{"id":163,"date":"2026-06-02T16:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=163"},"modified":"2026-06-02T16:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:42:19","slug":"bruce-springsteen-gave-us-exactly-what-we-need-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=163","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Springsteen Gave Us Exactly What We Need Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I felt a bit glum when Bruce Springsteen launched his \u201cLand of Hope and Dreams\u201d tour in Manchester, England, last year, and took it on the road across Europe. Not because I didn\u2019t love what he was doing\u2014I wrote enthusiastically about his scathing denunciations of Donald Trump\u2014but because I really thought he should have brought the tour home to America. It wasn\u2019t as much needed in Manchester and Milan as it was in Minneapolis and Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

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Well, it turns out Springsteen knew that too. And so he scheduled a fairly impromptu US tour on February 17 to run from March through May, Minneapolis to DC. And I was there, from Minneapolis to Madison Square Garden to what was supposed to be the final concert in Washington. (Because of sports-team schedules, he wound up rescheduling a Philadelphia show to be last.)<\/p>\n

I almost chased him to Philly and then decided: Perfection is perfect. Leave it alone.<\/p>\n

You can read a lot of concert coverage that tells you what Springsteen played; I\u2019m going to tell you how it felt. (Music writer Caryn Rose does both here.)<\/p>\n

I never tired of hearing Springsteen talk about the \u201cracist, reckless, corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous\u201d president at these US dates (He embellished his European descriptions as things got worse here.)<\/p>\n

His Minneapolis show felt the most astonishing and devastating. Not least because people were crying all around me (I was crying contagious tears too). These were people who\u2019d been on citizen protection alert for months already; who were bone tired from caring for their neighbors, but carrying on, standing for hours in that arena; who knew martyrs Ren\u00e9e Good and Alex Pretti personally, or who felt like they did after so much time in the fight together. Those folks felt so seen and so loved. And when we got \u201cPurple Rain,\u201d because Prince, the Beloved One, lived in that sacred city, we all felt blessed.<\/p>\n

But the Washington, DC, show was almost as transcendent. The sky opened up when Springsteen played \u201cStreets of Minneapolis,\u201d and the rain poured for a full hour. I kept thinking of his \u201cJungleland\u201d lyric, \u201cbarefoot girls\u2026drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain.\u201d This was crushing spring rain, in sandals, in dirt. But it was baptism, it was cleansing, it was healing. Hearing the ode to Minneapolis that Springsteen wrote alone, now played with the mighty band, in place of his first stripped-down acoustic version, was galvanizing.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always a call and response in the song, when he says, \u201cWith our chants of \u2018ICE OUT NOW,\u2019\u201d and waits for the crowd to join him, at least three times. We did this time. But we also took up the chant all by its lonesome, \u201cICE OUT NOW,\u201d after the song ended. Bruce looked so happy. \u201cLet them hear you at the fucking White House!\u201d he said more than once.<\/p>\n

Springsteen never changed up the set. Yes, he did add \u201cPurple Rain\u201d in Minneapolis, but we all knew that was coming at the first show. The band added The Clash\u2019s \u201cClampdown\u201d a few stops in, and it fit, and they never lost it. Almost all of his songs were tailored to rebellion and a regenerative spirit. \u201cWrecking Ball,\u201d \u201cYoungstown,\u201d \u201cMurder, Incorporated,\u201d \u201cMy City Of Ruin,\u201d \u201cAmerican Skin (41 Shots),\u201d \u201cThe Ghost of Tom Joad.\u201d They all tell the story.<\/p>\n

But so does one of my favorites, \u201cLong Walk Home,\u201d written for the 2007 Magic<\/em> album, which was to my mind an elegy for John Kerry\u2019s loss to George W. Bush in 2004. The song has always gutted me: \u201cYou know that flag flying over the courthouse means certain things are set in stone \/ Who we are, what we\u2019ll do and what we won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

What we won\u2019t? There\u2019s nothing Trump won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Playing for Kerry was Bruce\u2019s first formal foray into US election politics, and Kerry\u2019s loss inspired him to gift us the phrase: \u201cThe country that we carry in our hearts is still waiting.\u201d I think of that every day.<\/p>\n

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Near the end of every show, he listed Trump\u2019s depredations and punctuated each one with \u201cThis is happening now.\u201d Just a few new ones from recent shows: \u201cimmigrants being held in for-profit detention centers around the country, such as Delaney Hall in my home state of Jersey\u2026 $1.8 billion slush fund for\u2026January 6 insurrectionists\u2026 this is happening now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people. Do ya hear me, Philadelphia? Are you with us, Philadelphia?\u201d Philadelphia was with him, as we were in all 20 cities the band visited.<\/p>\n

