You missed it. I attended it last night with my wife and litle Steven at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA.

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/ritfw/bridge2004.htm

For those who don't know, this is an annual benefit concert put on by Neil Young to benefit the Bridge School. He invites bands and musicians from widely varied backgrounds to play. The catch is it has to be acoustic (i.e. no electric guitars or distortion).

This year's band list was:

Tegan & Sara
Eddie Vedder
Los Lonely Boys
Sonic Youth
Ben Harper
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Tony Bennett
Pegi and Neil Young
Paul McCartney

We arrived just as Tegan and Sara were getting off the stage.

Eddie Vedder was awesome, as expected.

Los Lonely Boys were disappointing. It's not like they aren't a solid band with great skills. It's just that their songs are pretty trite.

Sonic Youth were able to make some great noise with their acoustic guitars. Lotsa dissonant noise. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll be buying their CD.

Ben Harper was great, but I'm biased. I love that guy.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers set was the best of the night so far. They did a cover of Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) that kicked butt. They closed out ther set with a very fast version of the Robert Johnson song "Hot Tamales." Great stuff!

Tony Bennet was the biggest surprise of the evening. He's a great entertainer and he really connected with the crowd. We were on our feet the whole time. I danced with Steven.

Pegi and Neil Young did some great songs. Neil is a love him or hate him songwriter. I'm lucky to belong to the former group. His set was awesome.

Finally, e come to Paul McCartney. I wasn't sure what to expect, but he ended up wowing me. From the first chord the opening song "Baby You Can Drive My Car" to the last words of the super extended sing-along rendition of "Hey Jude", I was riveted. You know how annoyingly long the "Naaaaa na na NA NA NA NAAAAAA" ending of Hey Jude is when you listen to it on the radio or a CD? Well, it's definitely a whole different story when you're singing along with thousands of other Beatle fans.

Oh, and McCartney had the best line of the evening, which brought the crowd to its feet: "Let it be can mean a lot of things. This year, let it be Kerry!" Heh. Sorry for the politics.