May 11, 2018

1966 Show List


There is currently no single, accurate page online where all the Grateful Dead shows and tapes from 1966 are listed. Setlist sources like deadlists and deadbase are considerably out of date, and recent tape and date discoveries are scattered across several sites, so I thought it would be useful to provide a simple complete show list for the year.

About 110 Dead shows are known from 1966, though there were certainly more forgotten shows played. We have recordings, mostly partial, from 21 shows (19% of the shows played, but in many cases only one surviving reel or a few songs per show) -- a smattering from winter/spring, a cluster in July and a few in November/December, and nothing at all from August through October.
Many of Owsley’s home recordings of the Dead’s rehearsals have surfaced, and are included along with the few film fragments that exist from the year. All the known songs played are listed.
Some of the many previous dating errors are noted, but it should be stressed that most 1966 tapes in the Vault have either the wrong dates or no dates on the labels, so a lot of the placements here are conjectural.

Other bands that played with the Dead are listed on their own page:
http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-shared-stage-1965-1975.html


1966

1/1/66 Beaver Hall, Portland, OR (Sat.)
Acid Test. The date is uncertain (it could have been Christmas 1965).

1/4/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Tues.)
1/5/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Wed.)
1/7/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Fri.)
SETLIST:
Mindbender
On the Road Again
She Belongs to Me
I'll Go Crazy
Can't Come Down
Death Don't Have No Mercy
Parchman Farm
Midnight Hour
The Only Time Is Now
Early Morning Rain
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

1/8/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)
Acid Test.
RECORDING:
I’m A King Bee
Hog For You Baby
Caution>
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
(The Lestatkatt file contains multiple mixes from the Prankster recordings, as well as a fragmentary Tastebud from an unknown show.)
FILM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t5bb_qRAKA (footage from several Acid Tests including 3/19, but the color King Bee appears to be from this show)

1/13/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Thu.)
SONGS: “All of My Love,” Hog For You Baby

1/14/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
Mime Troupe Benefit.

1/15/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Sat.)
1/16/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Sun.)

1/22/66 Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco (Sat.)
SONG: Midnight Hour
1/23/66 Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco (Sun.)
Trips Festival. (It’s uncertain whether the Dead actually played on the 23rd, since Garcia’s guitar broke.)

1/66 Bear’s house, Berkeley
HOME RECORDING:
Viola Lee Blues (many takes)
Cardboard Cowboy
(Recorded the week before moving to Los Angeles.)

1/66 Bear’s house, Berkeley
HOME RECORDING:
Wandering Man

1/28/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Fri.)
RECORDING:
I
/You Don’t Have To Ask
II
Viola Lee Blues
I Know You Rider
Midnight Hour (plug pulled)
(Reel labeled “Pauley Ballroom #2,” date deduced from stage talk.)

1/29/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Sat.)
1/29/66 Sound City Studios, San Francisco – Members of the Dead were present at a Merry Pranksters recording session that night, apparently after playing at the Matrix, but this was not an Acid Test or a Dead performance. Garcia, asked to sing, protests that his voice is shot.

2/6/66 Northridge Unitarian Church, Los Angeles (Sun.)
Acid Test. (A newspaper report confirms that it took place on the 6th.) 
REVIEW: http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2017/06/february-6-1966-acid-test-unitarian.html 

RECORDING:
/Tastebud
Mindbender
One Kind Favor
Beat It On Down the Line
The Only Time Is Now/
Though the reel is dated “2/6,” I don’t believe it actually comes from an Acid Test, but from a nearby show. (Bear, who recorded it, also said he did not attend this Acid Test.)
Weir, on the 1/28 tape, starts to announce an event happening in Los Angeles on Saturday the 5th, but is cut off. Lesh, in a rehearsal, also mentions playing in LA “Saturday night.” It’s unknown whether they thought this Acid Test would be on Saturday as usual, or if they had another show planned that day.

2/12/66 Youth Opportunities Center, Compton (Sat.)
Acid Test.
RECORDING:
“Who Cares” rap
“New Orleans” vamp*
Twist & Shout*
(* - with harmonica player)
https://archive.org/details/gd1966-06-01.136658.sbd.sirmick.flac1648 (bass & drum puttering, band discussion – reel labeled “Acid Test #3,” probably from this evening)

2/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles
HOME RECORDING:
Hi Heel Sneakers
Viola Lee Blues

2/23/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles
HOME RECORDING:
It’s a Sin jam>La Bamba jam>It’s A Sin jam (instrumental – titles conjectural)

2/25/66 Empire Studios, Los Angeles (Fri.)
Acid Test. Moved from the Cinema Theater.
The tape labeled “2/25/66 Ivar Theater” was misdated – no actual Dead show at the Ivar Theater is known.
The Free Press newspaper ad for this Acid Test also states, “Saturday night too, but elsewhere,” so there may have been another event on the 26th.

2 or 3/66 Unknown location
RECORDING:
Big Railroad Blues
Sick and Tired
Empty Heart
(Released on “Rare Cuts & Oddities.” This show is a total mystery, unless more of it comes out of the Vault. A bandmember calls for “Otis” (You Don’t Have To Ask) after Sick and Tired, but it sounds like these three songs are consecutive.)

2 or 3/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles
HOME RECORDING:
Walkin' The Dog*
Big Boss Man
Beat It On Down the Line
It's All Over Now Baby Blue
You See a Broken Heart*
One Kind Favor
Promised Land*
(Available on “San Franciscan Nights vol. 2” collection. * - released on “Rare Cuts & Oddities.”)

