out and say, Hey, this is not a drug or a reefer man.
It's this is a product that people love and enjoy. Jeremy, you also said something there that really resonated with me too. And yeah. For Jim, it's probably old hat, the first time I went to Colorado and walked into a dispensary, and for guys, who've grown up smoking weed, but always, looking around and making sure nobody's paying attention and lining up your sources where you can get it from it.
I can park here and just walk right in and here's everything I can buy in. As long as I got cash, I'm good to go. it was really a pinch me moment. I took a lot of pictures and I'll, no matter how many times I go into a dispensary, I will never forget the feeling of walking in that first time.
And it was like, like you say, I was right here. It is, it works. I knew this could work. Why did everybody doubt it for so long? And it's pretty amazing. It's a great experience. Yeah, that stuff is still having worked in, brands and retail for so long, [00:26:00] like it's, everybody that works at those stores, all these bud tenders, like they love it.
They love it. And they love talking about it. And you can't bought it's so impossible to get those people like Nike, Mike at those people, but you're not getting those people. The, a lot there it's, everybody loves it and you can feel it. And, it's a beautiful thing. Like it real, it really is.
So it's, it's exciting to see. Hey, so Jeremy, before we jump back in and talk a bit more about the industry now that you're back in New York and back in Westchester, you going by the cap anymore these days, have you seen any of the shows since Pete Shapiro took over the venue? Have you done anything?
At the side venue Garcia's yeah. Yeah. I've seen a ton. I go, I just moved out, before all this lockdown hit, I was living in Brooklyn for for a long time. But I was, I was at the bowl and then the cap. And then I was and then when I had moved up to up to Westchester obviously was super excited to be able to go to the camp.
So I've seen [00:27:00] a ton of stuff there ranging from J rad to Trey, to, all different kinds of, all different kinds of shows over there. And it's just, this it's just a specialist always. It's Oh, it's like a little bubble. In there you walk in and the floor has got the perfect tilt.
The bars are in the perfect place. The lobby is like, got this great sort of, you're right in it, when you walk in there and Garcia is you walk in it's right to your right, like a beers in your hand, there's music playing. And then it's all, it's pretty wild to just having had that be, or clubhouse, when you were younger and then being, seeing what Shapiro is really done with it is, Holy crap, but he's just done for all of us as I feel. Lucky. When Tom Brady won the super bowl the other day, I was like, it's never been cooler to be like an older guy, but to be able to walk into the cap and have Shapiro bring back like this for all of us older guys and bring it back to these younger generations, [00:28:00] I'm like, man, like goal, golden age, for sure.
For all of us, All around the U S with and he was really the I do feel like he was really the impetus, like the spark for bringing this scene back and understanding, what everyone wanted. Not him solo, but just at least to bring the cap back and obviously. Got Bobby on stage, got Trey on stage.
That's just that the 50th anniversary shows, all that stuff that he did. He's really he stepped in and, almost bill Graham esque and the way he's, promoted the band and, taken over control of the venues and all of that. And. Seems to be, at least to me that, he's got the right thing going.
If nothing else, the cap was at the forefront of the COVID violation. Cause it wasn't, Phil's planned 80th birthday shows one of the first events that was canceled. When they were going through it all. And they said, nah, we can't bring him out on stage with all this going on. So yeah.
There's relevant as ever, and that's great to see. Yeah. I'm glad the the flame is still kept alive there. Yeah. Like it's why, I brought my kids there. A little while ago and brought them to the firehouse and the [00:29:00] firehouse got steely, or, the firetrucks, all of steal your faces on them.
There's all the firemen have got, still seal your faces, like the entire town. It's wild. This is like a, it's a I love port Chester, it's called PodShow, but it's a little bit of a dirty, like awesome gritty New York kind of town, but it fully embraces there's steal your faces in the window of the, local, Peruvian eatery, like there, it's all in and embraces us all as a community.
Like all those other. Just great little epicenters around the country and probably around the world that, have been have had the good graces of the, these guys blow into town and leave whatever magic they do, so easily distinguishable from a Passaic New Jersey and it's Capitol theater.
Huh? I think so. Although Garcia band played some ripping show, is there. They did. And I will confess, it took me a while as a young deadhead [00:30:00] to figure out which was, which I just heard the Capitol theater and but know that's true. And that's just great, in St. Louis, we have the Fox theater, which is still around in the late sixties, early seventies.
That was a a favorite place for the dead to come and play long. Extended runs. And I've been in there. In fact, I saw fish in there a few years ago, which was nice, cause I was supposed to see the dead in 86, Jerry stroked out to shows were canceled and we all went home, but and even here in Chicago, we have, the Chicago theater, the auditorium theater, which are just beautiful, wonderful places to see shows.
And now we saw widespread do a bunch of shows at the auditorium theater and Warren loves to come in and play at the Chicago theater. And you see these guys and it's great fun and it's great music and it does. It's just, You just sit there and wonder boy, what would it have been like, to see the boys in their peak, coming into one of these small little theaters and just blowing the doors off.
Yeah. And I think we forget that the Porchester capital theater has also opened those runs with the new riders. So it wasn't just the dead. It was 600, the new riders of the purple Sage. And they did the ESP experiments during that run as well. W what was his name? Kinzer Krippner right. He wanted the guy in England to be able to pick up on the [00:31:00] brainwaves of the people or something like that.
I think they did it on the third night and they held up different signs and said, Hey, everyone concentrate really hard. And we'll see if we can't get this guy. Who's another English guy who was sitting in Brooklyn at the time. To feel what it is that we're sending them. So apparently the experiment failed because everyone was too high to start with.
