1990-09-16: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

Opportunity awaits in NYC provided you’re in the right place at the right time.  Two things before I carry on.  One, I must implore, this story, being over twenty five years old, now qualifies as folk lore.  The only certainty I can bring here is that I was on the receiving end of one of these tickets & this is the story I was told during the show.  Two, Ray Ackerman.  I must give a nod to our taper & the stellar pulls he produced from a venue that is not the easiest to make a quality recording in.  The ambiance he has produced is the just the right dichotomy of room & music.

Outside the Garden, a couple of hours before showtime, 7th Avenue was crawling with a sea of pedestrians.  All pouring into Penn Station, making they’re way back to their two car garages, 3.5 kids & the suburban mortgage.   The police were attempting to keep everyone moving so as not to bottleneck the main entrance to Penn Station, aka no loitering or get trampled by a horse.  It was pretty unruly & made for a tense setting.  It was there that two scalpers got into a scuffle.  As they argued some pushing & shoving ensued causing these scalpers to let their guard down.  This much I witnessed.  I saw the cops move in & that was my cue to high tail it outta there.  

The next part of the story I was told.  As the scuffle ensued a young hustler came in from behind & broke one of the scalpers belt pacs off & ran with it.  He dove into Penn Station & got lost in the masses.  As the story went on this young dude wasn’t a head but a dope sick street kid.  In addition to a windfall of cash, this junkie made off with a stash of tickets as well.  With his eyes set on a big score, he sourced some smack & then tried to unload the tickets on some heads.  Someone had the notion to tell him that the tickets were fake & talked him out of them for some additional dope.  Those tickets were then dispersed under the guise that no money exchange hands cause the tickets were ‘tainted’.  Not to mention there was a pretty good chance they were fake.  I don’t know who this young dude was but the ticket I got this night came to me by way of him, at no cost.  In fact, anyone & everyone that was looking for a miracle this night got one.  The presumption was that the tickets were fake so if you were gonna try to get with it put some hard cash behind it.  I don’t know if that happened with every ticket or how many tickets were liberated.  All I know is that me & few of my mates all scored one & got in.  It seemed like everyone on tour got it on this night too. 
 
My assumption is that all the liberated tickets went into the right hands & nary a penny exchanged hands, which is why we referred to this MSG run as the good karma shows.  I guess the stars aligned over the Isle, making the dance party behind the stage particularly good for this show.  I do think the majority of the tickets were fake cause there was a big crowd of people behind the stage.  Where else do ya go when ya don't have a seat??

Joe.