2 or 3/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles
HOME RECORDING:
Space (labeled “tuning”)
Blues Jam

2 or 3/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles
HOME RECORDING:
Not Fade Away
(Released on “Rare Cuts & Oddities.”)

3/2/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles
HOME RECORDING:
Betty and Dupree
Stealin’
(Released on “Rare Cuts & Oddities.”)

3/3/66 AIAA Hall, Los Angeles (Thu.)
With the film “Psychedelic Experience.”

3/9/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles
HOME RECORDING:
Unknown Pigpen song
Who Do You Love
Jam

3/10/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles
HOME RECORDING:
Sittin’ on Top of the World (several takes)
https://archive.org/details/gd1966-03-10.136655.sbd.sirmick.flac16

3/66 Bear's house, Los Angeles 
SONGS: I Know You Rider, You Don't Have To Ask   
(Scully played these demos for an LA Free Press reporter on a March 19 visit, saying they would be released as a single.)

3/12/66 Danish Center, Los Angeles (Sat.)
RECORDING:
I
/Viola Lee Blues
/One Kind Favor
I Know You Rider
You See A Broken Heart
It's A Sin/
Beat It On Down The Line
Heads Up
Next Time You See Me
II
Slow R & B Instrumental
/Death Don't Have No Mercy
Midnight Hour/
http://www.archive.org/details/gd66-03-19.sbd.scotton.81951.sbeok.flac
(Often dated "3/19/66," but there's no evidence this is from an Acid Test.)  

3/19/66 Carthay Studios, Los Angeles (Sat.)
Acid Test. Moved from the Grand Ballroom, UCLA.

3/25/66 Trouper’s Club, Los Angeles (Fri.)
RECORDING:
I
/Stealin'
Instrumental
Hey Little One
Hog For You Baby
You Don't Have To Ask
II
Cold Rain And Snow
Next Time You See Me/
http://www.archive.org/details/gd66-03-25.sbd.unknown.38.sbeok.shnf

4/6-9/66 Unknown (Wed.-Sat.)
Phil Lesh starts to announce something happening on these dates on the 3/25 tape, but it cuts off. The assumption is Phil was announcing upcoming shows, but they’re unknown and most likely weren’t played.

4/66 Bear’s house, Los Angeles?
HOME RECORDING:
Good Lovin’
Standing on the Corner
Cream Puff War
(Released on “Rare Cuts & Oddities.” Due these songs' ties to the 5/19/66 show, I think this was recorded near the end of their Los Angeles stay. No home demos after the move to Olompali are known.)

4/22/66 Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco (Fri.)
SONG: Midnight Hour
4/23/66 Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco (Sat.)
4/24/66 Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco (Sun.)
Trips Festival.

RECORDINGS:
/It’s A Sin
Viola Lee Blues
Midnight Hour
Beat It On Down the Line
Blues Jam w/ Jorma & Jack/

Beat It On Down the Line
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl>
You Don’t Love Me>
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
(Though respectively labeled “Longshoreman’s Hall 3rd Night” & “1st Night,” it’s possible that neither of these tapes are actually from the Trips Festival. The “3rd Night” tape is the earlier show, in any case, since the “1st Night” BIODTL is considerably rearranged.)

5/7/66 Harmon Gym, U of California, Berkeley (Sat.)
SONG: Midnight Hour

5/14/66 Veterans Memorial Hall, Berkeley (Sat.)

5/19/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Thu.)
Straight Theater benefit.
RECORDING:
I
/Beat It On Down The Line
Standing On The Corner
Mindbender
It Hurts Me Too
Viola Lee Blues
I Know You Rider
It's A Sin
Sick And Tired
Cream Puff War/
II
Sittin' On Top Of The World
New Minglewood Blues
Cold Rain And Snow
Tastebud
Silver Threads and Golden Needles
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Good Lovin'
You Don't Have To Ask/
(The Vault reels of this show are labeled “2/23/66” and “3/12/66.”)

5/22/66 Rancho Olompali, Novato (Sun.)
Party/jam session.

5/28/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)

5/29/66 California Hall, San Francisco (Sun.)
LEMAR benefit.
SONG: Dancing in the Street.

5 or 6/66 Unknown location
RECORDING:
On The Road Again
Next Time You See Me
I Know You Rider
Hey Little One*
Cold Rain And Snow
I’m A King Bee* >
Caution*
Stealin'/
http://www.archive.org/details/gd66-02-25.sbd.unknown.1593.sbefail.shnf (tracks 1-8; the track 9 Stealin' is from 7/17)  
(Commonly misdated “2/25/66,” and labeled as “3/12/66” in the Vault, it’s actually from the spring. * - released on “Rare Cuts & Oddities.”)

6/66 Buena Vista Studio, San Francisco
STUDIO RECORDINGS:
Stealin’
Don’t Ease Me In
Tastebud
Cardboard Cowboy
Cold Rain And Snow
You Don’t Have To Ask
I Know You Rider
(Some takes released on “Birth of the Dead.”)

6/66 Pauley Ballroom, U of California, Berkeley
One of the Dead’s 1966 reels was (mis)labeled “Pauley Ballroom #2,” confirming Deadbase’s entry of an unknown show there.

6/3/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
6/4/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)

6/7/66 Stockton Ballroom, Stockton (Tue.)
6/8/66 Stockton Ballroom, Stockton (Wed.)
6/9/66 Stockton Ballroom, Stockton (Thu.)
A poster exists and the promoter recalls the shows, but the dates seem implausible and have been questioned – weeknight runs in 1966 were extremely rare.

6/10/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Fri.)
6/11/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)

6/12/66 LSD conference party, mansion, somewhere in Marin County (Sun.)

