Page 30 Merry Pranksters

One of the highlights of the Muir Beach Test was … dare I, shall I breathe his name? Owsley pushing a chair along a wooden floor, this old wooden chair, running it along the floor making this noise, the most horrible screeching and scraping. It went on for hours, I’m not exaggerating, it just drove everybody completely up the wall. That was an incredible exhibition of making
yourself…
uncomfortable…
making other people uncomfortable. He was scraping the chair and listening to the noise and lovin’ it. I guess that’s what was happening.
— Mountain Girl

The Acid Test was the prototype for our whole basic trip. But nothing has ever come up to the level of the way the Acid Test was. It’s just never been equaled, really, or the basic hit of it never developed out…It was something much more incredible than just a rock and roll show with a light show; it was just a million more times incredible. It was incredible because of the formlessness, because of the thing of people wandering around wondering what was going on and…and stuff happening spontaneously and everybody bein’ prepared to accept any kind of a thing that was happening and to add to it. Everybody was creating. Everybody was doing everything. That’s about the simplest explanation.
-Jerry Garcia

Acid Tests
Dec. 4, 1965. Big Nig’s House, San Jose
Dec. 11, Muir Beach Lodge
Dec. 18, The Big Beat Club, San Jose January, 1966, Portland, OR
January 8, Fillmore Auditorium, SF
January 22 and 23, Trips Festival, Long-shoreman’s Hall, SF
January 29, Sound City Studios, SF February 11, Youth Opportunities Center, Compton (Watts Acid Test) February, LA, (Sunset Acid Test)
April 5, LA, (Pico Acid Test)
October 2, SF State University Cafeteria