Ahead of the latest leg of his “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour ,” Bruce Springsteen said last week that “The E Street Band is built for hard times.” On Tuesday night (March 31st), he demonstrated how right he was during their first show of 2026 at Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Target Arena.
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Taking place just two days after Springsteen appeared at the city’s No Kings Protest, The Boss took the stage in uplifting defiance over the current state of the country. Before the opening number, he stepped out in near complete darkness to address the crowd, setting the tone for the evening to come:
“Good evening Minnesota! Welcome Minneapolis, St. Paul — welcome to the ‘Land of Hopes and Dreams American Tour.’ I want to begin tonight with a prayer for our men and women in service overseas. We pray for their safe return. The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n’ roll in dangerous times. We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals, our democracy, our Constitution, and our sacred American promise. The America I love, the America I’ve written about for 50 years, that’s been a beacon of hope, of liberty around the world is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration. Tonight we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption, resistance over complacency, unity over division, and peace over war.”
On that last word, the lights burst on and the E Street Band — including Tom Morello — kicked into a cover of The Temptations’ “War,” marking the first time they’d performed the song since 2003. Fittingly, “Born in the USA” came next; watch video of the opening speech and first two performances below.
The 27-song setlist included a umber of era appropriate choices, including the full E Street Band premiere of “Streets of Minneapolis,” “Death to My Hometown,” a closing cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom,” and “Long Walk Home,” which Springsteen introduced as “a prayer for my country.” While dusting over their version of Prince’s “Purple Rain” for the first time since 2016 was surely a highlight, it’s hard to imagine anything hitting as strong as the six songs that closed the main set: “Because the Night,” “Wrecking Ball,” “The Rising,” “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” “Badlands,” and “Land of Hope and Dreams.” Find the complete setlist ahead.
Springsteen delivered two other speeches throughout the set, both calling for defiant unity in the face of “some very dark times.” “Our American values that have sustained us for 250 years are being challenged as never before,” he said in the middle of the show, listing off the failures and corruption of the wealthy and those in political power. But while he damned “this administration’s and this President’s legacy” as one “destroying the American idea and our reputation around the world,” he called on the American people themselves to retain their values: “Honesty, honor, humility, compassion, thoughtfulness, morality, true strength, and decency — don’t let anybody tell you that these things don’t matter anymore. They do. They are at the heart of the kind of men and women we are, the kind of citizens we are, the kind of country we’ll be leaving to our children.”
In his closing remarks, Springsteen evoked the words of Renée Good, the Minneapolis woman shot and killed by ICE agents in January. Noting that “disagreement… while recognizing our common humanity, our dignity, and yes, our unity” is foundational to the American experiment, he said, “I go back to thinking about Renée Good’s last words before she died, to the man who she was protesting against, the man who would take her life. She said, ‘That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you. I’m not mad.’ God bless her.”
He concluded, “This is a tour that was not planned. We’re here tonight because we need to feel your hope, and your strength. And we want to bring some hope and some strength for you. I hope we did that. All I can say is God bless Alex Pretti, God bless Renée Good, God bless you, and God bless America.”
Find the complete transcripts of the mid-show and closing speeches below, in addition to the full setlist, a photo gallery, and footage of Springsteen’s opening remarks and first two songs. You can also see all of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s upcoming tour dates ahead, and get tickets here.
