Bridge School Benefit

Ahhh, the time of year is drawing near for the wild Bridge School Benefit rumors to start flowing.

For those of you not familiar with it, the Bridge School Benefit is an annual benefit show that Neil Young and his wife Pegi put on at the Shoreline Ampitheatre. The Bridge School is a special needs school that assists children with severe physical impairments and complex communication needs [thanks Wiki!] The shows have been going on for about 20 years now with one year being skipped for a reason I didn't bother to track down.


It's a very special show as Neil Young pulls out all the stops in bringing the best lineup to town that he can and traditionally - but not always - the bands all perform acoustic which can create some very interesting scenarios. Over the years, the show has seen bands like R.E.M., Springsteen, the Pumpkins, the Chilis, and many, many others perform.

Mrs. Blue and I went to the 2006 edition which had a lineup of Devendra Banhart, Gillian Welch, Death Cab For Cutie, Trent Reznor (yep, acoustic), Foo Fighters, Brian Wilson, Pearl Jam, the Dave Matthews Band, and of course, Neil Young himself. It was an amazingly diverse show with such memorable moments as Reznor stealing the show with acoustic versions of many NIN songs, the Foo Fighters absolutely rocking the crowd (especially on their "cover" of Nirvana's "Marigold,") Brian Wilson tearing the house down by sailing through all the Beach Boys songs no one expected him to do, and well, of course there's Pearl Jam who never disappoints. Tradition has Neil invite everyone back onstage at the end of the show for a group singalong that had Eddie and the boys join him for "Rockin' In The Free World." Even the shitty performance of DMB couldn't drag that show down.

We decided that we wanted to attend this year so I've been keeping an eye out for rumors of who would be performing this year - or if there would even be a show at all (no dates have been announced yet but I can't imagine the show not going on.)

Here's the "word on the street" so far:

Neil Young - of course. And honestly, I enjoyed his set a lot more in '06 than I thought I was. Despite the fact that it was late and freezing, the man knows how to put on a show still.

Pearl Jam - seems to be some debate on this. A band member told some people earlier in the year that they were definitely playing Bridge School this year but told some other fans a couple weeks ago that they definitely weren't. The plot thickens!

Wilco - just a rumor right now but that'd be a lot of fun as I was telling the Missus last weekend that I would like to see Wilco in concert

ZZ Top - this is one of those bands that you wouldn't expect on the bill but would make perfect sense. Apparently they're opening for the Foos on Oct 26th in SoCal so it would be possible... and I wonder if that makes the Foos rumored as well.

Other bands in California in the last couple weeks of October that might make sense:
Santana - playing Shoreline on 10/11
Randy Newman - in SF the weekend of the 10/17, has a new album
Conor Oberest - in SF the weekend of 10/24, has a new album
The Kooks - in SF on 10/25
Tina Turner - has both poss. weekends open and in California/Arizona area

So, there's a start of some more rumors for ya!

Anyways, assuming the show happens, anyone within range of car/bus/train/plane should make an effort to see it at least once because it's a fun time and a lot different than most festival-type shows you could attend.