All acoustic set: Surfin' USA, Brian Wilson with backup by Ed, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young.
PJ Set List: Soldier of Love, Wishlist, New Song, Small Town, Footsteps, Last Kiss, Yellow Ledbetter
End Jam: I Shall Be Released by Bob Dylan

Eli Vigil (vh5150@unm.edu):
The Bridge School benefit was great. As a whole, I have never gotten more bang for the buck as this concert. I flew to the show from Albuquerque, NM...mostly I wanted to see Pearl Jam and the Who. When I heard the Who was being added, I was sure I had to be there. Pearl Jam and the Who, AND all those other great bands on the Same night??! Wow! Also, I was also looking forward to seeing Tom Waits, whom I grew up on, thanks to my dad's cool taste in music, and of course, Neil Young. And hell, all the other bands too! But PJ and the Who are 2 of my most-favorite bands of all time, so to see them on the same night was an incredible experience.

The first Pearl Jam related glimpse was of Ed when he came out to sing backup on Surfin' USA with Sheryl Crow and Neil Young. Then a little later, PJ opened with Soldier of Love, which most people thought was Last Kiss till they realized otherwise. Wishlist was next, and it sounded great as always. Ed changed the lyric to "I wish I was a different being at home behind the sun..." (well, I think that was what he said)

Before the new song Ed said "Well you know when you get a new bike or a new pair of shoes, and you can't wait to show them to people? Well we've got some new songs and we want to share them." Or something to that effect. The new song sounded good. I can't remember much about it, but it was in the same kind of vein as much of Yield...pretty mellow, pleasant to listen to, kinda quiet. Some parts with Ed saying something about "my baby." It was good. Looking forward to hearing it again someday.

Before Small Town, Ed said "here's a song that was written just over the hill..." Before Footsteps, Ed pulled out a harmonica-I thought they were going to play Smile, but alas, it was Footsteps! Very beautiful and perfect sounding, with some harmonica at the beginning and end of the song. Before the song, Ed said "Neil was having a little get together with us last night. Had a fire going... He pulled me aside and we walked out into the woods a bit and he said 'I've got something to tell you...I've wanted to tell you for a long time but the time just hasn't been right. So here it is: I am your father.' (Everyone laughed) And so I'd like to dedicate this to all my new brothers and sisters. Thanks, Dad." Or something close to that.

Footsteps was great. Most of the crowd didn't recognize it, but it got some cheers from the people who did, on the first notes. Last Kiss got a big response from the crowd. At some point Ed said they had to thank some people on stage with them. The first was Matt Cameron on drums, and the others were the kids from the Bridge School. And then Ed thanked Neil and everyone and they played Yellow Ledbetter which the crowd seemed to love as well. Mike was playing a hollowbody electric on this one (and oh yeah, Stone was wearing his backpack the whole show!) and he had a little distortion on it, the only semi-loud guitar all night...he tried to get feedback by standing up and going towards the monitors, but didn't really get any!

The band sounded great, but my only complaint (as I'm sure every other PJ fan's) is that they only played about 30 minutes. Maybe cause they've done it a couple other years now, I don't know. But I wish they would have played a few more songs. Almost everyone else on the bill played between 40 to 55 minutes. But still, they sounded great. This was my 4th time seeing the band and I can't wait till #5.

Neil Young's full length set was great. Tom Waits was very good, though many in the crowd seemed kind of confused as to who he was and just what the heck he was doing on stage (he is quite a character). And the other bands were all pretty good as well. Brian Wilson played too long compared to everyone else, but it was neat to see him performing. The Who was incredible. Even acoustically, and with practically no drums, they rocked! They played a couple of lesser-known songs (Tattoo and Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand) for the people who'd know them. Pete talked to the crowd a couple times and was very funny. They took the stage at 12:30 at night, and the place was still packed. No one was missing this one! :)

After their last song, a great version of The Kids Are Alright with Pete singing at the end "There's nothing wrong with my kids... the kids are alright...These kids are alright", they left the stage, then returned, with all of Pearl Jam, Sheryl Crow on accordion, Emmylou Harris, and Neil Young. They played "I Shall Be Released." Mostly Neil and Ed sang it, trading off lines, and Emmylou Harris (whose voice was beautiful by the way) sang a couple lines as well. It was a wonderful cap to the night, and you could tell everyone on stage was in deep emotion and thought during the song. It was so cool to see all of the guys in Pearl Jam, along with Neil, and Pete, Roger and John all on the same stage together playing. Influences gathering upon each other... It was really a good performance. Pearl Jam's set sounded perfect, and they had a great impact on the night, as did everyone else. Great evening...