Sunday, October 23rd 2011

News:  Bridge School Benefit

Watch Highlights From The 2011 Bridge School Benefit

By Fernando Scoczynski Filho

Organized by Neil Young and his wife, Pegi, the Bridge School Benefit is a non-profit charity event, featuring mostly acoustic performances, held every October since 1986, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, with all proceeds benefiting the operations of The Bridge School.

This year, as usual, an impressive roster of artists was lined up for the event, occurring on the October 22-23 weekend. This Saturday, Beck, Eddie Vedder, Dave Matthews, Arcade Fire, and, of course, Neil Young were among the highlights. As is usual in this event, several of Mr. Young’s songs were covered, and some guest appearances ensued. You can watch them below:

First, Beck was joined by Neil Young himself to cover Pocahontas:

During Eddie Vedder’s set (which started with a cover of Young’s Don’t Cry No Tears that was quickly aborted), there were two guest appearances. First, Régine Chassagne from Arcade Fire joined Eddie on Tonight You Belong To Me:

Later, Beck sang Sleepless Nights with Eddie:

Here’s a solo take on the Ten passion-blast Porch, for which the line “There aint gonna be any middle anymore” takes on a new snarling poignance:

Dave Matthews and his guitarist Tim Reynolds were joined by Neil Young to cover the folk classic Oh! Susanna:

Arcade Fire were also joined by Neil Young, covering Crosby, Still, Nash & Young’s Helpless:

And last, but not least, here’s Young’s entire night-closing set:

Setlist: Comes A Time, Sugar Mountain, Long May You Run, Heart Of Gold, Get Together

The entire Saturday event can be streamed here. In addition to the artists that performed on Saturday, Sunday’s event will include concerts from Foo Fighters and Tony Bennett.

You can donate to The Bridge School here.