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Bridge School benefit concert proves that music can make a difference By
Julie Sulunga MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- I remember looking up at the stage through a television monitor and seeing a young child in a wheelchair with a bike helmet. Tears came to my eyes, I knew this concert was way more than music, it was to benefit children who did not have all the luxuries in life that I did. The 15th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert was Oct. 20-21 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, just an hour outside of San Francisco. It featured such performers as Jill Sobule, Ben Harper, REM, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, Tracy Chapman, Billy Idol, Crazy Horse and Neil Young. The concert is done every year to benefit children with severe speech and physical impairments who attend Bridge School. The concert is the main source of funding for the school. The school is a private facility of learning for the children. It has an enrollment of 12 children, divided into two classrooms. There are six in the primary grades (ages 5-7) and six in elementary grades (ages 8-14). Pegi Young (wife of Neil Young) and Jim Forderer founded the school in 1986. They have children with speech and physical impairments. The Bridge School Benefit Concerts began that same year with performers Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Robin Williams, Don Henley and Neil Young. Sunday had an opening performance by Young and Crazy Horse of the songs Sugar Mountain and Blowin' in the Wind. Following Young, Sobule played a 45-minute set and Ben Harper followed her. Harper played such songs as Widow of a Living Man and a new song called When She Believes. For the last song of his set Harper brought out his mom. REM went on next and played an ensemble set with such songs as Losing My Religion and Man on the Moon. There performance was quite touching because Michael Stipe, the lead singer, sang a lot to the children who were sitting behind. Watching him made you feel as if he were singing to friends, as he would turn and sing to the children. After REM, Dave Matthews came on stage and played solo. He had a duet with Tracy Chapman. Matthews had another duet with Young where together they played and sang All Along the Watchtower. Pearl Jam was up next singing songs such as Black from their 10 albums. The highlight of their set was when Eddie Veddar, the lead singer, commended a former Bridge alumni on her second year enrollment at University of California in Berkeley. He also did a heartfelt rendition of the Pearl Jam song Indifference with Harper. Chapman and Idol followed Pearl Jam. Chapman poured out her heart so much that I was in tears by the end of her performance. Idol came on stage and rocked the crowd and made you feel alive and OK with his leather and sunglasses. He also did a duet with Young with his version of For What It's Worth. Young closed out the show with Crazy Horse and his wife, Pegi, as one of the two back-up singers. He closed out the night with a song by John Lennon. The only difference was his wife held up the words so the whole crowd could sing. Young and Crazy Horse simply accompanied. There was a sense of feeling at this show that I have never felt at a concert before. Maybe it was because I was at a benefit show or maybe it was because our country is at war. In any case, it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. It made me realize that there are people who care about other people and music can bring it all together. Music can make it all happen.
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