Grateful Dead

Venue troubles continue. A video of police striking a fan whose arms are pinned outside a Pittsburgh show in early April makes the rounds, but the result is anti-Dead Head. The Mayor of Milwaukee dances 10th-row center at his home show, but elsewhere (Irvine and Washington), politicians try to use anti-Dead opinion for personal publicity. At home, the Dead take part in May in a major concert to benefit research into AIDS at Oakland Coliseum, with Garcia and Weir backing John Fogerty singing his classic Creedence songs. The summer tour sports the first formal stage set in band history, a series of hangings by Polish-born artist Jan Sawka. The set and video reinforcement are there to try to make the stadium shows somewhat more intimate. In the fall, the band announces that camping (overnight parking) and vending must end. At Hampton in October, the band tries to put the show under the radar by using the name The Warlocks. At Halloween the band releases its last studio album, Built to Last, to a modest reception.