Disclaimer: I apologize in advance for run on sentences, grammatical errors and extreme opinions. The following subject has had me in a place of exacerbated emotional anxiety for the last 36 hours. I hope that through expressing the following thoughts and sharing ideas toward a more enlightened paradigm, we can all come to a place of understanding ourselves and our loved ones and peers more completely and unconditionally.
Despite an expressed history and love for music and the scenes that it creates, as well as the long held belief that music is the only religion I could ever be forced to choose, I am entrenched in an emotional storm that contains an air of responsibility and a sense of shame. As I enjoyed houseguests Sunday evening, it was assumed I had already gotten word of the travesty of drugs and live music that converged at Thomas Wolfe this past Saturday night. I was told 9 young men and women were taken to the hospital from ketamine related overdoses and that 2 were in what western medicine calls "critical condition". The fact that Jeffrey was the first person to ever guide my eldest son on hand drums some 17 years ago, in a home I was blessed to inhabit with he, Colby Miller, Tate Erickson and Forrest Smith for my re entry to Asheville after my divorce, creates an added confusion about histories and trajectories. A goddess called Kara was my futon neighbor, and if memory serves, Colby was also a surfer that summer. As a sidenote, Colby went on to manage STS9 during their subsequent "rise to fame" aka paper ticketed shows in high end venues. We were all blessed by the goodness of our friends and embarking on a shared journey that is the village so many enjoy. The village where, this past Saturday night, ACEntertainment, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium and Sound Tribe Sector 9 made a profit off of a party where humans fell prey.
There has been much discussion on local social media political groups about the right to place blame on an overtaxed police chief who has a short staffed police force working overtime for tax dollars. I am of the opinion a lack of cops was not the problem. I would like responsibility to be placed on the drug dealer who sold dirty merchandise, first and foremost. Whether this person was ultimately found and convicted is not known to me, but I am willing to bet the victims can work together to trace details back to a guilty party. Whether "proper" civil servants deliver "proper" paperwork and follow "proper" channels or the hippie mafia ties them to a phallic symbol in the center of town and throw rotten tomatoes and eggs at him for a week, while he alternately burns up and freezes in our gorgeous rainbow of weather, I care not. My point is that accountability is due and the police chief is hardly the problem. Nor is the venue or the promoter's desire, or lack of desire, to pay an abundance of security or surround the place with overworked law enforcement. That said, it seems relevant to mention that several arrests were made for misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession. While 9 people were being taken to the hospital for pharmaceutical overdoses, the dozen cops on the premises made time to hassle and ticket patrons for possession of a joint. A joint?! If you are not in the know, this is a miniscule amount of herbal medicine known to relieve anxiety aka social lubricant aka sensory enhancement plant. It was also stated, by reputable media sources at Asheville Free Media, that the patrons charged had long hair in the style of dreadlocks. Really Asheville Police Dept?? We aren't past these stereotypes yet? To me, this is worthy of an equal amount of shame as is due the dirty drug dealer.
Regarding prevention, which is what this worstcase scenario should inspire, I am of the opinion that law enforcement might be great for stampedes and crowd control at entryways and emergency exits, in case of fire or natural disaster, but that they have no place in the realm of free spirited individuals enjoying live music. What has been implemented as early as the 1960s by large rock venues and artists, such as the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, is an employed faction of medical professionals supported by a volunteer force qualified to assist in emergency situations around exhaustion, dehydration, crowd induced anxiety and experimental drug usage. I have personally worked on medical teams, based on state licensure as a bodyworker and healer, for over 15 years. I was a member of a safety team at Harmonic Convergence, a festival at local venue Deerfields where STS9 performed, in 2002. I was hired by Colby Miller to assist with patrons who were struggling with the aforementioned issues on an around the clock basis. We had enough members on our team that at no point in that 3 day event was there not a team of designated, sober professionals available to assist in the presentation of mental distress. This precaution was made to protect the patrons, the venue and the reputation of the artists, who included local legends GFE and Strut.
Personally, as a performing artist, I believe that there comes with notoriety an expected level of responsibility to your fan base. I believe this on a spiritual level, as well as on the premise of physical connectivity and appreciation for those that financially support your vision and the implementation of it. I believe bands like the Grateful Dead and Queen set precedence by creating an environment where people could freely experiment, with the knowledge that the artists they were inspired by actually cared about their safety and the authenticity of their experience. They showed this by implementing teams throughout their scene that provided support for the variety of alternative lifestyles that their music attracted. In the example of the Dead, they founded protection for the newly sober through the Wharf Rats, who provided 12 step support at their events. They also had educated factions of their entourage who served as walkabouts, serving those actively participating in experimentation with hallucinogens and alcohol. Queen made no secrets at their live shows of their sexuality and the prolific education of their fan base around protected sex and other safety rules that kept sexual experimentation healthier than it might otherwise have been. While these designs were in their earliest stages in the 1970s, they set a protocol for protecting one's circle, regardless of how large and infinite your circle becomes.
