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How Do You Follow The Who? Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Others Play Bridge

The big surprise at this year's Bridge benefit show was that there was no big surprise guest at the end.

Rumors had been flying all day about who the annual mystery guest might be. Paul McCartney? Bruce Springsteen? Elvis? (It was Halloween, after all, and it seemed like anything was possible.)

But the extraordinary line-up--which featured Pearl Jam, Green Day, the Who, Billy Corgan and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins, Sheryl Crow, Brian Wilson, Neil Young, Lucinda Williams, Emmy Lou Harris, and one song by Elvis Costello--was enough of a treat that the sold-out crowd didn't seem to mind the absence of a "special" guest.

The show took off early in the day with a performance by the Who. The recently reunited band delivered acoustic versions of some of their greatest hits, including "the Kids Are Alright," "Behind Blue Eyes," "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Who Are You," "Pinball Wizard," and "I Can't Explain." Billy Corgan and James Iha then took the stage,

admitting they were somewhat intimidated. "How do you follow the Who on a Sunday afternoon?" Corgan jokingly asked the crowd. The Pumpkins performed a quiet set, with Iha and Corgan alternating vocals. They also played a new song, "The Age of Innocence," which Corgan said he'd written just two weeks ago. He hinted that the song could show up on an upcoming Smashing Pumpkins album.

When Billie Joe Armstrong took a moment at the end of Green Day's set to share his thoughts with the crowd, he summed up what most of the musicians seemed to be feeling that day. "This is a really great thing for us to be involved with," Armstrong said, "not just because of the cause, but because every f**king musician up here is better than we are.

The annual concert, which raises money for the Bridge School for disabled children, took place over two days at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. Both days were sold out.

-- Jen Tsao

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