Acoustic Together (NOW Disc Special Edition NOW-2004SE2)
Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA – October 24th, 2004
Opening set: Sugar Mountain, Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It?, Long May You Run, Field Of Opportunity (from 10/23 stage). Main solo set: Pocahontas, Harvest Moon (with Eddie Vedder), Journey Through The Past, On The Way Home, Human Highway, Old King, Comes A Time, Four Strong Winds. Bonus Tracks Guest Appearance with Paul McCartney: Only Love Can Break You Heart, Hey Jude (with all performers)
The Bridge School Benefit concert is perhaps the longest running charity concert series. Acoustic Together contains both of Neil Young’s sets from the 18th concert this past October (the opening set at the beginning and his finale). The set is a good cross section of his career from Buffalo Springfield to more recent songs like “Harvest Moon” and also including a cover of the Ian Tyson song “Four Strong Winds”. This is definitely a spirited performance with many amusing stories throughout the set. “Long May You Run” and “Field Of Opportunity” are sung as a duet with his wife (“If she can sing with me she can sing with anybody” he says after the latter).
Before “Journey Through The Past” he tells the story of Tony Bennet being a piano man and signing the raffled prize guitar as such. And before “Four Strong Winds” he tells the story of listening to the song growing up in Canada. It’s a very intimate performance. “Pocahontas” is a special standout performance where Young’s guitar sounds very melancholy. The disc includes two bonus songs from Paul McCartney’s set. Acoustic Together is a very nice stereo DAT recording and comes from the same one who taped the Paul McCartney set and released on Bridge School Benefit 2004 and the other Acoustic Together (Now Disc Special Edition NOW-2004SE1). I also believe it is the ethical thing to do that, since this is a charity show, for those who purchase these discs to make a donation to the Bridge School. The website is: http://www.bridgeschool.org/. A donation can be made online or through the mail to:
The Bridge School
545 Eucalyptus Avenue
Hillsborough, California 94010-6404
Please make your check payable to “The Bridge School”.
