Grateful Dead - 1980-03-30 - Capitol Theatre NJ (SBD)

Grateful Dead

1980-03-30

Capitol Theatre

Passaic, NJ

Soundboard Recording

256 kbps (vbr)

Artwork Included

CD 1:

1st Set

01. Alabama Getaway >

02. The Promised Land

03. Peggy-O

04. Cassidy

05. Loser >

06. El Paso

07. Far From Me

08. Tennessee Jed

09. New Minglewood Blues

10. Althea

11. Lost Sailor >

12. Saint Of Circumstance

CD 2:

2nd Set:

01. Scarlet Begonias >

02. Fire On The Mountain

03. Estimated Prophet >

04. Eyes Of The World >

05. Drums >

06. Black Peter >

07. Sugar Magnolia

Encore:

08. U.S. Blues*

*With John Belushi on Vocals and Cartwheels

Grateful Dead - 1980-03-30 - Capitol Theatre NJ (SBD)

In keeping with our themes for march, here's a post that features both the Grateful Dead and a guest star.  This one goes back to my days in college when I served as the business manager of the school newspaper. I decided to use that lofty position to help me pursue my passion for rock and roll. We launched an Arts and Entertainment issue that we would distribute to over 100,000 college students in the NY/NJ area. Bigger circulation meant we could reach out to folks like WNEW-FM and Monarch Entertainment (John Scher's company and owners of the Capitol Theatre) to buy ad space. And when we talked to Monarch about ads, we also talked to them about tickets to concerts! We negotiated getting 4 tickets, including photographer passes, to every show Scher promoted in return for advertising and writing reviews about each. The first show just happened to be the Grateful Dead at the Capitol on March 30, 1980, 32 years ago this very day. I went with my 3 roomies. My job was to write the review, one of my room mates was the photographer (see pictures below!) and the other 2 guys, well they just went along for the free tickets. To be honest, it wasn't the best Dead show, I've seen, though the first half of the 2nd set had its moments. Garcia was actually pretty somber and unemotional the whole night. The big highlight, though, was the encore, when the late, great John Belushi cartwheeled his way on stage to join the band for U.S Blues. And when he did, Jerry smiled for the first time all night. Download this one and you'll smile as well!