The Bridge School Benefit



I have to admit something. I went to this concert October 18th, 1997. I'm writing this review on September 14, 1998. The reason: This was the first concert I saw after my web browser broke on AOL so I couldn't do a review for it. After a couple of months, I started working with Netscape and got new webpages but none of them were connected to Neith so I never put up my reviews on those pages. Around May, I started to make a new page for Neith. The first review I put on this page after it was finished was the BFD 5 review, the first concert I saw after Bridge School. With the exception of this review, all of my reviews were written the night or day after I saw the concert. I like to preserve the feel of the concert that way. (I have very short term memory, that's another reason I write these.) On with the review:

One boring Saturday in September, I noticed a blurb about some concert called "The Bridge School Benefit". By stroke of luck, both Metallica and Smashing Pumpkins, two of my groups favorite bands were playing! And it was at the Shoreline Ampitheatre, our favorite concert venue! And it's entirely acoustic, no earplugs for me! We quickly grabbed tickets for the Saturday show, October 18th, 1997. This would mark the first time my group went to a concert together: it was myself, both of my parents, and my friends Paul,
Silver and Sarah. The complete lineup was: 
Neil Young, Alanis Morrisette, Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Smashing Pumpkins, Lou Reed, Blues Traveler and Kacy Crowley.
(And you know what's really pathetic? I'm wearing my Bridge School shirt right now and I had to take it off and find the names on the back.)

It was quite a strange trip down to Mountainview. Sarah, Silver and I were crammed in the backseat while Paul had to sit in the *very* back. I have never heard so much arguing, except for maybe when my sister and Paul sat together in back on the way to see Metallica.

Anyways, due to the fact that a lady gave us a pet turtle about an hour before we were due to leave, we were extremely late. We totally missed Kacy Crowley and got in there about halfway through Blues Traveler.


Blues Traveler: Well, the only songs I remember the doing were Runaround and one other that I'm vaguely familiar with. They were pretty cool....little did I know that it was not the last
I'd see of John Popper.

I don't excatly remember the order that everybody played in except that the last two were DMB and Smashing Pumpkins. Here is my guess:

Lou Reed: Well, I don't know any of his stuff but it sounded good. Also, John Popper got onstage to play his harmonica along with a song.

Neil Young: I was down at the snack bar when he was on, and it was just as they got the TVs working...it was nice, he had a piano onstage with him and I think he had a dog with him. (?) John Popper once again played along with his harmonica.

Alanis Morrisette: First song she did was "All I Really Want", after that, I was lost. She was also one of two acts that didn't have a guest appearance by John Popper. Probably cause she had her own harmonica.

Metallica: This was when all the metal heads came out. And it was hella funny cause in the middle of the show, my friend Paul screamed "I love you James!" and all the Hell's Angels started glaring at him. Okay, they opened with Free Bird, played a few songs we didn't recognize including what we know now as Low Man's Lyric (the only way I remember this one is they brought out the hurdy-gurdy man), Fade to Black, Nothing Else Matters, Last Caress and Four Horsemen. Not sure on the order, but those are the songs I remember.

Dave Matthews Band: I don't listen to DMB so all I remember is that one song, the second single from their last album, the one where the video is set in the psycho ward, and they closed with Crash Into Me which was nice. My mom thinks Dave Matthews is cute.

Smashing Pumpkins: I was sooo mad. Firstly because after DMB, about a fourth of all the people there started to leave. Secondly, all day Silver had been whining that she wanted to hear Marilyn Manson. So I almost dropped dead when he came out on stage with Twiggy to sing Eye. I was so pissed. Then Paul was laughing at me saying "Hah, now they're probably going to play The Beautiful People"...seconds later, they started playing that! Paul started screaming and ran away from me. Okay, I remember them doing the following songs: Set the Ray to Jerry, Eye (Marilyn Manson singing), Beautiful People (Then MM left, my dad said he kissed Billy right on the top of his bald head), XYU(which sounded really weird), Disarm, 1979, possibly some new songs and they closed with Muzzle. (Other than Muzzle, I have no idea what order the songs were in) Oh yeah, this was the second band that John Popper didn't appear with.

Well, I thought this concert was really cool. It was interesting hearing these bands play all their music acoustically. And it was nice going to the Shoreline and getting garlic fries...<drool>