The annual Bridge School Benefit concerts at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California are among some of the most unique shows you’ll see all year. Some of the biggest acts have appeared in the past including Paul McCartney, The Who, CSN&Y to name a few. There have been one-off performances as well including solo sets by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. This year marked the 23rd annual and it was a great lineup with a diverse range of acts.
But it isn’t the acts that make the shows, it’s the performances, which are always different. The show unofficially requires acoustic sets and that requires many artists to rethink their performance and create unique sets that you can’t see anywhere else. Neil Young and his wife Pegi host the event, and Neil often sits in with some of the acts, sometimes pairing with somebody you would never expect him to sit in with such as Billy Idol, or Brian Wilson.
Reading the local area newspapers, it seems Neil gets slammed if he plays it safe with superstars or gets edgy with new acts. The jaded hipsters in the mainstream media need to have a complaint no matter who is on the bill. Meanwhile the fans always enjoy the shows and travel from all over the world. Talking to fans between acts, every act was named as a highlight by someone. But everyone was happy to be there, enjoying the music and helping fund the Northern California school for kids with severe speech and physical impairments cofounded by Pegi Young.
The show always begins with a pre-show performance by the Dennis Alley Wisdom Dancers to bless the event. Then Pegi Young speaks to the audience about the school and introduces the students who are sitting on a platform at the back of the stage, before introducing her husband who then performs a short acoustic set. Each day has most of the same acts, usually in the same order. The only difference this year was that Jimmy Buffett played Saturday and Adam Sandler replaced him on Sunday with a unique performance.
The first act after Neil was Gavin Rossdale of Bush fame who played a short stripped down set accompanied by a second guitarist and a keyboard player. It was not the electrified grunge he usually plays. His set included covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and Prince’s “Sometimes It Snows In April” as well as some Bush hits such as “Come Down,“ “Little Things,” and “Glycerine.” Next up was frontman Andrew Stockdale and his new version of Wolfmother, who almost sounded electric because of their hard-rocking high-energy set.
Following the raucous Wolfmother set, it was time for the exquisite harmonies and whispered sounds of Fleet Foxes. Singer Robin Pecknold reminisced between songs about the time he sat on the lawn at 2000’s Bridge School Benefits with his father. Representing the latest Seattle sound, they were unfamiliar to many in the audience, but probably earned some new fans with their lush sound that recalled the vocal harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash (very familiar territory for Neil fans).
Current buzz band Monsters of Folk played next. An indie supergroup featuring Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis (both from Bright Eyes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), and M. Ward (She & Him), their individual accomplishments are familiar, but their new material was a nice amalgam that featured guitar duels, vocal interplay, and sturdy rhythms as band members switched instruments. They probably converted more than a few Neil fans.
Sheryl Crow played a stripped-down set next that featured familiar songs such as “If it Makes You Happy,” and “Soak Up The Sun,” with both fans and Sheryl jumping up and down to the latter, which closed her set. She also covered the Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” and called the Bridge School Benefits her favorite gig in the world after 20 years of touring.
On Saturday, Jimmy Buffett was the ultimate crowd pleaser, with an upbeat attitude, and party atmosphere that kept the crowd on their feet celebrating island rhythms such as Volcanoes,“ and “Marguaritaville, and ballads such as “Come Monday,” and “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” On Sunday Adam Sandler had everybody grinning or laughing along with his humorous songs and a crack band that included everyone’s favorite session guitarist Waddy Wachtel. He opened his set with the Doors’ “Break on Through” (quipping that he wrote it when he was four and the lyrics were stolen at UCLA) and included a cover of Zep’s “Hey Hey What Can I do” that was so good we may have a replacement singer if Plant refuses again. Sandler also managed to be the only person to get Neil Young to come out during his set and the two swapped vocals on Neil’s “Powderfinger.”
Chris Martin, introduced as one of the guys from Coldplay was next, playing a stripped down set with him on piano and Davide Rossi (who did the strings on Coldplay’s latest album) on violin. Wearing a red t-shirt, jeans, and striped hat covering his entire hairline, he quipped "A lot of people are probably wondering, 'Why is that guy wearing such a stupid hat?' "It's proof that no matter how rich and famous you become, it doesn't matter: You still can't shave your own head. Especially when you've got two major concerts to do two days later." Sunday he said that was a joke, he was really hiding the balloon boy in the hat.
He opened Saturday with an instrumental take on “I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry” that segued into “Clocks,” and on Sunday he segued from “(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay” into “Clocks,“ which also featured a snippet of “Like a Hurricane.” “Yellow” “Lost?,“ and “Viva La Vida” were the other three Coldplay hits he chose to play, along with covers of Springsteen’s “My Love Will Not Let You Down,” and Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.” He ended his set with a sing along cover of the Penguins’ “Earth Angel.”
No Doubt were the big draw for many of the younger fans and they delivered a hit-filled set that included “Spiderwebs,” “Just a Girl,” and “Simple Kind of Life.” Gwen Stefani was clearly touched by the cause and spent a good bit of her set singing directly to the children on the platform behind the band.
Unlike the comfortable clothes favored by many of the other acts, she was dressed up for her set in a black and white outfit, with big heels, big hair and big eyelashes. For the second half of their set, they added a string section to add nice textures to the tunes, especially “It’s My Life” (whatever happened to Talk Talk anyway?).
Neil Young closed the night with a set of some of his many classics and his current touring band that includes his wife Pegi, Spooner Oldham, Ben Keith, Karl Himmel, and Rick Rosas. “I am a Child,” and “Sugar Mountain” seem made for the event. Sheryl Crow came out to add backing vocals to “Harvest Moon” and many of the performers came out to help close the show with “Comes a Time.”
At the end, Neil and Pegi thanked everyone that came out to the show and said goodnight. It was like the end of a day-long celebration of the power of people coming together to do something good for the community and enjoy the communal aspect of humanity. And it was a testament to the importance of parents and children. Unlike many charity events, where celebrity egos fight for attention, it was the cause that was the star at the Bridge School Benefits, and everybody that was there to participate, whether as performer or fan was a part of the magic.
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