The Grateful Dead’s earliest Acid Tests weren’t just concerts—they were communal experiments that rewired what live music could be. As explored in Alta’s Psychedelic Jam roundup, these improvisational, synapse-melting gatherings shaped a genre where audience and band dissolved into the same ecstatic current. To hear how these sounds evolved, cue up Alta’s curated Spotify playlist and let the trip continue.•
1. “Dark Star,” January 17, 1968
Recorded live at the Carousel Ballroom
2. “Sugaree,” August 12, 1972
Recorded live at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
3. “Eyes of the World,” February 19, 1973
Recorded live at the International Amphitheatre
4. “Morning Dew,” March 23, 1974
Recorded live at the Cow Palace
5. “Jack Straw,” May 11, 1977
Recorded live at the St. Paul Civic Center
Brian A Anderson is a journalist, a Pulitzer Prize–winning editor, and the author of Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection.
