{"id":664121,"date":"2026-05-25T13:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/664121\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T13:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:24:11","slug":"springsteens-td-garden-show-a-three-hour-fight-for-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/664121\/","title":{"rendered":"Springsteen’s TD Garden show: A three-hour fight for America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ordinarily, a Bruce Springsteen show is a ferocious, three-hour rock-and-roll display. But his performance Sunday at TD Garden was no ordinary Springsteen show. It was a ferocious, three-hour, rock-and-roll display of righteous anger, a conscious political act. Dubbed the \u201cLand of Hope and Dreams American Tour,\u201d Springsteen <\/a>made plain what it was about in the tour\u2019s announcement: \u201cwe will be rocking your town in celebration and in defense of America \u2014 American democracy, American freedom, our American Constitution and our sacred American dream \u2014 all of which are under attack.\u201d It is no accident that the tour kicked off in Minneapolis, the city where, a few months ago, Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by ICE agents, an event that precipitated the latest song from the Boss, \u201cStreets of Minneapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Springsteen has never shied away<\/a> from political commentary, both in things he has said and done and in songs he has written. But his current endeavor takes that to another level \u2014 one commensurate with the threat he sees us facing.<\/p>\n

\"BruceBruce Springsteen performs in concert with Tom Morello and the E Street Band at TD Garden on Sunday, May 24, 2026.Matthew J. Lee\/Globe Staff\/Boston Globe<\/p>\n

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He began the evening with a Memorial Day prayer for the men and women in service, followed by a brief statement of purpose; he and the E Street Band were there, he said, \u201cin defense of the values and ideals that have sustained this country for 250 years.\u201d Then he launched into a three-hour show bookended with Edwin Starr\u2019s \u201cWar\u201d and Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cChimes of Freedom.\u201d In between, he returned again and again to his theme.<\/p>\n

\"BruceBruce Springsteen with Jake Clemons and the E Street Band at TD Garden on Sunday, May 24, 2026.Matthew J. Lee\/Globe Staff\/Boston Globe<\/p>\n

There was an incendiary take on the Clash\u2019s \u201cClampdown\u201d (\u201clet fury have the hour, anger can be power, you know that you can use it\u201d bellowed Springsteen) and a wild, extended version of \u201cNo Surrender,\u201d with its chorus \u2014 \u201cno retreat, baby, no surrender\u201d \u2014 repurposed for the moment. \u201cStreets of Minneapolis,\u201d channeling Springsteen\u2019s inner folkie, was prefaced with praise of the inhabitants\u2019 resistance; \u201cthey told us that this is still America, that the Gestapo tactics of this administration will not stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were many more such moments, from \u201cLong Walk Home,\u201d which Springsteen offered as \u201ca prayer for our country,\u201d to his raucous immigrant song, \u201cAmerican Land.\u201d But the peak might have been two songs taken from the album Springsteen made in the wake of the 9\/11 attacks \u2014 first, the gospel intensity of \u201cMy City of Ruins,\u201d with the crowd joining the singer in roaring its soaring chorus of \u201cC\u2019mon, rise up!,\u201d and the anguished resilience and hope carried by \u201cThe Rising.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BruceBruce Springsteen at TD Garden on Sunday.Matthew J. Lee\/Globe Staff\/Boston Globe<\/p>\n

Interspersed among these offerings were the favorites that are a part of every Springsteen setlist, from \u201cBorn to Run\u201d and \u201cTenth Avenue Freeze-Out to \u201cDarkness on the Edge of Town\u201d and \u201cBecause the Night,\u201d all delivered by the well-oiled machine that is the E Street Band and by a man who, now 76 years old, can still go full-tilt for three hours, even if he is finally starting to manifest the effects of time. But the point of the performance was found in the mission that Springsteen has taken upon himself \u2014 not only to call out \u201cthis corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,\u201d but to point beyond it to the work of resurrection and restoration and to the recovery of what Lincoln called \u201cthe better angels of our nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND<\/p>\n

At: TD Garden, Sunday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ordinarily, a Bruce Springsteen show is a ferocious, three-hour rock-and-roll display. But his performance Sunday at TD Garden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-664121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}