2016 Bridge School Benefit Concerts: October 22 & 23

NOTE: Excellent ticket offer in Comments section below.

Roger Waters, Neil Young & Jim James

"Don't Be Denied" - Norah Jones w/ Neil Young


"Piece of Crap" - Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Setlist via Sugar Mountain:

2016-10-22
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California, USA
Bridge School Benefit 30
w/ Promise Of The Real

1. Blowin' In The Wind
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2. Believe (guests with Nils Lofgren)
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3. Helpless (guests with My Morning Jacket)
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4. Don't Be Denied (guests with Norah Jones)
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5. Forever Young (guests with Roger Waters)
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6. Mr. Soul (guests with Metallica)
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7. Peace Trail
8. Out On The Weekend
9. Show Me
10. Comes A Time
11. Terrorist
12. Only Love Can Break Your Heart (accompanied by Nils Lofgren)
13. Piece Of Crap (accompanied by Nils Lofgren)
14. Are There Any More Real Cowboys? (accompanied by Willie Nelson)
15. On The Road Again (accompanied by Willie Nelson)
16. Rockin' In The Free World


"Forever Young" - Roger Waters w/Neil Young, My Morning Jacket, GE Smith


‘Mr. Soul’ - Metallica w/ Neil Young

"Helpless"
Neil Young & Jim James

METALLICA Cover THE CLASH, DEEP PURPLE, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD At Bridge School Benefit; Watch NEIL YOUNG Jam Footage! https://t.co/JlUJWwYrii pic.twitter.com/IMBzjDDVLt

— RockLives (@RockLivesUS) October 23, 2016

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This weekend is the 30th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concerts. Here is the 2016 lineup:

• Neil Young + Promise of the Real
• Metallica
• Roger Waters
• Dave Matthews
• case/lang/veirs
• Willie Nelson
• My Morning Jacket
• Norah Jones
• Cage The Elephant
• Nils Lofgren

The 30th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert will be on October 22 & October 23, 2016.


More on last year's 2015 Bridge School Benefit Concert (reviews, photos, videos, etc.).

Also, see The Essence of Bridge School Benefit Concerts.

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Also, see our Memories & Reflections on Our 2015 Bridge School Benefit Concerts Weekend. (Incidentally, FWIW, this is why we do what we do here @ TW.)

Neil, Pegi & Ben say "Good Night. Thanks for coming. We love you all."
(Click images to enlarge)

A recent interview with Pegi Young from Speakers In Code:

As we're winding down our twenty-minute chat over the phone, Pegi Young pauses and, calmly, gets to the heart of the matter.

"This is my life's work, and it has to survive," she tells me. "It's too important, and it's made a huge difference in so many people's lives."

Young is speaking about the Bridge School, an organization co-founded by Young herself. Its mission "is to ensure that individuals with severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their communities through the use of augmentative & alternative means of communication and assistive technology applications and through the development, implementation and dissemination of innovative life-long educational strategies."

This weekend is one of the School's biggest fundraisers, and it's a special one: the 30th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.

The lineup, as usual, is terrific: Neil Young + Promise of the Real, Metallica, Roger Waters, Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, My Morning Jacket, Norah Jones, Cage The Elephant, and Nils Lofgren will perform. All proceeds directly benefit the operations of The Bridge School.

Also, as usual, the benefit concert will be all acoustic, challenging bands like Metallica and My Morning Jacket to alter their normal set.

"We have made a couple of exceptions over the years," Young admits. "We let John Lee Hooker play electric. We're not going to tell John Lee Hooker he can't play electric. (laughs) But very, very, very few (exceptions). Like Metallica, they come -- I think this will be their third time playing -- and play acoustic, and they get it, you know? And they still put on a powerhouse show, as have so many others like Green Day, The Who, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters -- a lot of bands you just don't see playing acoustic. It's a beautiful thing."

Also beautiful is the stage's backdrop, which features students of the Bridge School sitting behind the musicians, enjoying the show.

"It's a wonderful experience," Young says. "Very heartwarming to have the kids on the stage -- a constant reminder of why you're there. Why the audience is there, why the musicians are there -- they are the stars of the show, and everybody gets that."

Because -- as everyone knows this is everywhere -- you know that the annual pilgrimage to the Bridge School Benefit Concerts can be a life altering and transcendental experience.

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Comments of the Moment: Micah Nelson Responds To Neil Young's New Song "Neighborhood"

Micah Nelson on Facebook

Lots of excellent discussion on Micah Nelson Responds To Neil Young's New Song "Neighborhood".

Just to recap. Neil Young's new song "Neighborhood" (The Drone Song) (watch/listen) has begun to stir up a bit of controversy after only a few public performances. On the YouTube page comments, there is now posted an "Open Letter to Neil Young" on the song's lyrics by Rabih Hamzeh to which Promise Of The Real's Micah Nelson provided a well measured response.

