Into The Music
Bruce Springsteen opened the U.S. leg of his Land of Hope and Dreams Tour in Minneapolis on Tuesday night, and he did exactly what he said he was going to do. He made it political. He made it direct. And he made it clear that at 76, he has no interest in softening his tone.
The show opened with Edwin Starr’s “War,” the 1970 anti-Vietnam protest anthem that Springsteen himself covered and released as a live single in 1986. The choice wasn’t subtle and wasn’t meant to be. His setlist ran through his catalogue of America-examining classics, from “Born in the U.S.A.” to “The Rising,” each carrying a different weight in the current moment.
Mid-show, Springsteen addressed the crowd directly: “We are living through some very dark times. Our American values that have sustained us for 250 years are being challenged as never before.” He called out the Trump administration specifically and urged the audience to “fight for the America that we love.”
He had already played “Streets of Minneapolis” at a No Kings rally in the city last weekend, so this wasn’t a surprise. He told press ahead of the tour that it was going to be political. He’s been consistent. What’s notable is the scale, a full U.S. arena tour with an explicitly political frame, at a moment when many artists in similar positions are choosing silence or studied vagueness.
Springsteen has done this before, most visibly during the Vote for Change tour in 2004. The difference now is that there’s less of a pretense of artistic neutrality around it. He’s not suggesting you draw your own conclusions from the music. He’s standing in front of a sold-out arena and saying what he thinks. Whether that costs him anything commercially is probably not a question he’s asking.
YES. That’s what Springsteen has always been at his best , not just a concert, a statement. “Land of Hope and Dreams” as a tour title in 2026 hits different. This is the kind of moment where the room knows exactly what the song means without him having to explain it. Love to see an artist not shrinking.
Respect for saying it out loud instead of hiding behind the setlist. But I’d push back a little , musicians have been “speaking truth to power” for decades and the machinery just absorbs it. Dylan did it. Springsteen has done it since Born in the USA. At some point you have to ask what the music actually changes. That said, the optics of opening a U.S. tour with that line? Effective.
You know, it’s easy to forget that Springsteen comes from a tradition where popular music and political statement were never separate things. Chuck Berry was writing coded commentary on race and freedom in every other lyric. The line between entertainment and protest was always artificial. What Springsteen is doing in Minneapolis isn’t new , it goes back further than most people realize. The surprise is that it still surprises anyone.
Dennis is right that it goes back further, but I’d argue what made those guys dangerous was that they were on the radio. Springsteen saying it from a stadium in 2026 is preaching to a crowd that already bought the ticket.
Yes, Dennis , you can hear that lineage. In Norway we grew up understanding that the land itself has something to say, and the musicians who stay connected to where they come from carry that weight honestly. Springsteen has always written from that same rootedness. “Land of Hope and Dreams” is a river song, and rivers don’t care who’s in office.
The thing that doesn’t get enough credit is how regional this still is. Artists like Damien Robitaille or even early Godspeed You! Black Emperor were making political noise in Canada for years with nobody outside the country paying attention. Springsteen gets a headline because he’s Springsteen , which is fair, the platform matters , but I always wonder what it would look like if that same scrutiny got applied to the smaller voices saying the same things in smaller rooms. The machinery Devon mentioned absorbs the big statement. The small ones occasionally slip through.