Bruce Springsteen Won’t Back Down: Performs “Streets of Minneapolis” Live in Minneapolis

When the his­to­ry books are writ­ten, we’ll remem­ber the politi­cians, law firms, and CEOs who quick­ly bent the knee to Don­ald Trump. We’ll also remem­ber the scant few Amer­i­can fig­ures who refused to back down. Bruce Spring­steen will be high on that short list.

Tour­ing in Europe last sum­mer, Spring­steen warned his audi­ence: “The Amer­i­ca that I love, the Amer­i­ca I have writ­ten about, that has been a bea­con of hope and lib­er­ty for 250 years, is cur­rent­ly in the hands of a cor­rupt, incom­pe­tent and trea­so­nous admin­is­tra­tion.” Those words seem par­tic­u­lar­ly pre­scient giv­en the chaos and vio­lence now unfold­ing in Min­neso­ta.

Fol­low­ing the shoot­ings of Renee Good and Alex Pret­ti, Spring­steen made his voice heard again—this time through music. Last week, he released the protest song “Streets of Min­neapo­lis” and soon after­ward trav­eled to Min­neso­ta to per­form the song live at a ben­e­fit con­cert arranged by Tom Morel­lo. Speak­ing to the crowd, Spring­steen said, “I wrote Streets of Min­neapo­lis and record­ed it the next day.” When he won­dered if the song sound­ed too ‘soap­boxy,’ he turned to Morel­lo, and the Rage Against the Machine gui­tarist replied, “Bruce, nuance is won­der­ful, but some­times you need to kick them in the teeth.” We’ll say amen to that.

After “Streets of Min­neapo­lis,” Spring­steen and Morel­lo per­formed “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” Watch it above. The start of the show began with “Killing In The Name Of.” Catch it below.

Relat­ed Con­tent 

Bruce Spring­steen Revives the Protest Song, Con­demns ICE Vio­lence in “Streets of Min­neapo­lis”

Scott Gal­loway Unveils “Resist and Unsub­scribe,” an Action Plan for Con­sumers to Push Back Against Gov­ern­ment Over­reach

Tom Morel­lo Responds to Angry Fans Who Sud­den­ly Real­ize That Rage Against the Machine’s Music Is Polit­i­cal: “What Music of Mine DIDN’T Con­tain Polit­i­cal BS?”