6/17/66 Veterans Hall, San Jose (Fri.)
6/18/66 Veterans Hall, San Jose (Sat.)

7/3/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sun.)
RECORDING:
I
/Nobody's Fault But Mine
Dancing In The Street
I Know You Rider/
/He Was A Friend Of Mine
Next Time You See Me
Viola Lee Blues
Big Boss Man
Sittin' On Top Of The World/
/Keep Rolling By
II
New Minglewood Blues
Cold Rain And Snow
Tastebud
Beat It On Down The Line
Cream Puff War
Don't Mess Up A Good Thing*
Cardboard Cowboy
Gangster Of Love*
You Don't Have To Ask
Midnight Hour  
(Full show released on “30 Trips.” * - released on “Rare Cuts.”)

7/8/66 Armory, Santa Venetia (Fri.)
7/9/66 Armory, Santa Venetia (Sat.)

7/14/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Thu.)
7/15/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
7/16/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)
RECORDING:
I
/I Know You Rider
Big Boss Man*
Standing On The Corner*
Beat It On Down The Line
In The Pines*
Cardboard Cowboy
Nobody's Fault But Mine*
Next Time You See Me
He Was A Friend Of Mine
Cream Puff War
II
Viola Lee Blues*
Don't Ease Me In*
Pain In My Heart*
New Minglewood Blues
Sittin' On Top Of The World*
You Don't Have To Ask
Cold Rain And Snow
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue*
Dancing In The Streets/
http://www.archive.org/details/gd1966-07-16.sbd.miller.89555.sbeok.flac16
(* - released on “Birth of the Dead,” undated.)
Also: Midnight Hour (encore with Jefferson Airplane, not recorded - see comments here)

7/17/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sun.)
RECORDING:
/Big Boss Man
Cold Rain And Snow
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Cream Puff War
I’m A King Bee*
Stealin'
Dancing In The Streets/
Next Time You See Me*
One Kind Favor*
He Was a Friend of Mine*
(* - released on “Birth of the Dead,” without date. Since the last four tracks didn’t circulate, they’re presumed to come from a Vault reel of this show, but they may be from 7/15. Deadbase asserts that “this is most or all of the second set, since the first reel of this show is no longer playable.” David Gans said twenty years ago that another reel of 7/17 was “unusable because of damage to the reel,” but that may not reflect the current Vault holdings. The lack of known reel labels makes it quite possible that a stray reel may be from 7/15.)

7/29/66 PNE Garden Auditorium, Vancouver, BC (Fri.)
Trips Festival.
RECORDING:
I
Standing On The Corner
I Know You Rider
Next Time You See Me
Sittin’ On Top Of The World
You Don't Have To Ask
Big Boss Man
Stealin'
Cardboard Cowboy
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Cream Puff War
II
Viola Lee Blues
Beat It On Down The Line
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl/
http://www.archive.org/details/gd1966-07-30.sbd.GEMS.94631.flac16
(Released on the debut album 50th-anniversary edition)

7/30/66 PNE Garden Auditorium, Vancouver, BC (Sat.)
Trips Festival.
RECORDING
Dancing In The Streets
Cold Rain and Snow*
I’m A King Bee
One Kind Favor*
You Don't Have To Ask
Hey Little One*
Beat It On Down The Line
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
New Minglewood Blues*
http://www.archive.org/details/gd1966-07-29.sbd.GEMS.94633.flac16
(* - released on the debut album 50th-anniversary edition. See the notes on the dating of these shows.)

7/31/66 PNE Garden Auditorium, Vancouver, BC (Sun.)
Trips Festival.
RECORDING:
/Viola Lee Blues
Don’t Ease Me In
Tastebud
(The date of this reel is speculated – the reel was mislabeled “possibly 2/12/66.” If it is from this run, it could also possibly be from a second set on 7/30.)

8/3/66 bandstand, English Bay Beach, Vancouver, BC (Wed.)
Free park show, shut down by the police.

8/5/66 Pender Auditorium, Vancouver, BC (Fri.)
Contrary to Deadbase, the Dead did not also play on the 6th.
SONG: Midnight Hour.

8/12/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
8/13/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)
(One site lists the Dead playing in Golden Gate Park with Country Joe & the Fish on 8/13, but they didn't. Deadlists asserts there were “numerous unscheduled performances” in Golden Gate Park that summer, but there’s no specific trace of one. The Dead were still living in Lagunitas, and moved to 710 Ashbury in September.)

8/19/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Fri.)
8/20/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)

8/26/66 IDES Hall, Pescadero (Fri.)
8/27/66 IDES Hall, Pescadero (Sat.)
Per one witness, the Dead did not play on the 28th. “It was a 3 day gig, but the Dead just played for 2 nights. There were less than 10 of us there the first night, maybe 25 the 2nd night.”

9/66 house party, Loma Mar
SONG: Midnight Hour.
Larry Rogers (who attended the Pescadero shows) writes: “I told them I was having a party soon and asked if they would like to come and to play. I asked them at the Pescadero event. Garcia was all for it… It was my house… There were no neighbors and we were surrounded by redwoods and off the beaten path… There were maybe 20 folks there, lots of LSD… I remember that they played Midnight Hour for about an hour.”

9/2/66 La Dolphine, Hillsborough (Fri.)

9/4/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sun.)

(Deadbase lists a 9/5/66 Rancho Olompali performance, which seems unlikely since they no longer lived there. But I’ll note that Monday, Sept. 5 was Labor Day, and an October newspaper article seems to describe a recent Olompali party, so it may be possible.)

