So it's 4/1, and WTF??? Jerry and Brent on drums? Mickey singing and playing Bob's guitar? What's going on here? The performance is laughably bad, but had to be hilarious at the time. Then they do Promised Land for real; nothing could be further from the truth than to say like a previous commenter that there was a "disturbing" lack of difference between the two versions.
It was night vs. day. They go on to play a pretty lackluster first set with a tame, jamless song selection.

But the second set more than makes up for that. After Jerry gets a little exploratory in Stranger (if it's 1980, it's Stranger, they played it 12 times in 14 shows at one stretch this tour). Then they completely turn up the heat for China>Rider. Jerry inserts an extra jam, or does a normal jam in the wrong place, right after Bob's verse. It reaches such a peak you'd think they don't need to do another one, but they do! I thought 5/10/80 was my favorite China>Rider, at least after 74, but I'm rethinking that.

And the intensity doesn't drop with Estimated, either. OK, He's Gone is a long, boring song, but in those days, it led to some fabulous jams and transitions. The Other One that follows is no slouch, either. A lot of people pan Brent's keyboard sound; I love it. Would your rather hear that or Keith pounding out honky tonk chords on his Yamaha all show? The drummers stay out for space, making the drums actually growl behind Jerry's swirling cadenzas. I don't know if there was a curfew or what, because they cut Shakedown way short.

April Fools Haha

Seeing that the Grateful Dead recordings on Archive have all been remastered, was this SBD calibrated a bit slow? I swear the vocals sound slurry; like they were all chewing on Quaaludes like they were Tic Tacs.

I agree with Stacy below, great Looks like rain - Jerry's out front, really strong. Feel like a stranger through Stella is just on!

The Looks Like Rain here can take your breath away.....the whole show is just flawless or should I say full of the perfect cornucopia of "flaws" and signatures that can make ya weep--so damn good!

Zaorish wrote an excellent review, but neglected to critique the Stranger which smokes.

I was a jr. in HS and this was my 5th show. My buddies dad scored us some sweet tickets upfront and center. I remember my face being stolen during the Know You Rider. Sure enough, Archive transports me to another times forgotten space to relive this life changing, crystalline moment. Thank you!

This was my 5th or 6th show. I traded tickets we won (they were done by raffle) from one of the other two nights for this one as I thought April Fools would be best. I'll never forget Jerry & Brent on Drums and Weir singing and playing keyboards. Due to what we had ingested earlier we couldn't tell the difference until we could see the stage about 20 seconds into the tune. Great small theatre to see a show!

The show has a couple good picks, but overall it doesn't really hang together.

BAD-There is a disturbing lack of difference between the April Fools version and regular version of Promised Land
BAD-Candyman is unremarkable, there isn't much of a jam in it
V.GOOD-MAMU and Big River are actually well jammed out; this is extremely rare for them
V.GOOD-Friend of the Devil has a good, soaring Jerry jam
GOOD-It's All Over Now is decent, high-energy. A good version.
NOT SO GOOD x 4-The rest of Set 1 is just average.

GOOD-China>Rider is good, an above average version with some decent Jerry jams in Rider.
V.GOOD-There's a very cool Prophet Jam
V.GOOD-He's Gone, which has sucked in all the 80s versions I have listened to, is actually good here.
NOT SO GOOD-Other one is very average, nothing special
BAD-Stella is very poorly played, the band messes up the timing more than once
NOT SO GOOD-R&R is average
BAD-Shakedown is...OK. The song part is final, but as for the final jam...there isn't one. The guys just noodle quietly for two minutes and then call it quits. :[

Generally, this show ain't great. It's overrated. Go look for another one.

actually, this was NOT the night Belushi showed up. he came out onstage during the US Blues encore at the opening night of this run a couple nights earlier, doing cartwheels - at the show on 3/30/80

Yes this was the night that Belushi was there.

OOMPH=

BASSGUITAR to the 10th power times KICKDRUM times KICKDRUM to the 10th power.

You got OOMPH !

From this foundation springs Jerry, Bob, Brent,

Symbols times two=

Spontaneous Combustion occurs. We watch.

Pause listen to the final coda of Rider.

This one precisely executed in triplet to the letter.

