When Phish took over Madison Square Garden for 13 shows over a 17 night stretch, the area surrounding the famous Manhattan arena morphed into quite the interesting scene. The usual fray of Penn Station, one of the biggest commuter hubs in one of the biggest commuter cities in the world, mixed with the everyday buzz of midtown Manhattan, mixed with the already-lively atmosphere and ocean of fingers you’ll see in any “Phish lot” was a sight to behold, making passers-by understandably curious.

Freak Out To Phish’s Cover Of Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” From Baker’s Dozen Night 1 [Video]

If you were there at any point throughout the Baker’s Dozen, chances are someone came up to you with questions. “What are all these people doing camping out on 8th Avenue?” “What do all the little red circles on everything mean?” “Why does everyone have their finger in the air?” (note: my favorite response to that last one was “We’re doing a flash mob…”). Outsiders were fascinated by the circus, and many people from all walks of life dove into the subject like anthropologists, from local news reports to GQ Phish style galleries.

Donut Sampler: Relive Phish’s Baker’s Dozen By Rewatching These Free Pro-Shot Videos

Metal blog Metalsucks.net sent a reporter–the fantastically named Bloodbath McGrath–to the final show of the run to interview fans, feel out the party, and mainly ask the question, “Is there anybody here who knows anything about heavy metal? Or do they all just think that metal sucks?” You get the feeling that Bloodbath (which, we assume, is his given Christian name) expected to find a docile pack of happy hippies–the antithesis of everything heavy metal. But what he found was a bunch of funny, colorful, clever, and mischievously fun people with wide-ranging music tastes. Needless to say, Bloodbath McGrath left impressed with how Phish fans get down. Check out the full video below:

[h/t – MetalSucks.net]