9/10/66 Strawberry Canyon, Berkeley (Sat.)
"Picnic -- Community for New Politics presents The Grateful Dead. Swimming, dance & food."

9/11/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sun.)
Both/And jazz club benefit.
SONGS: Beat It On Down the Line, Midnight Hour 
REVIEW: http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/02/september-11-1966-jazzrock-show.html  
(Ralph Gleason: "After a couple of warm-up numbers, including a fine Muddy Waters blues sung by Pig Pen, the band went into "Midnight Hour" and Pig Pen made it into a one-man blues project. He sang for almost 20 minutes..." Mojo Navigator: "The Grateful Dead, who were not billed, closed the show with a set played on other people’s equipment. The first few songs were a bit loose, but the Dead rounded into form with a good version of “Happy Home,” then did one of the best “Midnight Hour”s I’ve ever heard by them. Pigpen was in excellent voice, as was Bob Weir.")

9/16/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Fri.)
9/17/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)

9/23/66 Pioneer Ballroom, Suisun City (Fri.)
9/24/66 Pioneer Ballroom, Suisun City (Sat.)

9/30/66 International Room, SF State College, San Francisco (Fri.)
10/1/66 Women’s Gym, SF State College, San Francisco (Sat.)
10/2/66 Commons lawn, SF State College, San Francisco (Sun.)
“Whatever It Is.”
Garcia also apparently played the organ in the Pranksters’ broadcast on 10/2: 

10/6/66 Panhandle, San Francisco (Thu.)
SONG: Alice D. Millionaire? (According to Deadbase, but how did they know? No source is known. It may just be speculation since this was an “LSD rally” - the SF Chronicle's "LSD Millionaire" article on Owsley had appeared only the previous day.)

10/7/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
The tape that used to circulate with this date was a fake from other dates.

10/8/66 Mt. Tamalpais Ampitheater, Mill Valley (Sat.)
Afternoon Phil Drath benefit.

10/8/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)
10/9/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sun.)

10/14/66 TMU Deck, Stanford U, Palo Alto (Fri.)

10/15/66 Heliport, Sausalito (Sat.)

10/16/66 Panhandle, San Francisco (Sun.)
Artists’ Liberation Front – free park show.

10/21/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
10/22/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)

10/23/66 Las Lomas High School, Walnut Creek (Sun.)
SONG: Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

10/31/66 California Hall, San Francisco (Mon.)
SONGS: Viola Lee Blues, Alice D. Millionaire
REVIEW: http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2013/03/october-31-1966-california-hall-sf.html 

10/66 Columbus Recorders, San Francisco
Recording session with Jon Hendricks.
SONGS: Fire in the City*, Sons and Daughters
(* - released on “Birth of the Dead.”)

11/66 KFRC Radio, San Francisco

11/4/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Fri.)
11/5/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)

11/12/66 Old Cheese Factory, San Francisco (Sat.)
It’s rumored that the Dead also played unbilled at a Hell’s Angels dance at Sokol Hall this date, but no evidence has surfaced.

11/13/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sun.)
Zen Mountain Center benefit.

11/18/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
11/19/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)
RECORDING:
I
Cold Rain And Snow
Hi-Heel Sneakers
Pain In My Heart
Beat It On Down The Line
Cream Puff War
The Same Thing
He Was A Friend Of Mine
Dancing In The Street/
II
Smokestack Lightning
I’m A King Bee
Midnight Hour
http://www.archive.org/details/gd1966-11-19.sbd.miller.94106.sbeok.flac16
(Old copies were misdated 3/17/67.)

11/20/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sun.)
11/20/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sun.)
The poster for the regular Bill Graham Fillmore run lists a 2-7 pm show on Sunday, while the benefit poster lists a 3-midnight show, so the listed times clash. If the Dead played two shows at the Fillmore that day, the times must have been rearranged, but it’s possible the usual Sunday afternoon show was simply replaced by the benefit.

11/23/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Thu.)

11/28/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Mon.)
11/29/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Tue.)
RECORDING:
(Set I missing.)
II
Me And My Uncle
The Same Thing*
Stealin'*
Big Boy Pete
One Kind Favor
Early Morning Rain
Cold Rain And Snow
Viola Lee Blues
III
Down So Long
Something On Your Mind
Overseas Stomp (Lindy)
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
I Just Want To Make Love To You
http://www.archive.org/details/gd66-11-29.sbd.ret.20448.sbeok.shnf 
(* - released on “Historic Dead.”)

11/30/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Wed.)
12/1/66 The Matrix, San Francisco (Thu.)
RECORDING:
I
Minglewood Blues
Betty And Dupree
Next Time You See Me
I Know You Rider
Big Boss Man
One Kind Favor
Alice D. Millionaire
Me And My Uncle (1)
Cream Puff War
II
You Don't Love Me
Beat It On Down The Line
It Hurts Me Too
On The Road Again
Yonder's Wall*
My Own Fault*
Down So Long
Cold Rain And Snow
Viola Lee Blues
III
/Deep Elem Blues
Something On Your Mind
Big Boy Pete
Death Don't Have No Mercy
Overseas Stomp (Lindy)
Dancing In The Street
Me And My Uncle (2)  

12/2/66 Pauley Ballroom, U of California, Berkeley (Fri.)

12/9/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
12/10/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)
12/11/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sun.)

12/14/66 Gym, College of Marin, Kentfield (Wed.)
Date uncertain – show is unverified, reported by a witness.


12/20/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Tue.)

12/21/66 Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara (Wed.)

