Mountain View, California -- Canadians Hayden and The Cowboy Junkies joined Neil Young, Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Patti Smith, and Pete Townshend on a moonlit stage Saturday night in a fund-raising benefit for the Bridge School's developmentally-handicapped children.

The six-hour acoustic show at Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheater was a breathtaking display of emotional guitar-playing and never-before-heard arrangements of songs like Pearl Jam's "Black", Bowie's "Let's Dance" and Young's "Helpless". It was a privilege to behold.

The show began with just Young and an acoustic guitar. Young played Harvest Moon while the 20,000 plus fans sang along as though they were sitting around the camp fire.

This intimacy continued when Young introduced Toronto's Hayden as "a friend of mine from Canada" and the audience gave a listen to this man few had ever heard.

"This is a beautiful night and I'm so proud to be here," said Hayden. "I'm just going to play some songs and I hope you like them."

Hayden - sounding more nervous than he has in two years - started with the hauntingly beautiful In September, receiving polite applause at its end.

Then he seemed to stop paying attention to the audience's reactions. His voice reached out under the setting sun and his jarring physical stage presence grew more intense, filling the amphitheater and drawing thousands in.

By the end of Skates almost everyonein the crowd was staring and listening, giving Hayden more attention than they would to Pete Townshend or The Cowboy Junkies.

Hayden's set finished to HUGE applause (and probably big smiles from the men at Outpost and Geffen Records, who hold worldwide rights outside of Canada to his material).

Then Neil Young introduced Pete Townshend as the night's special guest. He walked on with a beautiful Gibson guitar and played The Kids Are Alright, Drowned from Quadrophenia and Behind Blue Eyes. His stage presence was great, but like Bowie and Eddie Vedder would do later, used a book to remind him of either the chords or the words to his songs.

He was followed by The Cowboy Junkies, who enchanted the audience as the last glow of the sun faded and a brilliant half-moon lit up the sky. They covered Young's "Powderfinger" and Warren Zevon's "Carmelita" as well as playing some of their own songs. A few references to Canada brought screams of encouragement from the canuck cheering section, led on by a tall blonde in a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.

Then Patti Smith came on and overwhelmed the crowd with her soft and powerful songs. She was accompanied by an ethereal blend of four acoustic guitars and a percussionist. Smith's "People Have The Power", "a song I wrote with my husband who died two years ago," was warm and glorious as Smith stood with her back to the crowd, facing the two dozen children from the Bridge School who were watching the show from the back of the stage. She sang to them about how people can be strong if they struggle to succeed. It was inspirational and seemed like a healing process for Smith.

After Smith, the audience could have gone home feeling content. But Bowie was on next.

Bowie hit the stage with Tin Machine's Reeves Gabrels playing electric guitar (the only one on stage this night) and Me'shell NdegeOcello on bass. They did classic Bowie, playing Aladdin Sane, Jean Genie, The Man Who Saved The World ("Wow," said a fourteen-year-old girl behind me. "He's playing a tribute to Kurt Cobain. That's so cool."), and Heroes. He also did a disco/funk version of Let's Dance, with NdegOcello grooving around Gabrels' playful sonics. "This is something we started as a joke, but we liked this version better than the original," said Bowie before the song started. "You just won't believe this."

The beief stayed suspended when Pearl Jam hit the stage with their acoustic guitars, piano and double-bass.

The night was crisp and cool, with a marijuana-scented breeze carrying the voices in the crowd singing along to Better Man. It was a spiritual experience for many. Their ten-song set included an awesome arrangement of Black, as well as Daughter and Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town. Shivers ran down the audience's collective spine as they finished off with a breathtaking version of Yellow Ledbetter, which faded away into just one guitar under the midnight sky.

When Neil Young & Crazy Horse finally hit the stage, five and a half hours into the show, the audience was practically panting with excitement. Could this show possibly get better?

It did.

Cinnamon Girl started off a set that was typical Young. Lots of jamming around songs like Cortez ended with almost all the artists on the bill coming out to sing Helpless. It was the final sigh of an intimate encounter with some of the best musicians in the world. And everyone left satisfied.
 

Read the Jam! Crazy Horse interview