Now the \u201cHope and Dreams\u201d tour is over, and it reminded me that something else I cherish is over, for different reasons, and I\u2019m sad in a different way. Last week, The Late Show<\/em>\u2019s Stephen Colbert had to hang up his saddle because Donald Trump, Larry and David Ellison, and Bari Weiss terminated him as they destroy CBS. Watching his last week and a half of shows? They were so fucking good. But it also made me feel every day that I got closer to the end like I was watching a crime in progress. Murder Incorporated? How silly.<\/p>\n

To lose these two cultural cheerleaders within about a week is hard for progressives, even though both men\u2019s silence will only be temporary. Bruce certainly chose the time and place he wanted to close this part of his artistic life. Colbert absolutely did not, but knew the time and place of his political execution, May 21. And for the two months leading up to it, the show was extraordinary. It was about \u201creciprocal human connection,\u201d as the show\u2019s band leader, Louis Cato, says. The people that Colbert chose in those closing shows, and the way they chose to talk to him, whether it was Barack Obama, Pedro Pascal, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg, Bette Midler, or, yes, Bruce Springsteen, too, was extraordinary. And loving.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the first guy in America who\u2019s lost his show because we\u2019ve got a president who can\u2019t take a joke,\u201d The Boss told Colbert about our tyrannical temporary boss. I\u2019m juvenile; one of my favorite bits featured Colbert and former Late Show<\/em> host David Letterman throwing pieces of show furniture off the roof and onto a big CBS logo, shattering it.<\/p>\n

Both Springsteen and Colbert know how to do grief and resilience at the same time. Colbert lost his father and two brothers in a plane crash when he was 10; his seven older siblings were already out of the house, so it was up to him and his mother to comfort (and amuse) one another. Springsteen has written about his role in cheering up his (dancing and singing and often cheery already) mother while his father was suffering from severe depression. I\u2019ve found myself wondering about this similarity in the last few weeks: that these two men who\u2019ve known such deep pain, but had to help family members through it, know how to help us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re feeling helpless, if you\u2019re feeling hopeless, if you\u2019re feeling betrayed, if you\u2019re feeling frustrated, if you\u2019re feeling angry, I understand,\u201d Springsteen told the crowd at my last show. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here tonight. We needed to come to Washington and feel your strength and your hope and your faith. And we needed, we needed to bring to your city some strength and some hope and some faith, and I hope that we did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said, at his last few shows, in places he has played so many times before, \u201cThank you for a lifetime.\u201d He has played in so many of these cities 50 years or more. Bruce has told us he is never doing a farewell tour\u2014that the E Street Band will go on as long as it can. But it was hard not to think that he is 76, and I am 67, and\u2026 None of us have forever. But we had this.<\/p>\n

While the tour may be over, Springsteen\u2019s political crusade is not. He carries on with two America 250 shows in June, with guests ranging from Mavis Staples to Jackson Browne to Rosanne Cash to Kenny Chesney (while Trump\u2019s own Freedom 250 concerts are hemorrhaging acts and may be down to Vanilla Ice. Seriously. \u201cIce, Ice, Baby\u201d indeed). Springsteen will be back in the DC metro area for Tom Morello\u2019s \u201cPower to the People\u201d show on October 3, with the Dropkick Murphys and other bands. There will almost certainly be more.<\/p>\n

At some point during the tour, I came to think about how the bands of the 1940s, from Glenn Miller to Count Basie to Cab Calloway, entertained the troops during World War II, both in the field and via radio broadcasts, to boost morale. We are the troops in this fight for democracy, and Springsteen and his band toured for two months to keep us fighting. Maybe Colbert will join him at one of these next stops.<\/p>\n

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The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society"],"yoast_head":"\nBruce Springsteen Gave Us Exactly What We Need Right Now - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=163\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bruce Springsteen Gave Us Exactly What We Need Right Now - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=163\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-02T16:42:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=163#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=163\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Bruce Springsteen Gave Us Exactly What We Need Right Now\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-02T16:42:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=163\"},\"wordCount\":1551,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=163#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/e180b0bc4b4f78cf613554bae69b3279.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=163#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=163\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=163\",\"name\":\"Bruce Springsteen Gave Us Exactly What We Need Right Now - 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