12/23/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Fri.)
12/24/66 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)
RECORDING:
I Know You Rider
It Hurts Me Too
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Dancing in the Street
Midnight Hour
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Overseas Stomp (Lindy)
(Formerly thought to be from 9/16/66. Released on “Vintage Dead” and “Historic Dead” with no date, these songs could come from either show, in any order. An announcer introduces Midnight Hour, “Once again, the Grateful Dead,” which may be an encore.)

12/28/66 Governor’s Hall, Sacramento (Wed.)
SONG: Death Don’t Have No Mercy

12/29/66 Armory, Santa Venetia (Thu.)

12/30/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Fri.)
12/31/66 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco (Sat.)
SONG: Midnight Hour?

1/1/67 Panhandle, San Francisco (Sun.)
After the 9pm-9am New Year’s show at the Fillmore, the Dead then proceeded to play a free “New Year’s Day Wail” show in the park the next day. Not surprisingly, it was the last show they ever played on January 1st.

Fall 1966 American Legion Hall, South Lake Tahoe
According to an unverified Lost Live Dead witness, the Dead played a sparsely-attended show here at some point this fall.

Unknown 1966 Freeborn Hall, U of California, Davis
According to a 1967 newspaper report, the Dead played to “a capacity crowd” sometime this year. 
This turned out to be 10/28/66.

Late 1966 Commercial Recorders?, San Francisco
STUDIO RECORDING:
Silver Threads and Golden Needles
(Released on “Rare Cuts & Oddities.” According to Rock Scully’s book, demos of Early Morning Rain and You Don’t Have To Ask were also recorded, among others (though he may have confused these with earlier studio sessions). The band may also have taped demos at Coast Recorders. See http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2011/10/dead-in-studio-1966.html )


NOTE ON SONG TITLES

Deadbase 50 notes that some familiar song titles went by different names at the time:

You Don’t Have To Ask was called Otis On A Shakedown Cruise. (Scully calls it that in a March ’66 newspaper article; the Dead also call for “Otis” before playing it on 5/19 and on 7/30.)
Cardboard Cowboy was called No Left Turn Unstoned - Weir introduces it that way on 7/29, and Lesh gave the title in a later interview. The Dead also nicknamed it “The Monster" (because "it was just so big and ugly and hard to play," Lesh said).
He Was A Friend Of Mine was actually Mark Spoelstra’s song Just A Hand To Hold.

40 comments:

  1. A note on 7/29 and 7/30/66: these two shows previously had the dates reversed. The Taper's Section and the GEMS transfers from master-reel copies both placed the shorter tape on 7/29, so it was a surprise when the official release switched the dates with no explanation. I've come to agree with the new dates, though -- not only are the Vault reel labels notoriously unreliable, but an examination of the stage banter indicates that the longer two-set show may come from the 29th.

    There's a formal announcer before Standing on the Corner: "Good evening from Captain Consciousness. Tonight, for your pleasure, we're going to start off the evening with a group from San Francisco, they're called the Grateful Dead." Phil remarks to the indifferent crowd, "Our fame has preceded us." For the rest of the set, the band barely speaks to the audience at all until after Cream Puff War, when Weir announces, "We'll be back, and we're probably gonna play the last set tonight, and there's gonna be a lot of entertainment in between, so stick around, yippee."

    The mood is very different on the other night: before Dancing in the Street there's an extended mic test with the band back in high spirits. It sounds like Phil says, "I see our reputation has preceded us again... We'll use a simple syllable to test our microphones tonight: the syllable is narc." After some narc banter the announcer shouts, "Grateful Dead from San Francisco!" The band is noticeably more jovial and chatty between songs, and when the hour's set is up, Garcia says, "Maybe we'll see you later and then again maybe we won't, we're going off now."

    There is a festival program, but it isn't too helpful, listing the Dead first on Friday and last on Saturday. Though we can't assume the band order remained the same as listed (particularly if the Dead were playing two separate sets a night), it does indicate the Dead may have gone first on the 29th. The shorter tape seems to show a more comfortable band, now used to the venue, coming on later in the evening with less time for two sets.

    Phil later called the (first) Vancouver show "one of the worst performances I can remember." Garcia complained about how badly-run the Vancouver Trips Festival was in an August '66 interview with Mojo Navigator R&R News, calling the audience too stiff and reserved: "They would do things like have every band every night, so a band would only get to play maybe one set a night and it would be a short one. You couldn’t really get warmed up, you know, or get any kind of thing going. It wasn’t really much fun to play. The next weekend was much better...when we played again at another dance [at Pender Auditorium], and had a fairly good crowd...it was really good, you know, it was responsive. Much more so than the Trips Festival."

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  2. The Phish song "NICU" contains the line "No left turn unstoned, when you see me", sung by bassist Mike Gordon.

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  3. They might have played Alice.D.Millionaire on 10/6/66. The song doesn't mention the title per se, the chorus is 'No time to cry', and the title may have been changed due to the headline about Owsley the day before....?

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    1. They might have. They played it a few weeks later, when Ralph Gleason mentioned it in a review, so he knew what the title was. But my suspicion is that no audience member at the time would know the song or remember it later, even if the Dead had announced the title....so what was Deadbase's source that it was played?
      Sources became more attributable online, when deadlists named the people who'd been to shows and reported the songs played. But with Deadbase there's often no telling where a song attribution came from, and they did have some fakes in the early days. So in general I've tried to stick to song reports with some known confirmation.

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  4. This is excellent that someone finally created an updated 66 list. Well done! One question. The set list previously attributed to 2/25 you have as May/June. How did you come by that conclusion?

