06-08-1969

While waiting for our set to begin, we were passed an innocuous-looking (except for the faint subliminal glow emanating from the liquid, and the barely noticeable sediment at the bottom) bottle of – apple juice! Without any hesitation, we each sampled the bottle and passed it on. As soon as that juice hit my taste buds, my entire consciousness went into “oh shit” mode – I had never experienced the taste of acid like that before. Normally one would ingest less than one hundred micrograms (ten thousandths of a gram), and it would be completely tasteless. For the taste to be perceptible, there must have been one hundred milligrams (one thousandth of a gram) in each mouthful. We later found out that not only had Goldfinger, with his usual Prankster attitude, hit the bottle, but that every other acid cowboy in town had added their gram or two’s worth.

So there we were – everyone looking at each other thinking, Are you as high as I am? I hope so, ‘cause that’s the only way we’re going to get through this gig. As for me, I was launched into outer space: worlds and universes orbiting past, time stretching into eternity, laughing archetypes manifesting cosmic jokes, and then some soft words in my ear – “Phil, it’s time to play the set.”

Phil goes on for a couple more pages about the night, and it is all spell-binding.

The music itself is pretty interesting. The Dancin’ in the Streets that opens the action is so good. And the rest of the first set is similarly high powered, including the last New Potato Caboose. The second set is where things get strange. The 36-minute Lovelight that begins the set is not only sans Jerry (and possibly Bobby for a time), but also without Pigpen. However, Pig comes on afterwards to introduce Wayne Ceballos, who was on the Lovelight along with Elvin Bishop and, probably, another guest or two. Jerry finally comes back for The Other One suite along with the, very appropriate, Cosmic Charlie. All told, it was an interesting night for the Grateful Dead, for sure.