Photo: Brecheisen/WireImage
The 23rd Bridge School Benefit, the annual concert organized by Neil Young and his wife, Pegi, to raise money for the Northern California school for kids with severe speech and physical impairments cofounded by the latter, demonstrated how beautifully old can blend with the new this weekend. In addition to long-toothed fans and young ears sitting side by side on a beautiful Indian-summer Sunday in Mountain View at Shoreline Amphitheatre, new groups like Fleet Foxes could be heard mimicking old sounds, newish band Wolfmother showed off an even newer version of itself and the alt-rock vets in No Doubt proved that they’ve been reborn.
Bridge School ‘09 in photos: Gwen Stefani, Wolfmother, Sheryl Crow and more.
Following a pre-show performance by the Dennis Alley Wisdom Dancers, who then joined Young for his first version of “Comes A Time,” Mr. Gwen Stefani, a.k.a. Gavin Rossdale, got the nine-act, seven-and-a-half-hour show on the road with a set that included covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and Prince’s “Sometimes It Snows In April” as well as old Bush hits. Next up was frontman Andrew Stockdale and his reconfigured Wolfmother, which had no trouble keeping its energy level at 11 despite the Bridge School concert’s unofficial rule to go acoustic. Even the students, who sit on the stage during the show, felt the jolt from Australia’s answer to Led Zeppelin, with some of them seen rocking out in their wheelchairs.
Fleet Foxes wunderkind leader Robin Pecknold talked about sitting on the Shoreline lawn with his dad during the 2000 edition of Bridge School, then proceeded to give audience members their own great memories with a heavily harmonized set that included “Your Protector” and “Sun Giant.” The band’s timeless choral...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily