Bridge School delivers Johnson, Jones, but not pizzazz

By Jim Harrington

It’s hard to be too critical about a seven-hour concert that was filled, from start to finish, with fairly solid performances – especially when the event benefits a worthy cause.

Yet, there was definitely something missing from Saturday’s Bridge School Benefit at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. That something was, for lack of a better term, pizzazz.

There was very little new to see at Neil Young’s 22nd annual acoustic music fundraiser in support of the Hillsborough school for students with severe learning disabilities. The lineup for the two-day affair, which continued on Sunday, consisted mainly of acts that had performed at prior Bridge concerts.

Plus, at least on Saturday, there simply wasn’t enough diversity to the musical offerings to hold our attention for seven hours. The big names on the bill, including Young, Norah Jones, Wilco, Sarah McLachlan and Jack Johnson, all delivered sets that could be lumped together in a fairly narrow folk-rock category. It might have been somewhat of a different story with Sunday’s show, which added classical/pop vocalist Josh Groban and alt-rock’s Smashing Pumpkins to the mix.

What was lacking was the kind of wild card, or sparkplug, we’ve seen at past Bridge concerts – like jam-band Phish in 1998, comic metal duo Tenacious D in 2002 or indie-rockers Sonic Youth in 2004. It’s no extraordinary thrill to see Jones or Johnson perform in an acoustic setting, since they commonly go that route anyway, but to watch Metallica do it, as they did at Bridge shows in 1997 and 2007, is quite a different story.

The biggest bummer is that we were originally promised something of that magnitude. ZZ Top, the electric blues-rock trio from Texas, was supposed to unplug for fans at the 22nd annual Bridge, but the band cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. ZZ’s last-minute replacement, Band of Horses, hardly represented a fair swap.

Saturday’s show began in usual fashion as Young took the stage and performed a short solo set, which consisted of the fan favorites “I am a Child” and “Sugar Mountain.” The 62-year-old Woodside resident would return roughly an hour later, after the Band of Horses set, and sit in with vocalist Cat Power on a superb version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival anthem “Fortunate Son.”

One hoped that would spark a trend and that the concert would be filled with opportune collaborations among the many stars. Alas, the Young/Cat Power combination proved to be the exception rather than the rule.

The next two bands, Death Cab for Cutie and Wilco, delivered solid, though unspectacular, sets. The former generated some enthusiasm from the crowd with the modern-rock radio hits “Soul Meets Body” and “I Will Follow You into the Dark,” while the latter charmed with the catchy sing-along “California Stars.”

The best showing of the night came courtesy of McLachlan, the Canadian vocalist who has been missing from the scene for far too long. She reminded everyone in attendance of her great talent as she crooned through such familiar beauties as “Building a Mystery,” “Adia” and “Ice Cream.” She also performed a pair of stellar new songs, “”Don’t Give Up on Us” and “U Want Me 2,” which hopefully signals that she’ll soon deliver her first batch of new tunes since 2003’s “Afterglow.”

Jones possesses nearly as stunning a voice as McLachlan’s, yet she had a hard time in following the other songbird. Her vocals were fine, but her song selection was iffy at best. In the end, most fans were left chatting about Jones’ new hairdo, a chic layered bob, as opposed to her performance.

Johnson, last seen in this area back in August at the Outside Lands Festival, furthered the mellow buzz as he softly sang the sweet love song “Better Together” and the syrupy ode to intimate breakfasts “Banana Pancakes.”

Young came back to close the show and he managed to turn up the heat, especially with a fiery cover of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.” It was, however, too little, too late, to save this evening from going down as the least impressive Bridge School concert to date.

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