Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Bring Their Fiery, Trump-Slamming Set to Washington, D.C.: ‘Let ‘Em Hear You in the F—in’ White House!’: Concert Review

On Wednesday night at a sold-out Nationals Park in this nation’s capital, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band had just reached the end of “Streets of Minneapolis,” the song the Boss wrote about the ICE murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the resistance put forth by the citizens of Minneapolis and St. Paul in reaction to “Operation Metro Surge” (it was no accident that this tour opened in the Twin Cities). As recorded, it’s a fine folk ballad. But when performed live by the E Street Band, the song flips from black and white to technicolor, with Springsteen opening the song solo acoustic and the band swinging in on the chorus.

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There’s a line in the last verse which is set up as potential crowd participation: “In our chants of ‘ICE out now!’ our city’s heart and soul persists,” Springsteen sings, and the audience chants along: “ICE out now!” Springsteen generally reprises the line three times, letting the crowd find their role in this particular performance, saying “Let ‘em hear you in Washington,” or tonight, “Let ‘em hear you in the fuckin’ White House.”

It’s solid stagemanship; the audience understands their role and if they don’t, they will by the second or third run-through. The volume builds with each attempt, and for some audience members, it may be their first attempt at what Springsteen will borrow from the late Georgia Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis: “good trouble.”

On this night, the intent was clear: At the song’s conclusion, the crowd sprung into a spontaneous, independent chant of “ICE out now!” It wasn’t exhorted by Springsteen, and it wasn’t even anything he encouraged. But for many of the thousands standing in the rain, the experience of chanting “ICE out now!” in Washington, D.C. was a moving and cathartic experience.

This D.C. stop was planned to be the closing show in Springsteen’s “Land of Hope and Dreams U.S. Tour,” billed as “Minneapolis to Washington.” (Thanks to the Philadelphia 76ers schedule in the NBA playoffs, the final show of the tour will now be in Philly on Saturday.) But it was still the D.C. date, and an anticipatory hum filled the air as Springsteen took the stage in his now-trademark vest over a dress shirt and a tie, hair smartly coiffed.

“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n’ roll in dangerous times,” he said, in his now-familiar invocation and statement of intent that has opened every night on the tour. “Tonight, we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption, resistance over complacency, unity over division, and peace over —”

And the now 18-member E Street Band crashed into a cover of Edwin Starr’s Vietnam-era anthem “War,” which the group had originally covered on the “Born in the U.S.A.” tour some four decades ago. It is an explosion of sound and light and power, positioned as “a prayer for our men and women in service overseas.” At the song’s conclusion, the band plunged straight into “Born in the U.S.A.,” his most misunderstood and misquoted song, positioned so there could be no misinterpretation of the song’s lyrics.

Unlike most Springsteen tours, this leg of the “Land of Hope & Dreams” jaunt has been following an identical setlist across the 20 shows, along with carefully scripted remarks that have evolved or been updated as the tour progressed. Across the 19 dates of the 20-date tour, prior to the performance of his gospel-informed “My City of Ruins” — originally inspired by his beloved Asbury Park, but relevant in too many places — Springsteen runs down a litany of current transgressions from the administration, punctuating each line with a solemn, angry “This is happening now.”

He spoke again of immigrants being detained in for-profit detention centers, but with a new detail: “…such as Delaney Hall in my own home state of New Jersey, where our own governor has been refused access to meet with detainees about the conditions there.” He also commented on Trump’s commandeering of the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, the censorship of museums, distancing from NATO, and the decimation of USAID, adding, “This is no longer on the front page, but this is happening now.”

But he always comes back to the “dreams” part of the tour’s name. “Honesty, honor, humility, character, integrity, truth, compassion, humanity, thoughtfulness, morality, true strength and decency, don’t let anybody tell you these things don’t matter anymore. They do!”

Before the night was over, Springsteen would make the first announcement of the “Power to the People” festival to be held outside Washington D.C. on October 3, featuring Tom Morello and his band, the Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, the Dropkick Murphys (with whom Springsteen has guested multiple times) and more, as well as himself.

Joining the the E Street Band on this outing is that concert’s organizer, Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave co-founder Morello, who has evolved from an occasional guest performer to his current role, playing on 12 of the set’s 27 songs. Highlights include a motivating, anthemic cover of the Clash’s “Clampdown,” with Morello and Springsteen trading vocals, a scalding solo on “American Skin (41 Shots)” and one of the highlights of this tour, his duet with Springsteen on “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” a version closer to the Rage Against the Machine’s epic cover. On it, the two trade not just verses but a series of escalating, truly incendiary guitar solos, Springsteen watching Morello intently and nodding encouragement and approval, before Morello handing the reins back to Springsteen.

Immediately adjacent to Morello on stage right is longtime guitarist Nils Lofgren, takes the lead with firecracker solos on “Youngstown” and “Because the Night,” while five-decade veteran “Little” Steven Van Zandt holds it down as “musical director” stage left, playing an impressive array of guitars (including at least three different Rickenbackers).

The thematic heart of the set begins with “American Skin” and runs through “Long Walk Home” — which includes the pivotal line “You know that flag flying over the courthouse means certain things are set in stone/ Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t” — “House of a Thousand Guitars” and then “My City of Ruins.” The main set winds down with a rousing “Badlands” and “Land of Hope and Dreams” before the band returns for the crowd-pleasers “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.”

He’s closed every night of the tour with Bob Dylan’s 1964 song “Chimes of Freedom,” in a version inspired by the Byrds’ cover from a year later. He first introduced the song into the band’s repertoire in 1988, in the run-up to the announcement of Amnesty International’s “Human Rights Now!” tour (which gives a sense of how long Springsteen has been using his global platform for humanitarian causes).

“Chimes of Freedom” didn’t return to E Street until last summer in Europe, where Springsteen toured with a setlist and remarks very similar to what he’s offered this spring, except in a more international-facing version, striving to convince audiences that America is still worth saving, and to also warn them of their own impending dangers.

Springsteen has edited a couple of verses out of the song, which is seven minutes long in Dylan’s original, losing none of its impact and, significantly, not losing the audience either. People were not streaming out of the venue to beat the rush; there weren’t pockets of loud conversation. He’s pulling out the big guns and closing with words written by a leader of an earlier generation but with the same intent as he holds today — closing with a convocation of hopes and, yes, dreams.