Bridge School Benefit

I made it to my first Bridge School Benefit concert this past Sunday. Performing on the 28th were Regina Spektor, Tegan & Sara, My Morning Jacket, John Mayer, Tom Waits & Kronus Quartet, Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Young & Metallica. *whew* It was quite an incredible lineup, and with the exception of Metallica, I was quite impressed with how quickly each performer set up & tore down to keep the show moving. All sets were acoustic. I had never heard of Regina Spektor before the concert, but I was very impressed with her music - I'll have to get one of her albums.

Maybe I'm just too easy, but I loved Tegan & Sara, too. I had only heard their one big song before, and was impressed with the rest of their material. I also hadn't known before the show that they were twins. Pretty neat.

Tom Waits with the Kronus Quartet had to be the best performance of the evening. The energy was amazing, the crowd was thrilled, he sang new songs and old songs and didn't hold back at all. I particularly liked his performance of The Day After Tomorrow. His energy and connection to the audience was just amazing.

It was quite an honor to see THE Jerry Lee Lewis perform as well. He did all of his big hits; Roll Over Beethoven, Sweet Little 16, Good Golly Miss Molly, and Great Balls of fire and a few more. We got to dance to Jerry Lee Lewis live - wow, truly a once in a lifetime experience.

I feel asleep during Neil Young. I swear, most of his 35 minute set was one song (and my friends, who did not sleep, agreed). I like Neil Young, he was just a bit too mellow for me live.

And then there was Metallica... oh, sweet, Metallica, what are you doing? First of all, it took them at least 40-45 minutes to set up (other bands did tear down & set up in 15 minutes), then their roadies came out and did sound checks for at least 10 minutes - conflicting horrendously with the music the amphitheater was playing to entertain us during the break. If I never hear a monotonous "Hey, Hey, Hey" again, it will be too soon.

I love Metallica. I saw them the first time in the 80s on their Justice For All tour. I have most of their albums, I used to play many of the Black Album tracks on my bass guitar. I was just really annoyed with the long delay and annoying roadies, so I started in a bad mood. For some reason, they chose to do mostly covers - which is alright, but covering Rare Earth? That was a bizarre choice. It got better, as they moved onto Nazareth covers and finally into Metallica songs. I'm not sure why they did so many covers, when it was much more interesting to hear Metallica songs done acoustically (and in one case, a completely new arrangement). I think this was my 5th or 6th time seeing them in concert, and I guess I just wanted more Metallica. Once they got to playing, and playing their own stuff, they ROCKED.

It was a great day out - I love being in the lawn for these types of concerts. Much more freedom for dancing, walking around, and just hanging out.