It makes the brainwaves, it wasn't a successful experiment, but I know that when I was seeing the cap, as a teenager, Jeremy probably remembers this. They used to do all sorts of different light shows inside the place too, and put up like really weird fractals with like bubbles and oils and stuff.
So it would be cast all over the the theater curtains and all over the the roof of that place. It was a perfect rounded roof of the huge fresco on the top of it. So if you were in there on the right night, things got really strange, really fast with some of the light shows that we're doing with just experimental stuff.
It has been a great conversation and Jeremy, thanks so much. I think we're coming to the end of our time slot. In fact, we might've even gone a little longer. This show, but I'm well worth it. What do we have coming up in the future? What are our next couple of weeks? Look oh, wow. Great question.
Next week we're hopefully being joined by Vince wellness last manager after the [00:32:00] grateful dead broke up in 1995, Vince went out and started playing solo and Greg corner who's another Westchester guy was his manager. So I think we're going to discuss the music with the grateful dead during the Vince era and the influence that Vince had on the band, I think is what we're doing for next week with a person that's absolutely in a position to to tell stories about it.
And, his experience of working directly with Vince. And then I think the week after that, we're looking at Mardi Gras doing a show about, all the different things that have happened, for Mardi Gras and for Chinese new years. And I think we're going to talk about some of the best ones, like three 30, three, three 87, when the dirty dozen sat in and played ICO with the band.
So we've got some fun shows coming up the next few weeks. I will have to still do a quick shout out next week to the Fillmore West show, since we will be popping up on that anniversary as well, which will be fun. And Jim, good news, my friend, and maybe you can confirm this for me. I have heard that Jay rad is planning shows at red rocks on June 4th of this year.
And I've heard that fish might be playing Dix again in September. I think they announced it. [00:33:00] Did they? That would be great. I won't be able to go cause it's my son's getting married on labor day weekend. Just like he was supposed to be getting married last year. Jeremy, you've got to come out for those shows.
I hope you can come out for the fish shows. Oh man, I love red rocks, but can I propose a deadhead cannabis live experience show for Jay red on June 4th? Sure. You bet. Rob. Totally for it. We can do it from the parking lot at red rocks. Love it. And before we sign up today, we should probably at least give a shout out to the boys over at Verano and say, congratulations on a very successful IPO today.
It's always great for the industry. When you see a company that has been plugging away at it for the last, eight or nine years, make a public offering and by all counts or the release today was really successful. So best of luck to that team and get another Illinois company making good in the industry and, really making it happen.
And Rob, not to put you on the spot, but you know what the market cap was today. I do not know what the market cap ended up at. It wasn't it wasn't published because it was such a new issue. So we probably won't [00:34:00] know until tomorrow I can pull it up right now and see if I can see it. Yeah, it's still listed as a, as not available, but it closed up closed up about four or $5 above the the opening price today.
That means there's definitely demand. It means that's just another public cannabis company that is being well-recognized by the market. And, I expected to see a trade, 14 to 20 times earnings or 14 and 20 times rev. Almost out of the gate and I'll tell you, this Verano is a, they're very popular in Illinois.
They're probably the most popular cultivator here. They've come up with some very good strains. They do a good job. I know Sam door. She's a great guy. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. He's been involved in the industry for a long time, with a lot of people and very excited to see Verano take off and see where it's going.
Yes. And to close it out. I am actually sitting in a publicly traded company in Denver, Colorado. General cannabis, one of our clients that I'm visiting today, and they were kind enough to let me use this office for the deadhead cannabis show. Okay. And one other thing that I'd like to. Thrill out here.
And it occurred to me for one reason, but while I was [00:35:00] thinking about it, it came to me for another reason. And maybe each week towards the end of the show, we can wrap things up with a a quote of the week, jerry was a walking quote book. Bobby was a walking quote book. My favorite Bobby quote of all time was when somebody asked him to prove he's a deadhead without saying anything about the grateful dead.
And his response was I've been to every show. You get that kind of response from those guys and, they're fun. That was last week on Twitter. However, today I just do want to take very quick note that earlier today we received news that rush Limbaugh passed away. I was never a big rush Limbaugh fan, but nobody celebrates it, the death of anyone.
And so obviously condolences to his family and all of that. However in the midst of all of the rush Limbaugh honorariums that were going around and all the wonderful memories of him. And I will confess I typically did not agree with his point of view. One of his old quotes came out to light, which I thought was very revealing and really speaks to, unfortunately, the type of person I thought rush was in 1995, when Jerry Garcia died, Russia's quote at the time was.
[00:36:00] Jerry was just another dead dope dealer and a dirt bag. So with that in mind I think it's time to to move on and hope that the people of this world are a little bit kinder to rush in their memories of him than he was to a guy who inspired millions and millions of people in a way that Russia could only dream of being able to do.
You were here. Kevin said that. Great show guys. Jeremy, thank you so much, man. This was a great conversation and you always know it's a good show. A when we run a little bit long and be a win at the end of the show, I still feel like I have 20 minutes of stuff about the cap theater I could be. I could be sitting here talking to you guys about, the conversation, could just go on forever.
And that's how you know, when it's good dead talk. It's great spot. I cannot wait for live music to start happening again. Just surf. So to all of our fans out there and people who enjoy this show we've given you plenty of ideas to go out and listen to and find online and listen to these shows that we've been talking [00:37:00] about and enjoy them all very much.
Thank you guys. Again, our guest today was Jeremy Bergstein. Jeremy. Thank you so much. Thinking to my co-host Jim Marty, Rob quick, shout out to you. And we will look forward to diving into all of these great dead things you've got planned for us next week. Thank you for getting Jeremy on the show and giving us a little taste of home cook in there.
That's always nice to be able to hear. And to all of our listeners thank you for listening as always. We'll look forward to having you around next week and enjoy your cannabis responsibly. .