The sign on their forehead's: "Estimated's done here." In the final solo, you can tell Jerry gets lost in an exploration of every synapse he has ever tread upon and comes out of it wanting to explode with a brand new world of ideas...//... and Weir cuts him off and goes back into the final verse. Gasp! Gaspar De Portola!

And then Jerry rebounds and when finally given his chance he cuts heads! Momentarily....

Then he realizes that he's not going to re-capture that thing he had going so he trods off into self-fulfillment land.

But don't kid yourself. The "He's Gone" is clearly in reference to Keith and Donna. A tribute to some dear and trusted friends (pause for a moment of silence)
....and now we must move on.

Y'know, folks, a lotta people have said that I oughta be a character on one of those hit tv shows, or else, the girls I met said that I reminded them of their fathers.

You talk about paralyzed!

Parallel-a-cized.

That's what list'ning to dis show may doh fo' yo!

Powdered.

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars!

Can someone please identify who is singing lead at the beginning of Promised Land #1? It sounds like it could be the same voice that says "How ya' doin' out there?" during pre-show tuning.

Not bad sound to my ear on this one. Very listenable.

Very good all-around show with an excellent 2nd set. The Shakedown encore is a blast, man what an encore!

One of the great things about having seen all those shows is that now they are all over the internet, and it's awesome and so amazing. I really couldn't believe that I was looking for this show, thinking about this show this month, April , and viola!, here it is. I remember getting the notice that I won the opportunity to see this show, the gold tix themselves, man, it's giving me chills. I have to disagree though with whoever said that when they did the opening tune ( Promised Land ) and they had switched instruments, I looked around from where I was up around the 5th row, and it seemed that a lot of folks were at their 1st show, and really weren't cognizant that they were being pranked, but I knew we were in for a helluva ride when they switched back to their respective instruments, the place really started to explode, they played it with such a driving force, one of the most memorable openings I was lucky enough to see. Perhaps it'll sound different as I give it a listen these 28 yrs later, but I am just so glad to be one of the 70's survivors that has kept up with the technology and can catch all these shows I was at on the web. peace and love to all out there, blessings for Jerry and Pigpen, Brent and Keith, all who have come and those who are gone now too. Knowing that you can't live life over, I'd have to say that I wouldn't have changed a thing, but if one could have a do-over, I would have tried to have hung out with Jerry, it's so sad that he seems to have been alone before he passed.

Good Show.....

Recording could be better ... no umph ... behind it

Rosecip....aside from promised land which had the crowd really tripping, I remember IAON as being great. Was this the night Belushi came out? I remember him appearing one of the 3 nights. This was always one of my favorite venues! Long live the Capitol, how I miss you so.

Great Shakedown. loved the whole show

Nice Candyman, and Jerry is hot on Me and My Uncle>Big River. It's All Over and Don't Ease are tight. The energy drops a little with Rain. The jam after Estimated Prophet is sweet, reminiscent of the jazzy feel of 1973-74. (I wish Phil were louder on this recording here.) He's Gone has some imperfections in vocal harmonies, but pleasant overall. The jam into the Other One is just great, as is the Other One itself. Not Jerry's best vocal on Stella Blue, but a solid Stella none-the-less, climaxing in some moving guitar work.

First, let me just say that I have been looking for a tape of this show for 25 years. I found it today and I am ecstatic. I remember this show like it was yesterday. Tickets were only available through a lottery run by 102.7 WNEW-FM in NYC. The Dead did three shows at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ, a small theater with about 2500 seats. I sent my self addressed stamped envelope into the radio station and a couple weeks later got it back with a short letter beginning with the salutation: Greetings Deadhead! The letter informd me that I won the ability to purchase 2 tix for a show. It gave me an appointment on a particular date and time to go to Pasaic and buy my two tix. I took the day off from work, went to the Theater and bought my tix. I opened the package and they were a bright shiny gold, the golden tickets, a lot like Charlie and the Choclate Factory. I looked at the tickets ROW F on April Fool's Day! The next problem: who to bring with me. I took all my close friends names, wrote them on pieces of paper, put them in a hat and picked out Maggie, not a better companion in the world for this special evening. We went to the show and when the boys came out an were tuning the wrong instruments, I knew this show would go down in history. We laughed through Promised Land, realized the show would be great during Candyman. This was the first time I heard Feel Like a Stranger and it delighted me and everyone in the theater as well. We danced and sang and revelled in the music of the evening. At the end of the show during a terrific version of "Around and Around" I felt like Bobby was singing directly to me as he sang "Rose out of my seat, oh I had to dance". My name is Rose and the way he enunciated that word was just thrilling. this was one of the best nights of my life and I could not be happier to find it here, on this terific site - 25 years later.

