Bruce Springsteen gives fiery performance in a downpour, announces music festival in DC

WASHINGTON – At the tour opener in Minneapolis, Bruce Springsteen fans were steeped in fire.

Two months later, at what was supposed to be the exclamation point to this 20-date tour in Washington, DC, they were baptized by rain.

Maybe this hastily arranged, deeply intentional Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour didn’t bookend the way Springsteen had planned thanks to a playoff-related postponement in Philadelphia, where the tour will now wrap on May 30.

And the steady rain that fell on the tens of thousands packing Nationals Park – the only stadium show of the tour located 4 miles from the White House – could have been a hindrance to lesser artists.

But through logistical hiccups, death threats that guitarist Steven Van Zandt recently disclosed, hearing from the disgruntled minority who somehow didn’t realize that a tour conceived as a political summons of resistance was … political, Springsteen, 76, and the mighty E Street Band remained steadfast in their purpose.

His potent sermon that opens the concert – prayers for the military, unbridled vitriol for the Trump administration – before the band slams into Edwin Starr’s “War,” was delivered with fists punching the air and eyes scrunching with conviction.

The pointed songs that dotted the nearly three-hour show, including “Death to My Hometown,” accented by Soozie Tyrell’s sawing fiddle, and the defiant “No Surrender,” with Springsteen emphasizing the “There’s a war outside raging” lyric, took fans on a journey.

Throughout the tour, Springsteen's setlist barely wavered aside from a feverish cover of The Clash’s “Clampdown,” handled primarily by guitar guest Tom Morello, which was added by the third show, while sweet “Bobby Jean” was ditched by the fourth.

One of the most compelling moments during the May 27 DC date came during “Streets of Minneapolis,” the plainspoken ballad of sorrow and hope for the city swarmed by federal agents earlier this year – hence its position as the tour opener in late March.

As Springsteen sang of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, civilians shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers while protesting, rain fell in sheets and infused the song with a prayer-like feel. Fans joined Springsteen’s chant of “ICE out now!” with full-throated fervor while he implored, “Let them hear you at the (expletive) White House!”

But along with the pain came joy, as Springsteen, a sharp-dressed man in a white dress shirt, dark vest and tie, ambled down the catwalk like a kid gleefully playing in the sprinklers.

The crowd marinated in the elation etched on Springsteen’s face as he slapped damp hands and locked eyes with fans during “Hungry Heart” and strode through “The Promised Land." At the song’s end, he reached over heads to hand his harmonica to a young man whose overwhelmed reaction could have cured the ills of the world.

Springsteen’s gift for galvanizing is undiminished, and this tour’s effect on fans was displayed by the thousands who held their hands up in a “don’t shoot” pose throughout “American Skin (41 Shots)” and reveled in the revival spirit of “My City in Ruins,” which Springsteen prefaced by saying, “Truth, honesty, decency. Don’t let anybody tell you these things don’t matter. They do.”

Longtime Springsteen fan – and noted author – James Grady alternately wept and smiled broadly as he stood in his rain poncho.

“Bruce is the great American author of my generation, stepping up when we need him most,” Grady said.

And Springsteen isn’t done yet.

Toward the end of the show, he announced the Power to the People Festival, which will take place Oct. 3 at Merriweather Post Pavilion outside of DC with performances from Morello, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Brittany Howard, Dropkick Murphys, Jack Black, Serj Tankian, Cypress Hill, Killer Mike, The Linda Lindas and the man himself. A presale begins at 10 a.m. ET May 29 with the general on sale at 10 a.m. May 30.

The fire, it seems, is still raging.