Farrah and I went to the Bridge School Benefit concert this past Sunday.  The lineup for the concert on that day was:

We chose to go on Sunday the day the Smashing Pumpkins were playing.  We would have liked to have watched Sarah McLaughlin, who was only playing Saturday, but Farrah had never seen the Smashing Pumpkins in concert. They didn’t disappoint.

I wasn’t familiar with Cat Power’s or Wilco’s music but enjoyed their sets. Death Cab for Cutie had many fans in the audience, all enjoying their performance.  I recognized three of their songs, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”,  “Soul Meets Body”, and “I Will Possess Your Heart”.    I walked away from their performance wanting to listen to more of their songs.

Smashing Pumpkins were up next.  They came with two pianists, a trombone and trumpet player, a dual-violin player, and the regular core band.   I didn’t recognize most of the songs, some of which I think was new.  Josh Groban came out to sing “Disarm”.  It was a good performance, though he did forget some lyrics.

The Josh Groban set was difficult to get into, though you can’t deny he has a strong voice.  Norah Jones had her (somewhat) new short haircut.  She put a country vibe to her standards, and also sang a couple of Johnny Cash songs.  Jack Johnson’s set got the audience on their feet with ‘Bubble Toes’, “If I Had Eyes”, “Good People”, and “Banana Pancakes”.  His set had the overall crowd more enthused than anyone else that performed before him.  I can’t say how Neil Young’s set was since Farrah and I left right after Jack Johnson finished.

We did get to see Neil Young perform several times during the show.  He came out to begin the whole shindig.  He subsequently came out to perform with different artists at the end of their sets, most notably with Josh Groban, Norah Jones, then Jack Johnson.

Other things to note:

  • Shoreline didn’t charge for parking. Does anyone know why they don’t charge?  It seems like a money maker for them, but heck it saved me an expected $20.
  • They charged $9 - $12 for a beer!  Robbery.

Overall, the concert was a nice mellow affair.  The concert began on a warm Sunday afternoon, which subsequently turned into a cold windy night (part of the reason we left early).