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This is the night when Bruce flipped out on Jerry, just after the first set. Jerry must have taken it to heart, because the second set is impressive. You can hear Bruce "banging" away throughout the show. Interesting historical note.



From Garcia: An American Life by Blair Jackson



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Garcia's playing on the first part of the Dead's September Northeast tour was much more erratic than it had been during the summer; an indication to those close to him that the methadone regimen didn't stick. Bruce Hornsby notes, "Truthfully, I didn't really notice Jerry having problems until the fall of '91. Or maybe I noticed it, but it didn't start pissing me off until the fall."



He continues, "I remember we played nine nights at Madison Square Garden and I thought except for a couple of really great nights, to me it was really a dogshit run. Garcia was in this place I couldn't understand. He was starting to get to that place a lot in the last two or three years when I'd watch them -- he'd put his head straight down and look at the floor the whole time; hunch over and not communicate with anyone. And that wasn't like him, at least as far as I was concerned. We'd always had a lot of eye contact and interpaly, really a lot of good feelings onstage. But it wasn't just that. He sort of wasn't listening and starting to run roughshod over people's solos -- certainly mine -- and I thought at times the music just seemed strangely lifeless. I asked Bobby about it and he explained it to me. I'd heard about it, but had never experienced it firsthand. There were nights when I wanted to push the eject button. What I would have done in my band is try to play in a different way that maybe would have jacked everybody up, tried to take a little more charge of the thing. But in this band I didn't feel it was my place. So I was caught. I felt, 'Damn, this music is not happening; the music is not going anywhere.'



"Then we got to Boston Garden and I was pretty bummed. We played this first set and it wasn't happening again, so I just said, 'Oh fuck it!' and I started playing this stuff that was very unmusical. I was playing hard and pounding and basically driving it up their ass. And sure enough, the gig got jacked up. There was a lot of energy in the set and it was a pretty good set. But I thought I was playing like crap. I was playing in a way I didn't want to play.



"At the end of the set I went into Garcia's tent and he says, 'Man, I love the way you're playing tonight!' And I said, 'Garcia, I'm playing bullshit tonight. I'm playing crap, but it's all I can do because there's nothin' happening here and I really resent your coming to this gig and not putting anything into it,' or words to that effect. And he said 'Well, man, you don't understand twenty-five years of burnout!'"

- April 21, 2013A Set Too Far for Bruce