Better way to "capture download". Streamripper.Stream show,save to disk.I know its only VBR.MP3,but it is better than nothing. No mics or wires involved.And Streamripper is a free download from sourceforge.Open source software.Winamp free also.http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/

OK TO ALL !!! ALL YOU HAVE TO GET THESE SOUNDBOARDS IS HOOK UP YOUR RADIO/TAPE DECK TO YOUR COMPUTER AND RECORD THE SHOW WHILE ITS PLAYING !!ALL YOU NEED TO DO THIS IS A MIC TO AUDIO CABLE OR A HEADPHONE TO AUDIO CABLE. EASY AS CAN BE !! THEN YOU CAN GET A PROGRAM TO RECORD THE PLAYBACK OF THE TAPE THROUGH YOUR MIC INPUT ON YOUR COMPUTER AND THEN YOU CAN SPLIT THE SONGS YOURSELF AND THEN BURN THEM TO A CD!! HAHA I SUGGEST SOUND FORGE 7.0 OR LOWER TO DO THIS, IF YOU NEED THE PROGRAM CONTACT ME AND I'LL GET IT TO YOU !!!

GRATEFULDEAD2777@SBCGLOBAL.NET

THIS IS STILL BETTER THAN THE OLD DAYS WHEN YOU COULDN'T EVEN FIND TAPERS OR ANYONE WITH TAPES, SPREAD THE WORD !!! SEEMS TO ME THAT PEOPLE ARE GETTING A LITTLE SPOILED AROUND HERE, FORGOTTON ABOUT THERE ROOTS !!!

totally agree with the others: get this just for the Promised Land April Fool's opener, truly hilarious! Weir gettin heavy on the organ and Jerry pretty much not even playin the drums, just kinda hittin the kick and snare here and there...phil totally playing the wrong notes on the guitar...man, I laughed for entire tune.
O, yea and the sound to me, is quite clean.

I totally disagree with the previous review. This is the way soundboards are supposed to sound. This is a 5 star show. If you read my other posts I rate on quality of the sound. Download this show!!!!

...who hears the effect of too much audio-editor noise reduction, lopping off chunks of frequency that's been sampled as 'noise'. Unfortunately, it takes those frequencies out of everything - voice, instrument, dead air. It's that odd chipmonk-y tonal quality that makes it sound like you're listening to something that's being mildly processed by a vocoder and passed through an aluminum tube before it goes into your ears. Or a flanger maybe. I find it off-putting. I appreciate the fact that people love these things so much that they want to make them sound great, but in a very real way these recordings are historical documents -- you gotta go easy on the alterations -- Please! An earlier review noted the fuller bottom on this SBD, which is true, but I have a hard time choosing this over its alternative if only for that very slight Darth Vader-ish quality to some of the sounds. 4 for the show, 1 for the processing.

The way this show rolls over you like a wave of musical water just sets it near the top of my list. The full bass, the clear vocals...I think I'm gonna cry...sniff

Anyways...thank you GD for making this gem and thank you to the folks who take the time to preserve and share these shows!

Just for the April Fools Promised Land alone! Jerry & Brent on drums, Bob on the organ, Billy on bass, Phil on lead guitar and Mickey on rhythem guitar and lead vocals! Sound quality is sweet. Setlist is sweet.

This was one of my first Dead tapes, so there may be a little bias due to nostalgia, but it really is a great show. The boys usually threw down at the Capitol theater (check out 11/24/78), and this is no exception. After the April fool's gag, the show really takes off - sweet Candyman, great China/Rider, and a Shakedown encore. If you like stuff from the Brent era, this is highly recommended.

I think this copy sounds better than the other SBD - a little fuller low end. Watch out for Cooledit/Soundforge in the lineage - it can really be hit or miss when it comes to home editing.