by Justin Burke

Knowing that U2 was in Hershey rehersing for the Outdoor Broadcast of the ZOO TV tour, was almost to painful for me to bear since I was a mere hour away in suburban Philadelphia. I was probably at the peak of a U2 obsession riding the wave of the previous arena shows and the long awaited release of Actung Baby. I wanted to see "the boys" so badly. When they announced on the radio that tickets were being sold for the dress rehershal, I was in a car hurling toward Hershey, PA in a matter of miuntes. Upon arrival, there were people mmilling about the stadium, but the scene was nowehere near as hectic as I had imagined. There was no line at at all at the ticket booth. My friend and I sauntered up and inquired about the price. "15 dollars," they said. I misheard them and dropped down $50, still thinking it was great deal (I paid $80 from a Scalper to see them at the Spectrum earlier that Spring). Boy was I surprised when thay handed me 35 bucks in change! I was more surpirsed when I saw where my seats were...6TH ROW!!!! I was floored. Did all these other people know that tickets were even on sale?
The concert did sell out eventually and after enduring a local Hershey band that warmed-up U2 took the stage and ran through some "oldies" to warm themselves up. It was such a treat to see them informal and relaxed. They performance itself was loose, but inspired, Bono and the Edge working the wings and catwalks. My favorite moment was the impropteu acoustic performance of Whose Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. Bono took the stage with guitar in hand and the sequencers began to kick in. After a few bars, Bono instructs the soundcrew to "turn that crap off" and proceeded to run through the song without computerized accompanyment. Not really enjoying this song very much before, this performance revealed to me the core of the song and my appreciation of it rose dramatically. I noticed that Bono muct have like it as well as this is how he performed it at the show I saw at Vet's Stadium in Philadelphia later that summer. It was a good night and an event I will never forget. Thank's guys!

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