Bruce Springsteen opened his Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour in Minneapolis on Tuesday with a politically charged concert that blended fiery anti-government speeches with nearly three hours of music, drawing a crowd of nearly 18,000 to the Target Center.
The tour launch came just days after St. Paul hosted the country’s flagship No Kings Rally and two months after ICE agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis within weeks of each other, killings that inspired Mr. Springsteen to write his protest anthem “Streets of Minneapolis.”
“This past winter, federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis,” the 76-year-old New Jersey rocker told the packed arena. “Well, they picked the wrong town.”
Mr. Springsteen honored the two victims by name — Renee Good, described as a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a VA nurse — before performing “Streets of Minneapolis” with the E Street Band for the first time. The crowd of nearly 18,000 held lighted cellphones aloft and shouted “ICE out now!” four times, each louder than the last.
Though President Trump was never mentioned by name, Mr. Springsteen took several indirect jabs at the administration. Referencing school textbooks that downplay the history of slavery, he quipped, “You want to talk about snowflakes? We have a president who can’t handle the truth.”
The show opened with Edwin Starr’s 1970 protest anthem “War,” segueing into a full-band version of “Born in the USA,” a song currently being used by the ACLU in its birthright citizenship campaign before the Supreme Court. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello joined the 17-member band for several songs throughout the night, including a turbocharged rendition of “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”
Mr. Springsteen closed the show with a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” a nod to the late Minneapolis icon, before ending with Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.”
“Tonight, do as Renee did,” Mr. Springsteen told the crowd near the show’s end, invoking the civil rights legacy of the late Rep. John Lewis. “Find a way to take aggressive peaceful action to defend our country’s ideals.”
The Land of Hope and Dreams tour runs through May 27 in Washington.
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