Bruce Springsteen Turns the Kia Forum Into a Cathedral of Protest
At the Kia Forum, Bruce Springsteen delivered a sweeping, deeply political performance that blended protest, nostalgia and a call for unity
Credit: Kia Forum/Timothy NorrisThe world is a broken place and injustice lurks everywhere–in America, in Iran, across the Middle East, in our own backyards and under freeway overpasses in Los Angeles. But there are corners of the universe in which beauty radiates, where righteous individuals muster the courage and gritty pluck to cut a path toward peace and love, bellowing loudly and determinedly in favor of unity and empathy and compassion, singing out in strident defiance of the world’s collective pain.
Bruce Springsteen is one such human being.
But Springsteen and the E Street Band’s “Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour” is more than just a protest tour–and, inarguably, Springsteen’s most political string of concerts in a career spanning more than 50 years. Springsteen’s 20-date show kicked off March 31 in Minneapolis (where ICE agents fatally shot local activist Renée Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, on Jan. 24) and launched its two-date L.A. run at Kia Forum April 7. The show, in every way, was a salve, an escape, a primordial cry for freedom and self-autonomy in a universe wherein constrictions and enslavement have become the defining mark of the human experience both in the United States and abroad. It was a show in which attendees were encouraged, inspired, emboldened and enabled, to shake off those shackles both literal and metaphysical, to embrace flickering embers of hope, and acquiesce body-whole to the thumping, pulsating, electrifying beat of Springsteen’s signature brand of Jersey-birthed, blue-collar, pure Americana rock and roll.
Credit: Kia Forum/Timothy Norris“We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals, democracy, our Constitution, and the sacred American promise, the America that I love,” said Springsteen at the show’s opening. “The America that I have written about for 50 years that’s been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist and 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, truth over lies, unity over division and peace over…”
Credit: Kia Forum/Timothy NorrisSpringsteen and the E Street Band–joined by friend and frequent guest guitarist Tom Morello–then catapulted into a raspy, passionately raw rendition of “War,” songwriting duo Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong’s 1969 anti-Vietnam War anthem made famous by Edwin Starr. And we–Springsteen’s captive audience, some 17,500 fans–were no longer inhabitants of a broken world, but transported somewhere far above it, to a land serving as a restorative reprieve from the sturm und drang of modern-day warfare. We floated—cloud-like, in a Kundera-esque lightness—tucked comfortably, ecstatically, inside a musical sanctuary where serenity and unfettered joy stretched on forever. Or in this concert’s case, just short of three hours.
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Springsteen’s Tuesday night setlist was meticulously, poetically and ultra-specifically curated, shaped to drive home themes of “solidarity with the people of Minneapolis.” Between spirited anthems like “Born in the USA,” “Death to my Hometown,” “American Skin (41 Shots)” and “Darkness of the Edge of Town,” during which Springsteen unfurled a long-extended howling “toooooooowwwwwn” that rose to the ranks of sacred prayer, Springsteen addressed topics ranging from the devastating dissolution of American aid to impoverished nations and the catastrophic loss of American military personnel in wars raged overseas.
Credit: Kia Forum/Timothy NorrisBut Springsteen, as only Springsteen can, holds fast to optimism, and through hits like “Promised Land,” “Hungry Heart” and “No Surrender”–even “My City of Ruins,” a song born of the death and destruction wreaked upon New York by Islamist terrorists on September 11–what emerged throughout Tuesday night’s show was an indestructible sense of promise, of reassurance, that there can be, there should be, there will be a better way to live. The entire concert underscored the true meaning of America in all its mystical–sometimes mythical–hope and glory. Springsteen consented that while Americans don’t always think the same way or want the same things, together, in the United States there is a positive way forward, one fashioned out of respect and kindness and compassion. During “Born to Run,” the tramps fist-pumping the air were not all of the same ilk–and there is no way that a stadium filled to the hilt comprised Americans of like minds in every or any sense of the word. Springsteen fans come in all shapes and sizes—and that includes political bents. But in the end, none of that matters. And it’s the music that brings us all together.
If Springsteen’s “Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour” were to prove anything, it’s that art will bring peace far sooner than politics. And what matters most, what we can not dispense with, is the notion that as Americans, we must, no matter what, keep our collective humanity intact,
“America from the beginning was born out of disagreement, was built on disagreement,” Springsteen told the crowd. “We can argue about what course we think the country should take while still recognizing our common humanity, our dignity and, yes—our unity.”
