Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band returned to Nationals Park on Wednesday night on the penultimate date of the Land of Hope and Dreams American tour - an apt venue for a tour that has largely doubled as a political call to action against President Donald Trump and his administration.
"If you're feeling helpless, if you're feeling hopeless, if you're feeling betrayed, if you're feeling frustrated, if you're feeling angry, I understand. That's why we're here tonight," Springsteen told the crowd. "We needed to come to Washington and feel your strength and your hope and your faith. … We needed to bring to your city some strength and some hope and some faith."
The tour was intended to finish in D.C. but will now end in Philadelphia on Saturday, after an earlier date was postponed due to the NBA and NHL playoffs. But the Boss will be back. During his show, the artist announced the first Power to the People Festival in D.C. on Oct. 3, exactly a month before the midterm elections, featuring Springsteen, former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Foo Fighters, Dropkick Murphys, Dave Matthews and more.
Springsteen and the band, joined on this tour by Morello, played for nearly three hours - despite a few rain showers - unspooling the two-dozen-plus set list that they have performed every night on the tour.
Along with hits including "Born in the U.S.A.," "Dancing in the Dark" and "Born to Run," the set was heavy on odes to fallen glories ("Death to My Hometown," "My City of Ruins"), paeans to America ("Land of Hope and Dreams," "American Land") and apropos covers (The Temptations' "War," The Clash's "Clampdown").
Springsteen and company also performed songs fitting with the tour's political themes, including "American Skin (41 Shots)" (a song Springsteen wrote in response to a fatal Bronx police shooting in 1999) and "Streets of Minneapolis." The latter, released this year in response to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, provided one of the night's most striking moments when Springsteen encouraged the capacity crowd to sing along with its "ICE out!" chant.
"Let 'em hear you at the f---ing White House," Springsteen said to cheers from the audience.
It was not the only time Springsteen taunted the White House. After performing "House of a Thousand Guitars" - a song that describes a "criminal clown" who "has stolen the throne" - the 76-year-old sat cross-legged onstage and launched into a four-minute sermon that touched on the war in Iran, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the detention of immigrants, the undermining of NATO, the whitewashing of American history and Trump's plans for a $1.8 billion compensation fund for his allies.
It was a familiar refrain for a tour that has been a direct protest of Trump's actions in office, by a man who has long been a passionate opponent of the president and who has endorsed every Democratic nominee since 2004. Last summer, Springsteen opened his European tour by calling Trump "unfit." The president fired back, dismissing The Boss as a "dried out ‘prune' of a rocker."
After a tour announcement this year called Trump a "wannabe king," Trump called Springsteen a "bad, and very boring singer," and urged MAGA supporters to boycott his concerts.
Springsteen on Wednesday night gave few details about the Oct. 3 festival, which he said would be announced officially on Thursday. But he promised "another night of music and resistance," calling on the crowd to "make a goddamn ruckus along with us."
(COMMENT, BELOW)