Grateful Dead

The band initiates a tradition of doing an annual set of benefit shows with a two-night run at the Warfield Theatre in February. In April, Garcia performs, for the first time in his life, a solo show. Always a collaborative musician, he doesn't enjoy it. In July, the band plays at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, near Denver. In nearby Boulder, the Naropa Institute, funded in part by the Dead, puts on a 25th anniversary conference celebrating the publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The band plays 'On the Road Again,' of course. In September the band as a whole does something unique: they play a 9 a.m. set, 'Breakfast in Bed with the Grateful Dead,' at the US Festival in Devore, California. Because of delays at the World Music Festival in Montego Bay, they don't hit the stage until 4:30 a.m., finishing their set as dawn breaks on the beach. That one's more fun.