So it wasn’t 60 years to the day, but Dream of the Wild’s Jay McKinney made sure Turf Club’s “Acid Test Reunion: Celebrating 60 Years of Pranksters” was an otherwise proper commemoration of the Merry Pranksters and Grateful Dead.
Jay McKinney of Terrapin Stallion.
His band, performing Grateful Dead and Ween songs as Terrapin Stallion, headlined along with longtime Minneapolis Dead cover band The Jones Gang and experimental psych band Majoon Travellers, who all helped set the vibe.
There were Shakedown-like vendors and a liquid light artist — Tyler of Soop Lights — that splashed the Turf Club stage appropriately.
There were Kool-Aid drinkers.
For lucidity’s sake, the first Acid Test was hosted by Prankster/author Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) on Nov. 27, 1965, according to the National Museum of American History; The Grateful Dead, still known as The Warlocks, were attendance and became the house band of these gatherings.
Dream of the Wild performs as Terrapin Stallion, covering strictly Ween and Grateful Dead.
Fast forward to this past Thursday, and Terrapin Stallion broke out a Dead-heavy set that paid tribute to the recently departed Bob Weir, who was often referred to as “the Other One.”
The show was opened with “Cryptical Envelopment,” which was part of the That’s It for the Other One suite on 1968’s Anthem of the Sun LP.
The set included a pair Ween covers in “Mutilated Lips” and “Captain.”
“He’s Gone,” felt like a nod to both Jerry Garcia and Weir.
The suite seemed to be completed with “The Other One” and a Cryptical reprise.”
The Jones Gang brought the Dead vibe early.
The Jones Gang’s set also righteously carried the vibe with “Viola Lee Blues,” “Creampuff Wars,” “Beat it Down the Line,” “He Was a Friend of Mine,” and “Dancing in the Streets.”
Dean Wolfson played keyboards, filling in the vacancy left by John Wolfe, who died last year.
Majoon Travellers fuck with heavy, experimental psych.
Majoon Travellers’ opening set was full of heavy, noisy, 60s-era psych, setting the scene perfectly for such an acid-splashed occasion.
The music never stopped, as they say.
