CSNY, Killers, Queens of the Stone Age to Play Bridge School Benefit
Andy Greene 2 hours ago
This year’s Bridge School Benefit will feature performances by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Queens of the Stone Age, My Morning Jacket, the Killers, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Fun., Heart and Jenny Lewis.
Per tradition, every artist will play a completely acoustic set. The show will be held October 26th and October 27th at the Shoreline Ampitheater in Mountain View, CA. Tickets go on sale September 13th at 10:00 AM.
Bridge School Benefit 2013 will mark Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s first performance since their Freedom of Speech tour wrapped in September of 2006. CSNY, Elvis Costello and My Morning Jacket have played the Bridge School Benefit in the past, but this year will mark the first performances for the rest of the artists. (The Killers will only play on October 26th. All the others will be at both shows.)
The Bridge School Benefit was first held in 1986 and has been staged (with the exception of 1987) every year since. It’s always 100% acoustic, leading to completely unique sets from A-list artists like Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, the Who, Metallica, Arcade Fire, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Tom Petty, Simon and Garfunkel and countless others.
Neil and Pegi Young founded the Bridge School when they were unable to find adequate schooling for their physically challenged son Ben. “He was in a program for special ed students at a school and had some good friends,” Pegi told Rolling Stone in 2010. “But they decided to move the special ed program off campus. This isn’t unusual and I was really sad about it. I was talking to [Neil Young’s manager] Elliot [Roberts] and he said, ‘Why don’t you just start your own school, Peg?’ And I was like, ‘Okay, there’s an idea.’ It just kind of blossomed from there.”
They held the first show in 1986 to raise funds for the new school. “Neil came up with the acoustic format idea,” said Pegi. “It was genius. Nobody was doing that at the time. This is before MTV Unplugged or any of that. It keeps costs down, and it took artists outside their comfort zone. Looking back, that first concert was an exercise in simplicity compared to what it is these days.”
“The 27th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert will be held on October 26th and 27th, 2013 at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Lineup and ticket sales information coming soon! Please check back!”
The Bridge School is a non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that individuals with severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their communities through the use of augmentative & alternative means of communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT) applications and through the development, implementation and dissemination of innovative life-long educational strategies.
The Bridge School is an internationally recognized leader in the education of children who use augmentative and alternative communication and has developed unique programs and trained highly skilled professionals in the use of state of the art assistive technology.
The first concert was held October 13, 1986 and, with the exception of 1987- the year the educational program was launched- it has become a highly anticipated Bay Area favorite.
Wearing a red flannel shirt over a second red flannel shirt, a scraggly Neil Youngbrought the 26th annual Bridge School Benefit Concertat Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheatre to a chilly close on Saturday with his usual all-star run through “Rockin’ in the Free World.” Only one thing was lacking – any discernible stars.
It was an anticlimactic end to an unusually anticlimactic concert that started some seven hours earlier with Young standing in the same spot. The venerated rocker and his wife, Pegi, typically have no problem drawing rock ‘n’ roll heavyweights to their annual shindig benefiting children with severe physical and speech impairments – from the Who and Paul McCartneyto Green Day and Radiohead. It’s a great cause and an honor to share the stage with the host.
But this year’s lineup felt lacking from the start. The most popular names on the bill could have made up an “I Love the ’90s” package show: Sarah McLachlan, the Flaming Lips, k.d. lang, Lucinda Williamsand whatever passes for Guns N’ Roses these days.
Even worse, they performed like it.
An unkempt Axl Rosearrived onstage late, hunched over a microphone stand and huffed his way through tunes that sounded vaguely familiar with a cast of misfits that looked vaguely like a band. His voice and blue jeans equally shredded, Rose forgot the lyrics to his group’s biggest hit, “Welcome to the Jungle,” and delivered an off-key version of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” that most likely had all the dogs within earshot of the concert howling in pain.
The Flaming Lips did their best to scale down their acid-infused psychedelic pop to the concert’s acoustic setting, even drafting the comedian Reggie Wattsfor live beat-boxing duties. But singer Wayne Coyne, in his unwashed gray suit, seemed unsettled. Determined to rile the crowd, he flapped his arms and beseeched, “Come on! Come on!”
Arriving onstage after the woefully mellow double shot of McLachlan and singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagnedidn’t do his band any favors. Nor did its surreal set, in which Coyne rambled incoherently, played “Taps” on a broken bugle and attempted a cover of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” with Watts reading the words off an iPhone.
Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, putting in a surprise guest appearance, provided some relief from the general incompetence of the night as he efficiently revived a couple of his band’s “Seinfeld”-era hits. “When I woke up this morning, this is the last thing I thought I would be doing,” he said, having been drafted to kill time before Guns N’ Roses’ late arrival.
This year it was the more contemporary acts that put in the most memorable sets. Jack White, backed by a pale all-female band resembling zombies, charged through a handful of blues-tinged songs from his solo album, “Blunderbuss,” while coyly flirting with the musicians. He also threw in a couple of White Stripes classics, “Hotel Yorba” and “We’re Going to Be Friends,” for good measure.
Foster the People, who had a huge hit last year with “Pumped Up Kicks” but skipped it altogether on Saturday, also managed to make the most of their brief time onstage, revamping their synthetic pop tunes with remarkable practicality.
Earlier in the day, Steve Martinand the Steep Canyon Rangers performed a passable set of bluegrass as the comedian recycled his old stage jokes (“People say to me, ‘Steve, why a music career? Why now?’ And I say, ‘Hey, you guys are my band.’ “); Lucinda Williams warbled tentatively; and k.d. lang, well, apparently she was there too.
The lackluster lineup left the weight of expectation on Young and his band, Crazy Horse, to close out the show with something substantial. Instead, the band merely revisited a bulk of its Outside Lands set from August – most of it new, unreleased or entirely forgotten material – only without the gnarled gusts of feedback to drive it along.
Toward the end of the night, Young performed a lovely rendition of “The Needle and the Damage Done,” which took on gut-wrenching intensity in light of the past-their-prime performers that came before. Its mournful note struck a tone – with even Rose and White bailing on the jam session, this was clearly a year to forget.
Neil Young
2012-10-20
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California, USA
Bridge School Benefit 26
w/ Crazy Horse
01. Sugar Mountain (solo)
02. Comes A Time (w/ Pegi helping on vocals)
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03. Love And Only Love
04. Powderfinger
05. Born In Ontario (w/ someone on Pump Organ)
06. The Needle And The Damage Done (solo)
07. Twisted Road (solo)
08. "Singer Without A Song" (piano)
09. Ramada Inn
10. Like A Hurricane (w/ Poncho on Pump Organ)
11. Rockin' In The Free World (w/ entire lineup)
Tour: Bridge Benefits
Band: Crazy Horse, Line Up 3
Neil Young - vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, harmonica
Frank Sampedro - acoustic guitar, pump organ, vocals
Billy Talbot - bass, vocals
Ralph Molina - drums, vocals
Tags: setlists Posted in Bridge School Benefit, News / Article, Setlists | Comments Off on Neil Young Set List: 2012-10-20, Bridge School Benefit 26, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California, USA
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Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
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