Bridge School Benefit Concert

So last night, I went to the Bridge School Benefit Concert. For those of you who don't know, Bridge School is a school started by Neil Young to help severely handicapped children. It is a non-profit organization, and for 23 years they have been hosting benefit concerts, all of the proceeds going to the School. It was amazing, and just a beautiful, acoustic experience.

Neil Young, opened with some words, and one song, which was nice and then

Gavin Rossdale took the stage, every song he sang was beautifully done, he did a Prince cover which was just spectacular.

The next band to take the stage was Wolfmother, they had the fans dancing, and did quite the Neil Young cover as well. I did have to leave during their set to meet a friend of my parents, who has a child enrolled at the bridge school. I met them all at the parents booth and we talked about random things, all the while the child smiled and ate. It was moving hearing all her stories of how they can tell what music he does and doesn't like, and hearing all the gossip on what artists actually got themselves involved with the kids, which is a nice thing. I said my farewells and returned to the concert during the Fleet Foxes performance.

I hadn't heard of the Fleet Foxes before, and they preformed very well with beautiful harmonies, and a nice soft sound.

Monsters of Folk were the next to take the stage, and I was ready to be rocked with all the love they have been getting from Rolling Stone recently, and they did not dissapoint. They weren't as soft as I would have guessed, but they all have very different voices all of them nice, and they harmonize together PERFECTLY. They have amazing lyricism, and great story telling in their songs, with great band chemistry.

Sheryl Crow then took the stage, I loved how she turned on stage and played facing the kids for a little bit, after meeting one of these kids, my attention became more attuned to the acknowledgment they got from artists. But I stand strong behind the fact that Mrs. Crow may be better live than on her Cd, I was blown away (or it could have been the huge wave of marijuana that overcame me as she played her set, which she commented on.) She covered the Beatles song, Say Hey, and the whole crowd was screaming. She is very energetic on stage! And the crowd went wild when she played Soak Up the Sun.

Adam Sandler was probably lucky to go after Sheryl, because everyone in the crowd was either blunted or contact high, and we found his musical humor substantially more funny that it normally would be. He sang a lot, doing some classic rock covers, going on to his own original pieces all humor oriented like the 7 foot man, and the Hanukkah song. He did call Neil Young out to do a duet of 'Powder Finger' which was suprisingly good. Probably because Neil took lead, but Adam acknoledged the kids, made references on how people should donate more, and let quite the average set. I respected his performance which is a whole lot more than I expected to do.

Chris Martin opend with his own little poem about the bridge school, sung beautifully. His vocals were amazing, as was his piano playing, just astounding. He messed up, but played it off and the crowd loved it, he gave off a very relaxed feel. His violinist who he referred to as 'Daf' was amazing, even doing a very strange (yet superbly accurate) horse impression on the violin. He covered a Bruce Springsteen song, and sang many of his own hits, all great. He sang Earth Angle, and had the crowd harmonizing in parts for a good while, very live and nice performance.

No Doubt was maybe the best performance of the night. I can't even believe they have flown under my radar for this long. Gwen sounds JUST like she does on the radio, and every band member has INCREDIBLE musicality, many of them playing multiple instruments, all very well. The percussionist, background vocalist, and trumpet player were all the same guy! And the pianist got up and started playing the trombone! Gwen danced around with the kids, going right up to them, and they were just having an amazing time. Amazing group chemistry, and probably the best performance of the night.

Neil Young is so accustomed to performing now, you can only expect greatness, and it was delivered. He performed very well, Peggy on background, he even had a song with Sheryl Crow in the background, and they had some interesting instruments.

At the end all of the performers came out and were singing and dancing around, playing with the kids, grabbing instruments and playing, it was what a concert should be, fun spontaneous, nice. Adam Sandler even held some instruments for the kids to play, which I thought was very nice, I saw almost every artist go back there and play with the kids during this final song, and it was very moving. An amazing way to close the show.

So the Bridge School is an amazing cause, that you should support weather by going next year, or purchasing the collective CD of many exclusive performances from the past 23 years this has been going on. It is available on Itunes, just search Bridge School. All in all I really think you should help such a beautiful cause, with such beautiful music. All of the artists did very well, and I was very glad to be a part of this concert.