    Keep up the good work! -dw

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    1. I posted my reasoning in this comment: http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/01/deads-1966-songs.html?showComment=1443664760049#c5623377235158054167

      But to recap the clues here:
      "2/25" aka "3/12," despite the two wrong dates on it, can't be from February or March.
      1) Hey Little One - in the 3/25 version (an authentic date), the guitar has a pronounced tremolo effect, which is not in the "2/25" or 7/29 versions.
      2) I Know You Rider - the 1/28 & 3/12 versions don't have the "I drink muddy water" or "The sun will shine" verses, but "2/25" (and all '66 live versions from 5/19 onwards) has the extra verses. It's played the same way as on 5/19.
      3) Cold Rain & Snow - 3/25 is the earliest version we have: Garcia's guitar playing is awkward, they play it rather slowly, and he sings it totally differently than any later version, lower and more tentatively. (He also sings "she met her fatal doom" in the last verse, which is changed in later versions to "she sang a fatal tune" or "she sang a fateful tune.") I think they must have just started playing it. "2/25" has to be later - in fact it is played identically to the 5/19 version.

      But if "2/25" isn't from February or March, when is it from? The new Deadbase suggests it's as late as July, but this can't be the case either, because I Know You Rider does not have the bass/drum intro that was added in the July versions.
      So I think it most likely comes from the spring, May or June. We can't pin it down to any particular show, but the playing is most similar to the 5/19/66 show, and Cold Rain and Rider have the same arrangements as the June studio sessions.

      Personally I think it's from May. This isn't proof (because Stealin' cuts off on "2/25"), but all the '66 versions of Stealin' from the studio take onwards start with the "Put your arms around me like a circle round the sun" verse. "2/25" starts with the "Woman I love, she's just my height and size" verse (which had been the last verse on 3/25).
      My guess is that the verse order was finalized in the June studio sessions - each version from that point has the same verses in the same order - but before then, the verses had varied in order.

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  5. Makes sense. Thx!

    - dw

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  6. Excellent work! Thanks! OTDIDH didn't have that LSD Conference date.

    I guess the date for the Portland Acid Test will never be known for sure but OTDIDH has shows on 2 and 3 January, with 3 January the Test. 7,8,9 June Stockton Ballroom seem too unlikely, even for GD.

    Are you missing a Panhandle show with Jefferson Airplane before the afternoon show at the Fillmore (also with the Airplane) on July 17th 1966?

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    1. I'd love to add shows if more are discovered.
      But shows in Portland on January 2-3, 1966? Did someone just make that up? I've never seen a hint of that, and researchers aren't even sure of the Acid Test date that I know of.

      I haven't seen a 7/17/66 Panhandle show on Airplane show lists, nor on Dead show lists either, so I'm curious what the source is for that.

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  7. I can't find a reference for the 7/17 Panhandle, could be a typo, will research further and report back if I find anything.

    The Portland Acid Test will remain a mystery. I tried looking at weather reports (Phil's account of a bad blizzard), but was unable to reach any conclusion.

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  8. I can see them all piling into the bus in the early morning coming down, heading north into the snow on New Years Day, fully loaded, breaking down, making it to the venue after dark.

    I will align OTDIDH to this list, including the Stockton run. Again, thanks for the fantastic work.

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  9. May 7, 1966 , the first known Berkeley show,I believe, was a "Peace Rock " show. Here's the ad from that day's Daily Cal. https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7kqdwzfbsfp1zx/Daily%20Cal%20May%207%2C%201966.jpg?dl=0

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  10. The ad lists in the lineup:
    Berkeley Benefit
    Peace Candidates

    This is obscure. I don't know if "Peace Rock" was just a catchy tag for the activist Berkeley crowd, if there were political speakers there, or if it was actually a benefit for something - the posters don't specify:
    http://www.deadlists.com/posters/1960s/19660507b.html
    But more newspaper searches may turn up an answer.

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    1. The 5/6/66 Santa Cruz Sentinel ran this announcement:

      "MILLER BACKERS SPONSOR DANCE
      The Miller for Congress campaign is sponsoring a dance-concert program called "Peace Rock III" tomorrow night in Harmon gymnasium at the University of California, Berkeley.
      Music will be by such groups as the Grateful Dead, The Charlatans, Billy Moses' Blues Bag, and The Great Society. San Francisco disc jockey Russ (the Moose) Syracuse will preside over the proceedings.
      The dance is held in conjunction with the Robert Schear for Congress campaign."

      Richard Miller was a Democratic candidate for Congress. His ads ran: "Vote for life, reason, beauty, freedom." The 6/3/66 Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that "Miller, a 'peace' candidate, called the campaign a referendum on the Viet Nam war, criticized the Johnson administration, and charged that the nation's leaders are selling 'the big lie' on the war." He lost to a "pro-administration" candidate.

      I'm reminded of the "peace" benefit the Dead played on 10/8/66, for the "Write In Committee for Phil Drath": "Only a write in vote for Phil Drath can register your opposition to Lyndon Johnson's policy in Viet Nam." Drath didn't get written in, and the Dead thereafter stayed away from benefits for political candidates.

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  11. Here's another encounter with those fun loving Berkeley politicos.

    The "P.O. Frisco" of 1966-09-02 page 12 has a listing for a picnic on Saturday Sept 10th at Strawberry Canyon. "Community for New Politics presents The Grateful Dead. swimming, dance & food. Tickets avail. at 2214 Grove. Berkeley"

    I'll email you the clipping. I bet Pig enjoyed discussing the New Politics.

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    1. Great find! A picnic at Strawberry Canyon....now that cries out for a Lost Live Dead post.

