{"id":391275,"date":"2026-04-22T00:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391275\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:27:15","slug":"reviewer-goes-scorched-earth-on-springsteens-hypocritical-anti-trump-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391275\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviewer Goes Scorched Earth On Springsteen’s ‘Hypocritical’ Anti-Trump Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

A blistering review of Bruce Springsteen<\/a>\u2019s concert in Newark on Tuesday had murder incorporated into it.<\/p>\n

Bobby Olivier, a music reporter from NJ Advanced Media, which includes NJ.com and The Star-Ledger, gave the Jersey-raised Boss a brutal homecoming.<\/p>\n

The review was headlined<\/a>, \u201cSpringsteen\u2019s N.J. concert was poisoned by hypocrisy. Anti-Trump final act is a tragic mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it got more scathing from there.<\/p>\n

Olivier was by no means siding with the president but instead attacking what he saw as Springsteen\u2019s two-faced outrage.<\/p>\n

Olivier noted the singer\u2019s bitter spat with Trump and his repeated rebukes of the president\u2019s immigrant crackdown by ICE. That includes the song he wrote about it, \u201cStreets of Minneapolis,\u201d after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed there by federal agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne problem,\u201d the critic wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s all hypocritical crap. Profiteering over legitimate protest. Springsteen\u2019s artistic identity, as a bleeding-heart populist who sings for the destitute and downtrodden, has never been more disconnected from his economic behavior as a touring act or businessman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BruceBruce Springsteen performs during the “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour on Monday, April 20, 2026, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The concert and Springsteen were lambasted by a local critic.<\/p>\n

He wrote that the \u201cBorn to Run\u201d performer charged \u201cexorbitant\u201d prices for top seats to preach to the converted at the Prudential Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unrecognizable reality of the 2026 Springsteen experience, coupled with this tour\u2019s political framing \u2014 an exploitation of American division and outrage in a manner no better than any cable news pundit \u2014 is a damning contradiction, a lapse in logic,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt threatens to tarnish the final act of Bruce\u2019s career and is no small tragedy for New Jersey\u2019s greatest rock star.\u201d <\/p>\n

He accused Springsteen of operating as a high-falutin\u2019 working-class firebrand doing more than he should to make a buck.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis impulse, to preserve his standing as rock\u2019s last great prophet in the most commercial way imaginable, is shameful and frankly, a bit boring in its perceived antagonism,\u201d the critic explained. \u201cOf all the themes for a tour, he\u2019s pitching anti-Trump … in the president\u2019s second term? Singing to 15,000 fans who already agree with him or they wouldn\u2019t have spent a car payment (or two) on a ticket? What a revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The writer praised Springsteen\u2019s genuinely felt opposition to Trump as \u201can act of bravery\u201d but criticized him for not being more selective about it. He also called the concert a \u201cfine night of music\u201d and reminded fans of the spectacular blue-collar anthems he\u2019s crafted, such as \u201cJungleland\u201d and \u201cThe River.\u201d<\/p>\n

But those were scant positives in a commentary that cut deep.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo frame it all now as some act of protest, set at a price few can afford, is not the tradition or high ground it pretends to be,\u201d Olivier wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s a hollow monetization of a fraught time in American history and a significant blemish on a storied career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BruceBruce Springsteen has been in a war of words with Trump for a long time — but a critic said the focus on it on a concert tour isn’t resonating.<\/p>\n

Amy Aiello Lofgren, wife of Springsteen\u2019s E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, called the write-up \u201cwildly inaccurate.\u201d Fans also hit back at Olivier on his Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One wonders if Trump himself will weigh in on the review. The administration recently called Springsteen\u2019s Minneapolis song \u201cirrelevant\u201d and \u201cinaccurate<\/a>\u201d and the president said the rock legend was \u201cboring\u201d and looked like a \u201cdried up prune.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

But Olivier\u2019s extremely candid critique of Springsteen may have already done the work for the president this time around.<\/p>\n

HuffPost has reached out to a Springsteen rep for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A blistering review of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s concert in Newark on Tuesday had murder incorporated into it. Bobby Olivier,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2375,156,157,111,139,69,25394,5078],"class_list":{"0":"post-391275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bruce-springsteen","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-protest","15":"tag-trump-administration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}