Bruce Springsteen kicks off the Land of Hope & Dreams Tour in Minneapolis with Tom Morello – Watch the first 10 minutes and the tribute to Prince with "Purple Rain"

Bruce Springsteen kicked off his American tour “Land Of Hope And Dreams” last night at Minneapolis's Target Center with one of the most explicitly political shows of his recent career. From the very first notes it was clear this would be no ordinary comeback gig: the opener, “War”, a cover of the classic made famous by Edwin Starr and long a staple of Springsteen's live sets, immediately set a tone of mobilization and protest. Shortly after came “Born In The U.S.A.” and “Death To My Hometown”, both featuring Tom Morello on stage, a central presence in a night built around a clear vision of America, its fractures, and its political and moral decline.

Here below are the first 10 minutes of Springsteen's concert.

The choice of Minneapolis is of course no accident, and not just because of the overall mood surrounding the opening night. During the show Springsteen performed "Streets Of Minneapolis" live for the first time with the E Street Band, and also included a rare rendition of "Purple Rain", a tribute to Prince that also featured a solo from Morello. It was one of the most significant moments of the night, not so much for its surprise factor as for its symbolic weight: a tribute rooted in the very place where it was performed, within a concert that constantly used its setting to reinforce its message.

Even sharper than the songs were the words. Springsteen punctuated several parts of the show with scathing remarks about the current state of America, speaking of democratic values under threat, illegal war, deportations, abuse of executive power, corruption at the White House, and a country that, in the eyes of the world, risks turning into a predatory and unpredictable power. In his remarks he also brought up the crisis of the judicial system, the scaling back of international aid, the abandonment of NATO, and attempts to rewrite or sanitize national history in museums. The central point of his speech, repeated insistently, was that none of this belongs to some future or abstract scenario – it is happening right now.

Within this framework, songs like "American Skin (41 Shots)", "Long Walk Home" – introduced as a prayer for the country – and "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" took on a very specific meaning, all titles that have long represented the most civic and accusatory side of his catalogue. The final stretch of the concert combined energy with a statement of intent, as "Badlands" and "Land Of Hope And Dreams" relaunched the idea of collective resistance. The closing performance of Bob Dylan's Bob Dylan "Chimes Of Freedom" then shifted the tone to something almost like a call to action, with Springsteen urging the crowd to go home, embrace their loved ones, and the next day find a concrete way – peaceful but firm – to defend American democratic ideals.

The tour has only just kicked off, but the message is already crystal clear.

Here's the setlist Springsteen played in Minneapolis:

War

Born in the U.S.A.

Death to My Hometown

No Surrender

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Streets of Minneapolis

The Promised Land

Out in the Street

Hungry Heart

Youngstown

Murder Incorporated

American Skin (41 Shots)

Long Walk Home

House of a Thousand Guitars

My City of Ruins

Because the Night

Wrecking Ball

The Rising

The Ghost of Tom Joad

Badlands

Land of Hope and Dreams

Born to Run

Bobby Jean

Dancing in the Dark

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Purple Rain

Chimes of Freedom

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