And likewise, TW readers also responded with carefully considered comments. The Comment of the Moment is from everyone's friend Greg M.:

I'd also be interested to know the veracity of this letter, and its elements. Did the crowd really cheer at the lyric? If so, how many cheered thinking as Rabih did, that the lyric was in fact Neil's real sentiment, and not a satirical view of fear mongering? I agree that Rabih must be relatively new to Neil and his music, to not automatically err on the side of Neil adopting a lyrical persona, as most of us do, but I also hope I can empathize with someone who faces prejudice on a daily basis being a little over sensitive. You know, walk a mile in my shoes, and you might feel differently about some things.

This takes me back to my freshman year of college, watching the movie "The Godfather", with a predominately white, privileged group of kids like myself, who knew next to nothing about what it meant to grow up as a black person in America- this was 1976. In the scene where the family heads are discussing the relative merits of getting into the drug business, when one of the characters made the statement "In my city, we would keep the traffic in the dark people- the colored. They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls", when most of the audience laughed I looked up to see a couple of black students leaving in disgust. Although I didn't laugh, neither did the scorn and heartlessness of the statement register with me. To say the least, it took me a few minutes to direct my attention back to the screen, after getting such a disturbing view of myself. My antennae wasn't up, and therefore I didn't see it coming. Likewise, it isn't hard for me to consider that the antennae of the concert audience, or of the posters on this blog, is not up in a way that it must be up for Rabih. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing a finger, or discounting the good points being made, just saying maybe look at it a little more from the perspective of the Rabih's among us.

A Friend Of Yours

Really, really good points Greg/AFOY. And we're glad we're having this conversation. Once again, another demonstration that Neil fans are some of the most knowledgeable and astute music fans out there.

Yes, undoubtedly, anyone unfamiliar with Neil's music may have had Rabih's reaction. And it is a legitimate reaction to a "perceived: slur.

But.

But at the same time when you write an Open Letter to Neil, write 7 well-constructed paragraph's and post it on one the web's largest sites, you need to really think these things through. Maybe familairize yourself with the artists work, how about?

And that is is what is suspect here.

You bring up The Godfather scene from the past. Another analogy is the whole "Sweet Home Alabama" business. Exactly the same. A bunch of folks getting all stirred up about mis-interpreting lyrics.

Fair criticism is always fair. Lies, distortion, manipulation, hidden agendas are an entirely different matter.

Be sure to check all of the comments on Neil Young's new song "Neighborhood" (The Drone Song).

you -- masters of war -- give peace a chance
(Thanks HtH!)

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Micah Nelson Responds To Neil Young's New Song "Neighborhood"

NEIL YOUNG + PROMISE OF THE REAL - "Neighborhood"

Fox Theater, Pomona, CA - 10/13/16

Neil Young's new song "Neighborhood" (The Drone Song) has begun to stir up a bit of controversy after only a few public performances.

On the YouTube page comments, there is now posted an "Open Letter to Neil Young" on the song's lyrics by Rabih Hamzeh:

OPEN LETTER TO NEIL YOUNG

Dear Neil,

I caught your show tonight on the second day of the Desert Trip concert (aka “Oldchella”) and, along with 75,000 other fans, was really getting into the show.

Until, that is, you played “Neighborhood”, a new song I had never heard before. It’s a song about “terrorists” “hidden in the dark” that could “end your life tomorrow”. The part that shocked me though, Neil, was this lyric: I think I know who to blame It's all those people with funny names Moving into our neighborhood How can I tell if they're bad or good? And the crowd of mostly middle aged Caucasian people went wild. Now look Neil, I can generally “pass”, okay? I mean I’m fairly light-skinned and I don’t wear a turban or some big long beard (just the requisite hipster facial fuzz). So nobody suspected anything.

But that didn’t stop me from feeling pretty humiliated. It was dehumanizing. I’m Muslim, Neil. And Middle Eastern. I have a “funny name” and, well, I live in a neighborhood. And there are millions of people just like me who are Americans. Besides potentially being “bad” (i.e. terrorists), let me tell you what else we do, Neil, besides just live in your neighborhood. We deliver the paper. And we deliver babies. We operate machinery. And we operate on people. Yes, some of us we drive you around in cars.

And some of us built those cars and others of us designed those cars. We are parents and teachers and, some of us, are huge rock n’ roll fans. All pretty “good” things I think. And “funny name” by what standard exactly, Neil? Unless your name is Sitting Bull, you’re not originally from here either. Sure your ancestors may have come before I did, but that doesn’t make your name, Neil Percival Young, any funnier than mine.

Except that you’re not from here either are you? I immigrated with my family when I was 8 years old and became an American citizen at 15 while I was in high school. I love this great country with all my heart and along with my brother and sister have contributed to society. You and I both live in Los Angeles, but you, sir, are still a Canadian citizen. Well, I won’t judge. Welcome to MY neighborhood Neil, I’m sure you’ve found a lot of GOOD people from all over the world with all kinds of names that have been very welcoming. I’m a human being, Neil, and I have earned the dignity of being an American.