Using this weekend's local example at Thomas Wolfe, I would like to address the fact that STS9 is a group of grown men who have worked very hard for decades creating music that is sonically designed to heal and create growth without the use of external substances. I have used their recordings for literally hundreds of healing sessions in my decades as a bodyworker and Reiki Master. They are a picture or health and welness who I am sure would have stopped the show themselves and assisted in aiding their fanbase, had they had any awareness of what was happening just beyond their feet. The Asheville Police Department stopped the show and, according to local news sources, gave the artists no immediate explanation of why. If the lights could have been turned on, educational announcements been made, I am confident that their fan base could have come together in a process of healing and transition that would have allowed the show to go on after an interim of communication, acceptance and understanding. This leads the next level of accountability on the local law enforcement that jumped the gun, pun intended, and without explanation. It is also my understanding that they promoted a false media blitz about having glass bottles thrown at them. It is my further understanding that glass bottles are neither sold at the venue, nor allowed into the venue. This blatant discrepancy and misrepresentation of the truth is both abhorrent and unacceptable.
Finally, in the face of obviously demanded precautionary measures, this tale deserves addressing in future fashion by the entity who is responsible for putting an event together. As a promoter, I believe in providing staff who are prepared to provide not only educational information about the recreational opportunities that might prevent themselves, but also to deal with any mental or physical situations that might arise due to either crowd manipulation or emotional triggers caught unaware by maximum levels of phenomenally enlightening music, as well as the myriad of human challenges in between. One of the miraculous things about the power of music and the science of sound, is that there is an unknown factor that implements it's influence. Some call it musical magic, some call it emotional freedom, some call it God. In this example, we look to Ashley Capps. Ashley has been a form of mental mentor to me for almost 15 years. I first worked for him at VanHoy Farms and went on to work for him at Bonnaroo, the Orange Peel and Deerfields. One of many events was Mountain Oasis, a prime example of another worstcase scenario where the presence of drugs outweighed the staff's ability to create a safe and nurturing environment. I am of the opinion that part of natural protocol utilized at large scale festivals can also be applied to one off events at indoor venues. Just because participants are in an enclosed, and seemingly safe space, we have come to a transition in our culture where predators are dominating the game. What we don't need is more undercover cops. What we do need is medical professionals and their support staff in bright colors, available for providing a safe and nurturing environment that fosters healthy experimentation and spiritual growth. Music is church for many of us and in the new paradigm of humanity, more of you will come to understand the architecture that sound provides and the utopian element that music can orchestrate. In the same way that the music industry at large places subversive controlling tones in pop music, artists like STS9 utilize the same science to create audioscapes that contradict mass media control and instead provide a soundtrack that promotes growth and healing. Mind what you listen to, as it is the architecture of your mind.
Regarding the far reaching influence of ACEntertainment, who are the seed source of much of our local music here in Asheville, as well as the primary influence of local music in Knoxville, TN and a great many musical hubs in the southeast, I would love to see the addition of existing safety teams and medical staff to smaller venues, that they already incorporate in their larger scale events. I would also like to see artists stepping up and playing an integral role in taking responsibility for the scene that they create. No phishin. Musical acts that create a scene rampant with drug use, egoic condescension and pedophilia have no place in a healthy culture.
Right here in Asheville we have a company called FLOW: Functions Logistics Operations Works. They provide Safety In Sound through medical and security personnel staffing, as well as waste management services, production equipment and support, gear and equipment rentals, catering and more. With the combined experience of a staff who all have decades of individual experience, as well as personnel who are medical professionals, FLOW Event Services is reliable and wonderful to work with on a professional and personal level. If you are a promoter or artist in our region, I encourage you to learn more about FLOW at www.floweventservices.com and consider hiring them to support your events. Especially if you know you have a fan base that likes to experiment with external chemical influences. There is no reason for us to stimulate already existing tensions between law enforcement and regular humans, already horrifically escalated by the soon to be defunct massively over funded federal government's "war on drugs", which we all recognize as a financially motivated war on human beings. It is time for us to destroy the paradigm that supports a privatized prison system, the black market primarily fueled by dirty legislators and dirty law enforcement and the death toll that continues to escalate as we sit idly and wonder what will happen next. It is time to speak out and to take a stand. While you yourself may not participate in experimentation, nor see the medicinal value of external chemical sources like cannabis, psilocybin or ayahuasca, it is a fact that you know and care for someone who does. It is our human responsibility to create a safe space for humanity to prosper and evolve. Otherwise, we are allowing our species to reach extinction prematurely.
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Namaste. Let the music play.
