Grateful Dead releasing 1966 Fillmore Auditorium Independence Ball concert

By Jill Lances May 20, 2026 | 1:00 PM

Grateful Dead ‘Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA (7/3/66)’ (Rhino Entertainment)

Grateful Dead are taking it back to their early career with their latest live release.

Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA (7/3/66) will be released on July 3, on the 60th anniversary of the concert, which took place seven months after the band changed their name from the Warlocks. The performance was part of legendary promoter Bill Graham’s Independence Ball, with the band at the time made up of Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bob Weir.

The concert features some of the earliest known recordings of songs like “Tastebud,” “You Don’t Have To Ask” and “Cardboard Cowboy,” which the band would stop playing by the end of that summer. It also includes “Cold Rain and Snow,” which would go on to be a Dead staple.

The performance of “Cold Rain and Snow” is available now via digital outlets.

Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA (7/3/66), which was previously available in 2015 as part of the 50th anniversary boxed set 30 Trips Around the Sun, will be released digitally and as a two-CD set. It will also be released as a three-LP set, its first time ever on vinyl, limited to 6,600 copies. The vinyl release is available exclusively at Dead.net.