{"id":268323,"date":"2026-04-27T15:41:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/268323\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T15:41:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:41:48","slug":"bruce-springsteen-takes-the-high-road-in-austin-review-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/268323\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Springsteen Takes the High Road in Austin: Review + Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruce Springsteen<\/a> took the high road\u00a0during his\u00a0Sunday concert at Austin, Texas’ Moody Center,\u00a0praying<\/a> for\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a> in the wake of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting and exhorting fans to uphold American ideals such as honesty,\u00a0compassion and\u00a0humility after they went home.<\/p>\n

Then the Boss rocked the packed arena with such soul-stirring fervor that it would have been nearly impossible not to heed his call.<\/p>\n

You can see UCR’s exclusive photos from the concert below.<\/p>\n

bruce springsteen and the e street band perform in austin texas<\/p>\n

Bryan Rolli, UCR<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bruce Springsteen Albums Ranked From Worst to Best<\/a><\/p>\n

Bruce Springsteen Is Fighting for the Soul of America on His 2026 Tour<\/p>\n

When Springsteen surprise-announced<\/a>\u00a0his current Land of Hopes and Dreams Tour in February, he made it clear\u00a0he considers this trek nothing less than a battle for the soul of America. He threw himself into the\u00a0charge on Sunday with the gusto that’s made him one of rock’s most\u00a0gargantuan stars for the past half-century.<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old star united the audience early with a vigorous\u00a0rendition of “Born in the U.S.A.” and\u00a0later let them turn the first verse and chorus of “Hungry Heart” into a tremendous a cappella singalong.\u00a0Springsteen’s political overtures were powerful and wide-ranging, from “Streets of Minneapolis<\/a>,” his elegy for recent ICE and Border Patrol shooting victims Renee Good and Alex Pretti, to\u00a0“American Skin (41 Shots),” the 2001 single inspired by the NYPD’s killing of\u00a0Amadou Diallo.<\/p>\n

bruce springsteen and the e street band perform in austin texas<\/p>\n

Bryan Rolli, UCR<\/p>\n

The E Street Band<\/a> ripped and roared dutifully behind Springsteen all night,\u00a0with guitarists Nils Lofgren<\/a> and Steven Van Zandt<\/a>\u00a0unleashing furious solos during “Youngstown” and “Murder Incorporated,” respectively. On-and-off E Streeter Tom Morello<\/a> added metallic and melodic heft to the set, toning down his whammy pedal histrionics in\u00a0favor\u00a0of more\u00a0bluesy, atmospheric\u00a0lead work (but still letting loose on an incendiary, long-form rendition of “The Ghost of Tom Joad”).<\/p>\n

Bruce Springsteen Prays for Trump \u2014 Then Calls Him a Snowflake<\/p>\n

And\u00a0despite his earlier prayer of thanks for Trump’s wellbeing, Springsteen later ripped the president and his administration for holding immigrants in “for-profit detention centers,” for “undermining NATO and the world order that kept us safe and at global peace for 80 years,” and for pressuring museums to “whitewash American history of any unpleasant or inconvenient facts, like the full history of the brutality of slavery.”<\/p>\n

“You wanna talk about snowflakes?” Springsteen said. “We have a president\u00a0who can’t handle the truth.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bruce Springsteen Live Albums Ranked<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite his righteous anger and political sloganeering, Springsteen chose to uplift with generation-defining songs rather than tear down with words. By the time he\u00a0barreled through the\u00a0encore\u00a0volley of “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” the only political party that mattered was the “United Free Republic of E Street Nation” that emblazoned shirts at the merch\u00a0table.<\/p>\n

bruce springsteen and the e street band perform in austin texas<\/p>\n

Bryan Rolli, UCR<\/p>\n

“Honesty, honor, humility, character, truth, compassion, humanity, thoughtfulness, morality, true strength and decency \u2014 don’t let anybody tell you that these things don’t matter anymore,” Springsteen told enraptured fans. “So many of our elected leaders have failed us that this American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people \u2014 by you. So let’s fight for the America we love. Do you hear me?”<\/p>\n

Loud and clear.<\/p>\n

Bruce Springsteen Live in Austin – April 26, 2026<\/p>\n

The Boss’ Land of Hope and Dreams Tour visited the Lone Star State for a soul-stirring night at the Moody Center.<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce Springsteen took the high road\u00a0during his\u00a0Sunday concert at Austin, Texas’ Moody Center,\u00a0praying for\u00a0President Donald Trump in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,223,25395,576],"class_list":["post-268323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-news","tag-pictures","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}