{"id":67,"date":"2007-10-29T14:55:09","date_gmt":"2007-10-29T21:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evolvingmusic.wordpress.com\/2007\/10\/29\/music-builds-bridges\/"},"modified":"2007-10-29T14:55:09","modified_gmt":"2007-10-29T21:55:09","slug":"music-builds-bridges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/2007\/10\/29\/music-builds-bridges\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Builds Bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over here, we like it when things are thrown together and stirred around for a new outcome. And nothing says \u201cmix and match\u201d like the annual Bridge School Benefit<\/a> held every year at Shoreline Amphitheater<\/a> in Mountain View. Started by Neil Young<\/a> as a fundraiser for the Bridge School, a school focusing on the education of children with very specific needs, the benefit is always one of the highlights of the concert season. Because of several of the basic principles of the Bridge School and the benefit, the event always turns into a sharing and communal concert celebrating life, happiness and the pursuit of education.<\/p>\n

As for the mixing and matching\u2026take multiple well-known and wealthy musical artists. Sprinkle in some lesser known artists that deserve some spotlight. The resulting line-up always covers an incredible spectrum of genres, and as a result, brings in one of the most diverse and eclectic concert going crowds you might ever see. Then, you make all of the artists, even those known for rocking hard, switch to acoustic for the event. Finally, you have all of these musicians and music fans coming together to support and donate to children that, for the most part, they could never imagine being in the shoes of.<\/p>\n

So just how diverse are the musicians? This year\u2019s show featured Regina Spektor<\/a>, Tegan and Sara<\/a>, My Morning Jacket<\/a>, John Mayer<\/a>, Tom Waits<\/a> with the Kronos Quartet<\/a>, Neil Young, Jerry Lee Lewis<\/a> and Metallica<\/a>. Yes, Metallica, at an acoustic show.<\/p>\n

I missed Regina Spektor’s set.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019re there in time for Tegan and Sara<\/a>, which was one of the groups I was interested in seeing. Virtual nobodies before and now starting to bud on the national music scene, Tegan and Sara is one of those groups that got sprinkled into the Bridge School Benefit of 2000, which is where I first heard of them. Scared little children on a stage, they still put on a duo acoustic set that prompted me to download their music and get into them. Now, 7 years later, here we both were at completely different parts in our lives. I\u2019m in the middle of telling some people, \u201cI saw them for the first time when they played Bridge School,\u201d when they tell the crowd, \u201cthe first time we came here, it was for Bridge School and we were 19.\u201d It was nice to see them make their Bridge School return, now quite a bit more mature, with a band backing them, and a second cd to draw music from. They bicker on stage a bit, but I believe they do this to entertain the audience, although, sometimes it\u2019s a bit embarrassing as you end up feeling that you\u2019ve walked into a private family meeting. The highlights of their set are \u201cI was 19,\u201d \u201cLike O, Like H,\u201d and \u201cBack In Your Head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddie Vedder<\/a> and Flea<\/a> were supposed to play after Tegan and Sara, but due to personal problems of Vedder\u2019s, they had to cancel and were replaced by My Morning Jacket. I have never heard of this group before, and if the set they put together yesterday was any indication, I never want to again.<\/p>\n

John Mayer<\/a>, at least in my personal opinion, falls into that annoying category of singer\/songwriters that succeed due to mass marketing, cheesy songs, romantic expectations and a sound simple enough that the general public goes, \u201coooh, this is really good!\u201d<\/a> Someone tried to compare Mayer with Dave Matthews <\/a>at one point, and I almost threw that someone off a balcony. The lyrical depth isn\u2019t even close. The guy that sings the \u201cHad a Bad Day\u201d song, John Mayer and Jack Johnson should get together to form a pop sensation super band in which all 102 songs of their catalogue sound vaguely similar and they go quadruple platinum because of how easily digestible their music is to the public. But hey\u2026that\u2019s just my opinion, right?<\/p>\n

For the set, it\u2019s Mayer and two other guitarists. Mayer comes out trying to act very relaxed and nonchalant, sits down on a stool, gives a raspy \u201cHow you doing out there?\u201d to his female admirers, and proceeds with a set that sounds like a frat boy playing guitar in the middle of campus hoping to get noticed, if not laid. He pulls out the same raspy voice on the majority of his vocals, I can\u2019t tell the difference between the songs other than slight tempo changes, and while they try to disguise it with tricky camera work, every guitar solo of even remote musical complexity is done not by Mayer, but by one of the other two guys on the stage with him. I\u2019m about to give up the set as a complete washout when he closes it by covering \u201cFree Fallin.\u201d It\u2019s a nice touch, but he comes dangerously close to screwing this hallowed classic up by failing to sing the chorus with anything remotely resembling Petty<\/a>\u2019s range and energy. If you ever want to listen to John Mayer, I suggest going down to your local campus and looking for a guy playing guitar\u2026he may not be as well known, but hey, he could be the next John Mayer, and if not, he\u2019s certainly more affordable to see in concert.<\/p>\n

