Green Day's raucous set, during which the trio unveiled a new, jangly
punk song, "Warning," was a highlight of the annual all-acoustic superstar
event. Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins each debuted a new tune, too,
and reunited British Invasion rockers the Who closed the show at the
Shoreline Amphitheater with a set of classic-rock hits, including "Substitute,"
"I Can't Explain" and "Behind Blue Eyes."
Nearly two hours after Young opened the concert with his customary miniset,
including his standard Bridge show opener, "I Am a Child," Green Day stormed
the stage with a galloping acoustic punk version of "Geek Stink Breath"
(RealAudio
excerpt) from their 1995 album Insomniac.
The Berkeley, Calif., trio didn't let up for the next half-hour, with
drummer Tre Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III) bashing his way through
a half-dozen sets of drumsticks and bassist Mike Dirnt treating his acoustic
bass as roughly as he does his electric instrument. At one point, Cool
flipped a souvenir drumstick back to one of a dozen Bridge School students
who took their customary honorary spots on a riser at the back of the
stage.
The show has become an annual mecca for San Francisco Bay Area music fans,
who filled the 20,000-plus capacity venue for a nearly nine-hour show
benefiting the Bridge School, an institution for children with severe
physical and speech impairments. Two of Young's children have attended
the school, which the singer co-founded in 1986 with his wife, Pegi.
A family vibe permeated the day, with mothers and fathers attending to
their wheelchair-bound children onstage, rocking them in their arms to the strains of Sheryl Crow and swaying them gently during Young's serene set of love songs.
Moments before the show, Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark green khakis, walked in with a toddler in hand as his wife brought up the rear with their infant child in a stroller. The toddler could later be seen dancing at stage right as her punk-rock dad snarled the lyrics to such Green Day hits as "She" and "When I Come Around."
As always, collaborations, some surprising, some not, were the order of the day. Young and country singer Emmylou Harris joined singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams for two songs, "Greenville" (RealAudio excerpt) and "Sweet Old World." Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson was joined by Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, Crow and Young on the Beach Boys' "Surfin' U.S.A."
Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan and guitarist James Iha opened their duo set with a pair of covers. Corgan sang a dark version of U2's "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)," while Iha gave Tom Waits' "Ol' 55" a countryish reading. The pair — with Corgan sporting his usual all-black ensemble and Iha wearing a Halloween-appropriate black cape over his black outfit — then brought out Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin for a driving rock tune that Corgan said was a week old.
During the refrain, Corgan seemed to be singing, "desolation yes, hesitation no." Corgan and Iha played as the sun set on a picture-perfect fall California day, with two giant pumpkins on opposite ends of the stage sparking to light during set changes.
Pearl Jam's 30-minute set included their hit cover of J. Frank Wilson and
the Cavaliers' "Last Kiss," as well as "Wishlist" and "Footsteps." A
seated Vedder introduced a new song by saying, "Sometimes when you got
something new you just can't wait to try it out." He did not name the
moody tune, which featured the lines "there's a light when the window
shades are dark" and "there's a light when my baby's in my arms."
Gravel-voiced troubadour Waits seemed to catch many audience members off-guard with a raucous set in which his voice never approached the tender end of its spectrum. Growling and stomping through "Hold On" (RealAudio excerpt) and uptempo cabaret rocker "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six," Waits gave the show an appropriately spooky pre-Halloween mood as his dancing-skeleton shadow loomed large over the back of the stage.
Beach Boys co-founder Wilson was the clear crowd favorite. Sitting unblinkingly on a stool and snapping his fingers stiffly, he led his eight-piece acoustic surf orchestra through a string of hits including the melancholy "In My Room" and the crowd-rousing anthem "Help Me, Rhonda."
Young played a short set of melancholy ballads, including "Harvest Moon"
and "Looking Forward" — the title track of the new Crosby, Stills,
Nash and Young album — as he alternated between acoustic guitar,
banjo, piano and pump organ. Seated in a circle of seven guitars and a
banjo, the singer thanked the audience by saying, "We're really lucky to
have this thing going and we don't know how it got this good ... but more
power to it."
The host, who had changed from a blue sport coat, black T-shirt and jeans
into a red flannel shirt and sheepskin rancher's vest, closed out his
set with the new CSNY ballad "Slowpoke" and a fragile version of his classic "Old Man."
Crow followed with chamber-folk versions of hits and rarities,
with a guitarist, a violinist and cellist Matt Brubeck, son of jazz
pianist Dave Brubeck. For several songs, the musicians turned to face
the Bridge School children, some of whom clapped and smiled enthusiastically
at the extra attention.
The Who, reunited for a handful of U.S. dates that began the night before
in Las Vegas, took the stage well after midnight. Singer Roger Daltrey
joked that in place of the booze he might have slugged in his younger
days, he was attempting to weather the now-chilly fall evening with a
cup of hot cocoa.
Augmented by drummer Zak Starkey (son of the Beatles' Ringo Starr) and
pianist John "Rabbit" Bundrick, Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend and
bassist John Entwistle thrilled the crowd and more than 100 friends and
family ringing the back of the stage with a set that included "Pinball
Wizard" (RealAudio
excerpt) and Daltrey performing "Who Are You" solo. Green Day's
Armstrong, standing in the shadows at stage right, mouthed the words
during a loud, ragged version of "Won't Get Fooled Again."
Well after one in the morning, the Who were joined by Young, Pearl Jam, Crow, Harris and Armstrong for a finale, a cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" (RealAudio excerpt). As the lights came up, it seemed not a single concert-goer had left early.
(An earlier version of this story was published at 3:14 p.m. EST Sunday, Oct. 31, 1999.)
