Some will remember the Bridge School Benefit [ tickets ] concert on Saturday (10/29) as a killer show. Everybody in attendance, however, will remember it as "The Killer's show."

The stellar performance turned in by Jerry Lee "The Killer" Lewis was all anybody seemed to be talking about during Neil Young [ tickets ]'s 19th annual fundraiser at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA.

That's not to say that the rest of the bill was mere filler. The 2005 Bridge Benefit, as usual, boasted a stellar lineup that crossed musical genres and generational boundaries. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Norah Jones [ tickets ], Emmylou Harris, Bright Eyes [ tickets ], Good Charlotte, Los Lobos and Lewis each performed acoustic on both Saturday and Sunday (10/30) to help raise money for the San Francisco Bay Area-based Bridge School, which serves students with severe speech and physical impairments.

John Mellencamp joined the party on Saturday, while Dave Matthews--fresh off his appearance at the Vegoose Festival in Las Vegas—-took over for the Heartland troubadour on Sunday. Having attended the entire first show, as well as Matthews' set on the second night, I feel duty bound to say that Saturday's audience got the short end of the stick in that regard.

One thing that makes the Bridge concerts so special is that they regularly feature memorable collaborations between the featured artists. For a prime example, Paul McCartney joined Tony Bennett on stage for a sweet rendition of "The Very Thought of You" in 2004.

That trend continued early in the show on Saturday as Neil Young [ tickets ] made an appearance during Los Lobos' set to help perform a raucous version of the Canadian-born singer's "Cinnamon Girl." The next artist to take the stage was Bright Eyes (a.k.a. Conor Oberst), who also called for assistance--which he needed to a far greater extent than Los Lobos--and brought Emmylou Harris out to add background vocals on "Landlocked Blues."

Bright Eyes' mopey and inaccessible set succeeded in giving the crowd the blues--not in a good way--and things improved only marginally once Good Charlotte's Joel and Benji Madden took over and performed mediocre acoustic versions of their regular pop-punk tracks.

The concert took a turn for the better once Harris took the stage with her longtime musical companion, guitarist Buddy Miller. The best moment of Harris' set--and, indeed, one of the finest of the entire concert—-came when Linda Ronstadt made a guest appearance for "High Sierra," which was featured on 1998's Harris-Ronstadt-Dolly Parton collaboration "Trio II."

Lewis was next up at the plate and proceeded to hit the first pitch he saw (as well as the second and the third and ... ) right out of the park. The rock-n-roll patriarch, who is readying a major comeback album for an early 2006 release, sounded strong both at the mic and on the piano as he jumped through the all-time classics "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire." His performance was nothing short of a revelation, given that nobody expected him to be nearly as good as he was on Saturday.

Jones was put in the tough spot of having to follow The Killer, and she managed to do as well as humanly possible as she cuddled into the jazzy gems "Creepin' In" and "The Long Way Home."

On the other hand, Mellencamp didn't do nearly as well with a short set that focused more strongly on preaching politics than delivering the hits. The singer bashed George W. Bush with a couple of numbers, including the cumbersome new song "Texas Bandito." That focus would have been fine for a longer set, where there would have been time for both the politics and the hits. In this instance, however, it meant that the crowd didn't get to hear enough of Mellencamp's well-known songs.

Matthews, by contrast, did an excellent job filling Mellencamp's slot on Sunday. Despite having a worn voice from his time in Vegas, the charismatic frontman worked with guitarist Tim Reynolds to deliver passionate versions of "Bartender" and "Where Are You Going."

Saturday's concert closed with an uneven showing by CSNY. Young, who underwent brain surgery in March, sounded strong at times. But, in all, the legendary quartet was little more than a modestly pleasant diversion to what had really been The Killer's night.