"This thing is bigger than all of us. We're just along for the

ride," said Neil Young towards the close of his set with Crazy Horse yesterday

at the 10th Anniversary Bridge School Benefit, and quite a 6 1/2 hour ride it

was. This year's edition of the annual event was held on Oct. 20 and 21 at the

Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View California. As usual, it featured a

wide range of musicians, both scheduled (Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Patti Smith,

Cowboy Junkies, and Hayden) and unannounced (Pete Townshend on Saturday, Billy

Idol and Bonnie Raitt on Sunday). But as always at the Bridge shows, the

students of the school (sitting on stage behind the performers) were the

focus.

The Bridge School was started 10 years ago to provide children with

severe speech and physical impairments with an educational environment designed

to meet their unique needs. Each year, Neil and his wife Pegi Young (who helped

found the school) have put on these acoustic benefit concerts to help support

the school, and the shows have become a highlight of the musical year in the

Bay Area for both the crowd and the performers.

On Sunday, the show got

underway at 2 P.M. under beautiful blue California skies. After an introduction

by Pegi Young, and a quick tune from Neil (playing acoustic guitar and

harmonica), the Canadian folk-rocker Hayden took the stage. His half hour solo

set drew largely from his debut album Everything I Long For. Hayden

accompanied himself on guitar and piano; his performance showed the influence

of both the quiet folky sound of Young's music, and the hard grunge angry

vocals of Kurt Cobain or Eddie Vedder, often times in the same song. Clearly

enjoying this foray into the world of big time rock events, Hayden

talked...

Clearly enjoying this foray into the world of big time

rock events, Hayden talked about always using the same microphone, which

smelled like coffee due to once dropping it into a pot of java. On Saturday, he

accidentally left the mike on the stand when Pete Townshend dropped by to sing

a few songs. "Now I don't know what it smells like," Townshend said, "but I'm

happy it smells the way it does.

After Hayden came a surprise appearance

by Billy Idol, who was in town to appear in a production of the Who's

Quadrophenia later that evening in San Jose. Looking fit and decked out

in leather pants, spiked blond hair, a Johnny Cash t-shirt, and "tie-dyed

underwear," Idol launched into a Sun Sessions version of "My Baby Left Me,"

managing a decent accompaniment on guitar. After quick, spirited versions of

"Sweet 16" and "White Wedding," Idol gave way to the Cowboy Junkies. Their

trademark mellow rocking sound fit perfectly with the acoustic tone of the

show, with Margo Timmins leaning on the mike stand to deliver her plaintive

vocals on "Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning," "Murder in the Trailer Park,"

and "Carmelita", among others. "We've played a lot of benefits, but we've never

been treated better than we've been over the last three days," said Timmins as

she picked up a camera to snap pictures of the crowd for her scrapbook.

For

many in the crowd, the highlight of the day was Patti Smith's set. Clad in a

tattered old jacket, white t-shirt, and leather boots, Smith demonstrated both

her incredible commanding stage presence and her maternal instinct, as she

continually went to the kids sitting at the back of the stage to dance, sing,

and reach out to them. "It's a beautiful day, there's kids on the stage and

backstage. I want to do a song for the kids," she said as she launched into

"Wing," from her comeback album Gone Again.

Backed by her current

touring band (Jay Dee Daugherty on drums, Tony Shanahan on bass, and Oliver Ray

and Lenny Kaye on guitars), she gave a mesmerizing performance with songs from

her latest release ("About A Boy," "Beneath the Southern Cross") and material

from earlier in her career ("Dancing Barefoot," "We Shall Live Again").

Standing at the mike, eyes closed, hands and hips shaking, she sang and

preached from her heart, closing her set with "People Have the Power,"

reminding the crowd of the message in the song.

Bonnie Raitt, fresh from a

benefit performance for the Headlands Redwood protest, stopped by next with a

trio of cover songs. A veteran of hundreds of benefit performances, Raitt wore

a "Stop Prop 209" (an anti-affirmative action initiative on the California

ballot) on her pants where most would put a backstage pass. "If you had told me

10 years ago that I would be on the same bill with Billy Idol and Patti Smith,

I would have said, 'Yeah and I'll be in my pajamas,'" she laughed. Her

rendition of the Richard Thompson classic "Dimming of the Day" was the

highlight of the set, along with a sing-along version of Buffalo Springfield's

"For What it's Worth.

Up next was David Bowie, who seemed to clearly enjoy

a foray into a new musical frontier. While Bowie typically performs in a

theatrical setting with lots of stage lighting and movement, this performance

was seated, restrained, yet still pushed the boundaries of his music.

Accompanied by Gail Ann Dorsey on bass/vocals and Reeves Gabrels on

guitar/vocals, Bowie gave new interpretations to "Aladdin Sane" (with a great

MIDI keyboard sounding solo from Gabrels), "Jean Genie," "China Girl," and "The

Man Who Sold the World," which featured sitar-like guitar work from Gabrels and

soaring vocal harmonies from Dorsey and Bowie. Looking cool as ever in a black

striped soccer shirt and a red-spiked haircut he "borrowed from Billy Idol,"

Bowie beamed throughout the performance, dedicating "Heroes" to the kids from

the Bridge school towards the end of his set.

Pearl Jam, who had performed

two years earlier at the Bridge school benefit, were a clear crowd favorite. A

second show had been added for the benefit, largely on the strength of their

inclusion on the bill, and they did not disappoint. Playing a strong 45 minute

set drawn from throughout their career, they opened their portion of the

program with "Sometimes", the lead track from the latest album No Code.

Eddie Vedder, wearing his hair slicked back like he'd just gotten out of the

shower, slowing picked chords to accompany the music, but concentrated mostly

on the vocals, with eyes closed and gentle rocking. Jack Irons kept just to

brushes and bongos throughout to underscore the softer sounds of "Elderly Woman

Behind a Lunch Counter," and "Daughter," which ended with Eddie veering into

the Who's "Can You See the Real Me?", another tribute to one of his favorite

bands. After playing guitar for the first four tunes, Eddie put down his

instrument to tell his story with hands and vocals in "Nothing Man." "It's not

like I feel bad all the time," said Vedder commenting on the darkness of his

lyrics. "It's just that I have days and hours where I am. Someone hears that,

and isn't it funny how they feel better knowing someone was as depressed as

they are?

Finally, just before 8 P. M., Neil Young and Crazy Horse took

the stage. Playing with a pirate flag and Native American feathers hanging off

the drum set, Young and company opened with a barely acoustic "Cinnamon Girl,"

turning up their hollow body instruments as loud as they could. Next up was

"Cortez the Killer," a classic Crazy Horse jamming tune which the band took

into a deep 10+ minute exploration complete with Neil dancing around the stage

while putting his heart into the guitar solos . A rarely performed "Campaigner"

followed, with the refrain "even Richard Nixon has got soul" changed at the end

to refer to Mohammed Ali and Patti Smith. "Mr. Soul" got a rocking treatment

with Young playing harmonica lead. After a couple of tracks from their latest

album ("Scattered" and "Big Time"), Young brought anyone left backstage out to

join in on "Helpless." With big-time friends like these and the ones in the

crowd, the Bridge School should feel anything but helpless.