Following Mayer we have Neil Young. First off, you can\u2019t say anything negative about his set because he puts on the event, his songs are as old as the Amphitheater itself, and he\u2019s always Neil. You can\u2019t say much positive though because bands have a tendency to lose their effect after multiple shows. Neil plays at every Bridge School, so I think I\u2019ve probably seen him 8 or 9 times now. He\u2019s solid, and you have to give him one thing\u2026he\u2019s extremely consistent. The only thing he didn\u2019t break out last night was the big stand-up organ I\u2019ve seen him use from time to time, but this is probably due to the fact that he usually closes the show and this time went in the middle of the sets. I don\u2019t recognize any of the songs, but at the end he tells the crowd that it\u2019s mostly new material and he doesn\u2019t expect anyone to have recognized any of it.<\/p>\n

Next up is one of the primary reasons I bought tickets for this Bridge School, and the performance of Tom Waits and the Kronos Quartet delivers. For those of you who don\u2019t know the Kronos Quartet, they\u2019re the group that performed Clint Mansell<\/a>\u2019s arrangements for Darren Arronofsky<\/a>\u2019s movie Requiem for a Dream<\/a> based on Hubert Selby<\/a>\u2019s book. But when you mix a legendary, eccentric and out there rocker like Tom Waits with an incredibly proficient and polished string quartet like Kronos, the outcome is something spectacular. I\u2019d almost want to dub this Chamber Rock. They come out and open with the theme song from HBO\u2019s The Wire<\/a>, which is stellar. He also plays some old time blues songs with the Quartet behind him straying into some dark and menacing arrangements. He plays a variety of songs with completely different sounds. One sounds like a Gotan<\/a> tango song laced with arsenic, and one takes on the style of a macabre show tune. There aren\u2019t a whole lot of succinct words to describe this performance, but it was one of the more interesting musical collaborations I\u2019ve seen and ranked right up there with last year\u2019s Trent Reznor<\/a>\/string quartet performance (although Trent didn\u2019t use Kronos, so he loses some points there). After Waits leaves, I feel like the energy in the place is knocked up a few notches, and I\u2019m wondering if they can bring him out for another set.<\/p>\n

Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the other main reasons I bought tickets for this show. He\u2019s one of the few truly incredible icons and musical prodigies that I had yet to see in concert. He comes out with a slower walk, a pair of glasses, long hair slicked back off his forehead and sits down at the piano. Now, he\u2019s older, so you can tell his fingers can\u2019t take the speed and ferocity he used to be known for, but he\u2019s still a master musician. He comes out playing old hits and most everyone in the audience is moving with him. He at points lapses into a deep Southern twang, and almost consistently refers to himself in songs as \u201cJerry Lee.\u201d He can\u2019t dance at the piano like he used to, but the voice in his songs and the way he attacks the piano give you a clear idea of who he used to be as a performer, and just how much, even this late in life, is still there for him. His set is remarkable, and in conjunction with Tom Waits and the Kronos Quartet, the price of the ticket is well justified. The highlights of his set include \u201cRoll Over Beethoven,\u201d \u201cYou Win Again\u201d (Hank Williams cover), \u201cYour Cheating Heart,\u201d \u201cGreat Balls of Fire\u201d and \u201cWhole Lotta Shakin\u2019 Going On.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Lewis finishes up, Metallica comes out to close the show. They, like Tegan and Sara, have made two Bridge School appearances, and I\u2019ve been lucky enough to be at both. They came out and played 5 covers and 3 originals. Thanks to KFer (not KFed!) for the info\u2026They started with \u201cI Just Want to Celebrate\u201d (ironically used in the final episode of 6 Feet Under<\/a>, making this an evening where two tracks from HBO series were played) then played Nazareth<\/a>\u2019s \u201cPlease Don\u2019t Judas Me.\u201d Personally, I found it excellent and amazing when they covered Garbage<\/a>\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Only Happy When It Rains,\u201d right before Dire Straits<\/a>\u2019 \u201cBrothers in Arms.\u201d Following this, they went into \u201cDisposable Heroes,\u201d \u201cAll Within My Hands,\u201d and Bob Seger<\/a>\u2019s \u201cTurn the Page\u201d before closing their set and the show with \u201cNothing Else Matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

All in all, it wasn\u2019t the most impressive Bridge line-up I\u2019ve ever seen\u2026My Morning Jacket and John Mayer could have definitely been left off the guest list. But seeing Metallica acoustically, Jerry Lee Lewis for the first time and the unreal performance of Tom Waits and the Kronos Quartet made this a very successful, diverse and memorable Bridge School Benefit. See y\u2019all next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over here, we like it when things are thrown together and stirred around for a new outcome. And nothing says \u201cmix and match\u201d like the annual Bridge School Benefit held every year at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. Started by Neil Young as a fundraiser for the Bridge School, a school focusing on the education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[16,23,25],"tags":[295,296,347,2674,941,1006,1170,1294,1646,1797,1884],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}