As Khizr Khan (unofficially the patron saint of Muslims if there can be such a thing), father of Humayun Khan, a brave soldier who died in Iraq in 2004, said at the Democratic National Convention “we have undivided loyalty to our country, and with hard work and goodness of this country, we share and contribute to its blessings”. I never again want to feel like I did today, Neil. Standing amongst 75,000 of my fellow Americans for the first time in my life I was made to feel that I was an outsider. At a rock concert. By a Canadian. Shame on you Neil. And shame on everybody else that was there that cheered. I have no doubt that if any other ethnic group was villainized, there would have been an uproar, or at least an uncomfortable silence (and appropriately so).

I don’t want to hear “yes, but some of you are terrorists”. I am not a terrorist. And millions and millions of Muslims, Middle Easterners, and other “funny named” people are just like me. Sincerely, Rabih Hamzeh PS: “Rabih” means spring time in Arabic and “Hamzeh” was the name of the uncle and protector of the prophet Muhammad. What does your name mean?

The above comment is responded to by Neil Young's band Promise Of The Real band mate Micah Nelson (Willie Nelson's son):

Hello Rabih,

As a member of Neil Young's band (I'm the guy in the video playing guitar on the right) and his close friend I can assure you the sentiment of his song "Terrorist Suicide Hanggliders" is not what you've interpreted. The song is calling out the hypocrisy of the prejudice people here in our country, mainly Trump supporters who can't tell the difference between an innocent Muslim man and a terrorist. The song is a critique of shallow, narrow-minded viewpoints that sadly pervade our culture.

The character in the song is not "Neil". Neil is playing a character in the song, representing the racism and fear-based thinking that exists in America today. Neil plays other characters in his songs quite often to paint a picture of an opposing viewpoint while remaining detached from the perspective itself. Take a look at the verses of "Rocking in the Free World" for instance:

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.
Keep on rockin' in the free world!

Much of that song is satire as well. Neil drives an electric car that he built and is a major advocate for alternative renewable energies and sustainable fuels.

Clearly these lyrics are an ironic statement designed to make people think more critically, or even just to think at all. Take the new verse he added about a year ago:

Got a water cannon for the standing man
Got misinformation from the corporation
In the endless search for a drop of oil
People's lives get shattered while we suck it from the soil
Gotta show the children
We just don't care
So we keep on burnin' it
And put it in the air
Keep on rockin in the free world!

Look especially at the line "Gotta show the children/We just don't care/So we keep on burnin' it/And put it in the air". Obviously Neil cares way more than most people about keeping oil in the ground for the sake of our children and the welfare of the Earth! So you see, it is simply an artistic statement, a powerful tool to present these views in a satirical way and expose them for how horrible they are.

I hope that helps clear things up for you. Neil Young is an artist who has nothing against you or any Muslim people.

Neil is one of the most outspoken people I know against people who hate others for reasons they don't understand. This song is intended to call bullshit on ignorant people who blindly follow fear-mongering in the established media, but just like most great art, it can be interpreted subjectively. I just want you to know that hating on Muslims is not Neil's intention -- it is in fact the opposite.

Neil loves you and is fighting with you against the contagious disease of hate.

Cheers, ~ Micah

Thank you Micah for your well measured response. To say this is a profound and mature statement doesn't begin to do justice to Micah's clear spoken truth.

And may all of our debates continue to be civil and well considered going forward towards that big shift". (Thanks HtH!)

More on satire and irony in Neil Young's song Rockin' In The Free World.

namaste

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THIS WEEKEND: Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert + VIDEO: Bridge Kids

Here's another heart warming video from those wonderful Bridge kids.

BSN co-anchors Savannah and Fletcher report on the Door Art Posters for the artists at the 2014 Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert.

Here is the 2016 30th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert Lineup:

• Neil Young + Promise of the Real
• Metallica
• Roger Waters
• Dave Matthews
• case/lang/veirs
• Willie Nelson
• My Morning Jacket
• Norah Jones
• Cage The Elephant
• Nils Lofgren

The 30th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert will be on October 22 & October 23, 2016.



More on last year's 2015 Bridge School Benefit Concert (reviews, photos, videos, etc.).




Neil Young @ 2011 Bridge School Benefit Concert
PHOTO BY Misha Vladimirskiy | SPIN.com
Also, see The Essence of Bridge School Benefit Concerts.

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Also, see our Memories & Reflections on Our 2015 Bridge School Benefit Concerts Weekend. (Incidentally, FWIW, this is why we do what we do here @ TW.)

Neil, Pegi & Ben say "Good Night. Thanks for coming. We love you all."
(Click images to enlarge)

Because -- as everyone knows this is everywhere -- you know that the annual pilgrimage to the Bridge School Benefit Concerts can be a life altering and transcendental experience.

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