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  12. The following comment was posted on Facebook recently:

    "Derral Alexander Campbell: When I arrived at USF in late August of '66 and walked across the Panhandle the first time, I was able to identify the band because I'd seen that picture of Pig Pen. I remember they were doing It's All Over Now Baby Blue and Lovelight. It was a Diggers gathering and there were about 40 people watching and dancing."

    Unless there's an unlisted/unknown Panhandle show sometime in August or September, this may be a description of either 10/6/66 Panhandle, San Francisco (Thu.) or 10/16/66 Panhandle, San Francisco (Sun.). I'd have to guess it was the latter date (10/16), as the Diggers are said to have sprouted from the Artists' Liberation Front.

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  13. I don't believe the Dead were playing Lovelight in 1966. I think it was Phil who wrote that they got the idea of playing it from sharing the bill with Jimmy Cotton in November 67.

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    1. (November '66, that is.)
      No evidence that they played Lovelight before summer '67. They might've done Midnight Hour in the Panhandle in '66 though, that was one of their signature tunes of the year.

      But I agree that the memory is more likely from October than August '66 - in the summer, the Dead were still living in Lagunitas, and I don't think the Pigpen t-shirt had been made yet so he wouldn't have been especially identifiable.

      There should be a convenient list of all the known Panhandle shows by all bands, though, to put the Dead in context.... If someone were taking a stroll in the park in 1966, what bands would they have seen?

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  14. 10/23/1966 show started at 3pm in Walnut Creek according to SF Examiner, 10-23-66 p 247

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  15. An article in the 3/4/66 Los Angeles Free Press announced the Dead's 3/3/66 show. (The Free Press was a weekly paper, so despite the date it was probably out before the show.)

    'PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE' TO BE SHOWN MARCH 15
    "Ecstasy is where you make it," says Jean Mayo, quoting the title of her new cartoon book, and she hopes everybody makes it to the Psychedelic Show at the A.I.A.A. Auditorium, 7660 Beverly Blvd., March 3 and March 15. There will be two shows, one at 8:00 p.m. and one at 10:00 p.m. The show will begin with the San Francisco Film Festival prize-winning film, "The Psychedelic Experience." The voice of Timothy Leary provides the introduction to the film. Ravi Shankar provides the music.
    On March 3, the film will be followed by the music of "The Grateful Dead." On March 15 the color machines will be redesigned by Jean Mayo and Bob Deck for an entirely different show with music by the "Aha!" group.

    ("The Psychedelic Experience" was a 20-minute short film by Jean Mayo & Allan Willis, which won the 'Film As Art' award at the 1965 SF International Film Festival. After Leary's introduction, most of the film is just trippy visuals set to Indian music; it was probably one of the first films of its kind. The film can be seen here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvcnma
    The venue was the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, normally used for lectures and scholarly events. Psychedelic experiences were probably rare there! For instance, that July when the Great Underground Arts Masked Ball & Orgy (aka GUAMBO, featuring the Mothers) was booked at the Aerospace Hall, the venue managers were so alarmed that their hall would be used for dancing, narcotics, and orgies, they cancelled the booking (which was moved to the Danish Center). So I would imagine that the "Psychedelic Experience" show was a restrained, seated event.
    The Dead managed to find very few gigs in Los Angeles aside from the Acid Tests, so it's ironic that one of their shows was accompanying a Tim Leary film.)

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  16. One person who attended 9/17/66 remembers the Dead playing Viola Lee Blues.
    "I first saw the Dead on 9/17/66... I had never seen a rock concert of any sort. I was a classical music person who was also into folk... But we were getting stoned...& I was open to new influences. So, the Dead at the Avalon, 1966. They were not what was to become known as "psychedelic." Not yet.
    First of all, it was really a "dance concert." Billy K. laid down a very basic beat that was easy to dance to. That didn't seem very psychedelic. But above all, the band didn't seem to be improvising, but had pretty much worked out how to approach their material. Jerry would play his long repeated note runs in Viola Lee, but that wasn't exactly psychedelic either... The scene in the crowd on the floor with the dope, the face paint & the strobe lights seemed more psychedelic than what the band was doing on stage."
    https://www.shnflac.net/smf/index.php?topic=18757.msg292434#msg292434

    Now that's all with the hindsight of later years about when the Dead became "psychedelic" - he probably had a different perspective at the time, especially being new to rock shows. But for setlist purposes, he may have named Viola Lee as an example rather than "definitely-played-that-night" - if he did remember that song in particular, it must have made an impression. (He got their first album in '67 and thought it "didn't seem at all psychedelic," but he might have recognized Viola Lee.)
    Either way it's a reminder that they must have played it steadily during the lost months of '66.

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  17. re: 03-03-66 - the full title is 'the psychedelic experience'. an ad appears in the 03-04-66 issue of the LA Free Press. https://vimeo.com/67001675 SUNDAY SHORTS #20: The Psychedelic Experience by Jean Mayo Millay and Allen Willis, music by Ravi Shankar and Alla Rahka, with Timothy Leary.

