The 70s were a wild, drug-fueled time for music. Maybe no band was more well-known for this than the legendary rock band The Grateful Dead. In fact, one time, the band played a concert at San Francisco’s Winterland that ended with three dozen fans having to be treated for hallucinations. This was caused by the fans accidentally being dosed with LSD after they drank some spiked apple juice.
The show was The Grateful Dead with New Riders Of The Purple Sage as support. According to the legend, some attendees snuck two garbage cans full of the spiked cider in through the backstage. They had received permission from a guard, per Live for Live Music. The LSD-tainted beverage made its way around the crowd, thus serving as the origin of the “Acid Punch Show.”
One person who claimed to have been there was quoted as saying, “[My] starkest memory was coming out of the show and seeing this naked guy on top of a car howling at the moon with San Fran’s finest standing there laughing with each other waiting for him to come down.”
While most people were said to be fine, a few dozen folks were hospitalized for their hallucinations. This got promoter Bill Graham into some trouble with the city, but ultimately things smoothed out.
They didn’t call it the ‘psychedelic 60s’ for nothing, and this Grateful Dead concert proved it
Notably, late Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir previously spoke with FoundSF about the band’s early days playing concerts. This included their use of psychedelics, which started in the 60s. During the interview, Weir was asked if he performed music the first time he took psychedelics.
“Not the first time, no,” he explained. “Our instruments weren’t around. Had they been around, had we been a little more provident – we were expecting to be somewhat incapacitated. We sort of had a little party situation, and we didn’t have the forethought to include our instruments at the time.”
He was later asked if “dropping acid” caused his “music to become more improvisatory.” Wier replied, “Well, yeah. When we finally got to the Acid Tests, we’d set up before the whole thing began – wisely so, I think. [Laughs.] And then we’d take acid, and then we’d wait until we could kind of deal with the physical.”
Bob Weir passed away in January 2026
Weir continued, “Back then, God knows who decided what the appropriate doses were gonna be and stuff like that. So there were times where it was a couple of hours, at least, before we could come around and make a stab at trying to play. And oftentimes, the first couple of attempts, we’d get on, we’d pluck around a little, and we’d abandon ship pretty quick. You know, it was hard to relate.”
Finally, he added, “We were heavily into hallucination and stuff like that. We got better and better at it as time wore on, so that we could take a pretty massive dose and hang in there after a while.”
The post That Time a Legendary Rock Band’s Concert Ended With Dozens of Fans Being Treated for Hallucinations After Drinking Spiked Cider appeared first on VICE.
