Great Music, Better Cause

Last weekend, Pearl and I attended the Bridge School Benefit Concert, one of the most highly anticipated events on the Bay Area’s social calendar, which for all its lack of pomp and pageantry, still maintains the intimacy of a backyard barbecue – well, a barbecue with your 22,000 closest friends.

The Bridge School was founded in 1986 by Pegi Young (wife of Neil Young), James Foederer and Dr. Marilyn Buzolich to educate children with speech and physical impairments and teach alternative means of communication. Neil and Pegi’s son, Ben, was one of the school’s first students.

The proceeds of the annual benefit concert, an all-acoustic, star-studded celebration, which was started the same year as the school, partially funds the technology, equipment and support needed to provide the students with an excellent education and also the transition program which assists Bridge School graduates with their education and integration into their home school district post-graduation.

http://www.bridgeschool.org/about.html

The concert is now in its 20th year and has featured performances by some of the biggest names in music, including Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty, Jerry Garcia, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, REM, Beck, Willie Nelson and John Lee Hooker. Many artists return to perform time and again. This was the fifth BSBC for The Dave Matthews Band and the seventh for Pearl Jam. The only constant from year to year is the founder and host, Neil Young, and the promise of a fantastic show. This year was no disappointment.

For a line up from each of the BSBC’s 20 concerts see the link below:
http://hyperrust.org/Bridge/Benefit.html

The weather was beautiful (nearing 80 degrees in late October!) and the concert was already in full-swing when we arrived at the Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre in the second hour of a day-long concert. We had missed the first two performances: Neil’s opening set which featured his wife, Pegi, performing alongside a Native American drummer and dancer, and psychedelic folk singer Devendra Banhart. I was sorry to have missed Neil (although we had many other opportunities to see him throughout the day, evening and night) and as well as Bert Jansch who accompanied the first two sets and took the lead at one point during Banhart’s performance.

As we entered the amphitheatre to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ rendition of Gram Parsons’ Hickory Wind, I knew at once that we were in for a good show. The upper lawn, already a patchwork of blankets and bodies, left hardly any green showing. It took us nearly 20-minutes to find four square feet of grass on which to lay our blanket. As we wandered through the masses, we caught our first glimpse of our host as he accompanied Gillian and David as they covered his own Country Girl.

Two large screens, on either side of the stage, provided close-up of the performers, interspersed with shots of the crowd and of the current and former students (Ben Young among them) who sat onstage, providing a beautiful and moving backdrop, a constant reminder of the cause we were supporting and celebrating.

Shortly after we settled in, the next performer, Death Cab for Cutie replaced Gillian, performing a handful of pretty pop songs and then a cover of Graham Nash's Military Madness for which Neil returned to the stage to join in on guitar and vocals.

Trent Reznor followed with a stark, emotional set. We were wondering how well Reznor would fit into the acoustic format but he pulled it off quite well. Seated at a piano and accompanied by a string quartet, he did an excellent job re-arranging some of his formerly metal-heavy tracks – Hurt and The Frail among them.

Up next were the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl, brought huge smiles and some impressive acoustic head-banging on My Hero, a song which he dedicated to Neil. The group brought their set to a close with Everlong after Grohl recounted that at a previous Bridge School performance of this emotional song, he retreated to his trailer in tears.

Pegi Young then introduced a short tribute to Emma Pitcairn, a 25 year old Bridge School graduate who passed away last month. Set to Neil’s One of These Days, the tribute showed Emma from childhood to her young adulthood: Emma had such a wide smile in every photo (with her family, with friends, in classes at school). The brief documentary helped us reflect on all the school does for its students and how much every student becomes part of the Bridge School family. It again served, like the live shots of the students onstage, to remind us of the reason we (the audience, the performers and the students) were there. This tribute received one of the loudest and longest applauses of the evening.

"One of These Days"

One of these days,
I'm gonna sit down
and write a long letter
To all the good friends I've known

And I'm gonna try
And thank them all
for the good times together.
Though so apart we've grown.

One of these days,
I'm gonna sit down
and write a long letter
To all the good friends I've known

One of these days,
one of these days,
one of these days,
And it won't be long, it won't be long.

And I'm gonna thank,
That old country fiddler
And all those rough boys
Who play that rock 'n' roll
I never tried to burn any bridges
Though I know I let some good things go.

One of these days,
I'm gonna sit down
and write a long letter
To all the good friends I've known

One of these days,
one of these days,
one of these days,
And it won't be long, it won't be long.

From down in L.A.
All the way to Nashville,
From New York City
To my Canadian prairie home
My friends are scattered
Like leaves from an old maple.
Some are weak, some are strong.

One of these days,
I'm gonna sit down
and write a long letter
To all the good friends I've known

One of these days,
one of these days,
one of these days,
And it won't be long, it won't be long.

One of these days,
one of these days,
one of these days,
And it won't be long, it won't be long.

The highlight of my night came next as Brian Wilson took the stage and performed a selection of my favorite songs, including God Only Knows, Wouldn't it Be Nice, Heroes and Villains and Good Vibrations (with Neil on a 200 year old pump organ). It was the most fun set of the night: young and old fans alike got up to dance and sing along with California Girls.

As darkness drew in, Pearl Jam kicked up the intensity with a cover of Dylan’s Masters of War. Their set included Around the Bend, Thin Air (which they dedicated to two friends of Maricor, a Bridge School graduate and current Berkeley student), Lukin, and Betterman, culminating with the Eddie Vedder/Neil Young collaboration Throw Your Hatred Down.

As the sun rounded the horizon, the cold drew in quick. The crowd thinned as the families with young children made their way to the exits. Those who were able to handle the cold remained, turning their collars up against the cold and huddling close for warmth. The video screens which had been providing shots of the Bridge School students smiling, clapping and laughing, now showed them burrowing into their parents for a warm place to sleep.

The Dave Matthews Band turned a number of their radio friendly hits into extended jams. Favorites Crash and Everyday were fun and lively and got the crowd dancing. Neil Young reappeared to another huge applause and joined Matthews on an 18-minute version of Down by the River. It was clearly the showpiece of a very impressive set. As the two men walked off the stage, Neil turned to prostrate himself before Matthews in a manner I’d seen so many fans doing every time Neil gained the stage.

Finally, Neil reappeared one last time to close out the show and with a set that included Harvest Moon and One of These Days. As we were leaving the amphitheatre around midnight, Neil gathered all the performers together one last time and led them in an excellent rendition of Keep on Rockin' in the Free World - a perfect way to end a perfect show.

--------------------------------------------------------

From: http://bad-news-beat.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1795
10-22-2006, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California
Performances by Neil Young

1. Ambulance Blues (w/ Bert Jansch)
2. Long May You Run (w/ Pegi Young)
3. Comes a Time (w/ Pegi Young)
---
w/ Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
4. Country Girl (guitar, harmonica and lead vocals for last verse)
---
w/ Death Cab For Cutie
5. Military Madness (guitar and vocals)
---
w/ Brian Wilson
6. Good Vibrations (pump organ)
7. Barbara Ann (background vocals)
---
w/ Pearl Jam
8. Throw Your Hatred Down (guitar and vocals)
---
w/ The Dave Matthews Band
9. Down by the River (guitar and vocals)
---
w/ The Prairie Wind Band
10. After the Garden
11. Goin' Back
12. Harvest Moon
13. Old Man
14. One of These Days
---
15. Rockin' In the Free World