    I-) ihor

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  18. The original BBC show with footage of Mindbender from the 6/3/66 Fillmore show has been found:
    https://vimeo.com/170324749
    (Panorama, "California 2000" - the Dead appear from 33:40-36:20)
    The whole song is shown in great quality, unfortunately the announcer talks over most of it.
    The edited Mindbender clip that was out before had some audience & light-show bits replaced from a different '67 BBC show:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f8IMCBpDsc

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  19. Re Alice D. Millionaire: Rock Scully reports in Living With the Dead that Alice D. Millionaire was performed as their last song on Oct. 2 at San Francisco State. And we have the Deadbase listing on Oct. 6, which the Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics books states is the "first verified performance." (Not sure how they know its verified.) Either way, if it was performed on Oct. 2 OR on Oct. 6, my theory is, they had already written the song prior to the headline, perhaps with a working title of "No Time to Cry," which is the chorus of the song, and started performing it. Then when the headline came out, they loved the headline and renamed the song, perhaps somewhat in jest, and the new name took. The phrase "Alice D. Millionaire" actually appears nowhere in the song itself, which I think might lend some credence to this theory.

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    1. I would be a little skeptical about Scully's book saying they played that specific song on Oct. 2. (You'll note that on the same page, Scully had to take Pigpen home after Pigpen got dosed earlier, so Pigpen missed the second set where they played it -- but Pigpen is the singer of that song!) I also don't know how anyone can confirm the Dead played it on Oct. 6.
      But I agree that they may already have written & performed the song by then, under some other name. The "LSD Millionaire" headline appeared on Oct. 5, and a newspaper review confirms they were calling the song that by Oct. 31. Quite often in '66 they'd give their songs odd names unconnected to the lyrics.

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    2. Good points re Scully book. Yes, that does seem hard to reconcile! What gets me is a seeming incongruity about the song. Based on the title, it is said to be "about" Owsley. But looking at the lyrics and listening to the song, it really seems like something of a pop ditty along the lines of The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion), short, tight, with lyrics written in the second person to a young woman. I don't see a lot of material that could be construed as really directly addressing Owsley and his contemporaneous struggles with the law, unless very obliquely. Maybe this is why they had to hire Robert Hunter!

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    3. The Owsley allusion in the title is a red herring - I'm sure they weren't thinking of him when they wrote the song. But the Dead in '66/67 were very fond of assigning random nonsensical titles to their songs: Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks), Tastebud, Otis on a Shakedown Cruise, No Left Turn Unstoned, Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion), the whole first side of the Anthem album... Hunter's arrival put an end to this sort of thing, and their song titling became much more conventional.

      Garcia talked about Cream Puff War in one '67 interview, and how they titled their songs:
      "The title for the song came after the song... [I was writing the song], Pigpen said let's call it Cream Puff War... Or somebody did. At any rate, the title doesn't really mean anything particularly, it's just the name of the song. It's like, did you ever read Through the Looking Glass or Alice in Wonderland, where they have a thing about something and then the name of it, and the name of its name, and so on, so that the thing's name is several times removed from the actual thing and not in any way related to it. Well, we kind of name our songs that way. So Cream Puff War is the name of that song just because it was a name that happened to be around, and then later on I happened to work it into the lyric as the last line."

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    4. This is really good info. Thanks LIA! You're right. I see a trend here.

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  20. As a minor note to the listing for 2/23/66, the Dead reportedly released versions of Standing on the Corner and Mindbender/Confusion's Prince from this date on Nov. 23, 2019, as part of that year's 30 Days of the Dead series. I can't find the original listing for the 2019 30 Days of the Dead on Dead.net anymore, but the info is maintained via Alex Allen over at WhiteGum.

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    1. Aha, the Vault dates for 1966 are a mess! Those tracks are actually from the 5/19/66 show. See the discussion here:
      https://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/01/deads-1966-songs.html?showComment=1490149631285#c8611725992641366986

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  21. The Daily Cal review of the 11/23/66 Thanksgiving party at the Fillmore mentions two Dead songs: Beat It On Down the Line and Midnight Hour. The evening ended with a jam with Garcia, Weir, Skip Spence & Barry Bastian.
    https://deadsources.blogspot.com/2024/01/november-23-1966-thanksgiving-party.html

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    1. It strikes me, coincidentally, that these were the same two songs Mojo Navigator singled out in their review of 9/11/66:
      "The Dead rounded into form with a good version of “Happy Home,” then did one of the best “Midnight Hour”s I’ve ever heard by them."

      Ralph Gleason also praised the Midnight Hour from 9/11, which was the Dead's most popular song that year:
      https://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/01/deads-1966-songs.html?showComment=1526075018287#c5883771904830295711

      But it's surprising that BIODTL was also apparently considered one of the Dead's most memorable numbers in 1966!

      Gleason also mentions Pigpen singing another "Muddy Waters blues" song on 9/11/66. This was most likely Schoolgirl, but could have been The Same Thing; or even I Just Want To Make Love To You, which was also in their repertoire at the time.

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  22. FB posts about the 02-25-66 show (with ad):

    https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122113143008211397&set=gm.1635762293901897&idorvanity=827697624708372

    https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2621086631382355&set=gm.10160145079398869&idorvanity=2220013868

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  23. Midnight Hour was played at one of the Dead's shows in the "Whatever It Is" festival (9/30-10/2). This is per Freewheelin' Frank's memoir, which I haven't seen but may provide more details on the show.

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    1. I've seen Freewheelin' Frank's memoir now, thanks to runonguinness, and he does have a colorful account of the Dead's Oct 1 performance & the acid test.
      https://deadsources.blogspot.com/2024/02/september-30-october-2-1966-whatever-it.html?sc=1710596664680#c456261825717011213

      What troubles me, though, is that the Lost Live Dead schedule for the festival has the Dead playing three times, on Fri-Sat-Sun, which I used for this list.
      https://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2014/11/whatever-it-is.html

      But from the accounts I've seen, I can only make out two Dead shows - Friday night in the Commons, and Saturday night in the women's gym. The festival ended on Sunday morning at 6am, and I am doubtful that there were any performances later that day.

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