Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, United Center, Chicago, IL, April 29 2026
We gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
Setlist: WAR / BORN IN THE U.S.A. / DEATH TO MY HOMETOWN / CLAMPDOWN / NO SURRENDER / DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN / STREETS OF MINNEAPOLIS / THE PROMISED LAND / TWO HEARTS / 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 - PEOPLE GET READY / AMERICAN LAND / BORN TO RUN / DANCING IN THE DARK / TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT / CHIMES OF FREEDOM
Bruce Springsteen has always tried to tell what he believed was the American story, and he is still telling it. This current outing is simply a phenomenal show that is not getting the attention and focus it deserves. This show is larger than the carefully written speeches speaking out against the misdeeds of the current administration. It is incredibly tight, well-paced, and unequivocal in its purpose and its message, conveyed by the careful construction of the individual songs in the setlist.
The key to this show, I think, comes towards the end, when Bruce sends the band offstage and he comes out with the acoustic to sing “House of a Thousand Guitars.” It’s a setlist choice that scans much differently on the page than it does witnessing it. I thought the song was here to keep an element of the previous tours, the theme of aging and of how he is outliving his old friends and wanting to pay tribute to his (and their) humanity.
And that may be part of it but it’s not all of it. “Thousand Guitars” is in this set because it is about community. It is about wannabe bands and bands you’ll never hear and the best cover band in your area and the people who get together in the garage or the basement every weekend to fuck around on their instruments, and the people who show up to cheer any or all of the above on, about how rock and roll always has a deeper purpose. Standing there last night in Chicago, I realized that it is in the set to remind us of why we are in this room with these people on that stage tonight.
The show opening is immediate and direct. We’re used to the individual entrances and the applause and the build up to the arrival of Boss. Not now, we don’t have time for that. The lights go down, the stage is dark, the band are onstage and then Bruce walks out and delivers that invocation, that statement of purpose:
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! huh! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.”
I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready for any of this.
This cover of “War,” the song that he transformed and made into his own while still maintaining the intent of the original, is absolutely atomic. I mean, it’s built that way, you can’t phone it in, And it would be one thing, maybe, if they opened the show with this level of high energy, but they do not let up once throughout the course of the night. You’re barely getting over the atomic fireball of “War” and then “Born in the USA” rolls in like a stormcloud.
BITUSA is such an intentionally complex song that it probably shouldn’t be surprising that it’s so vastly misinterpreted. Each verse paints a picture. It is specific, detailed, heartfelt, and deeply patriotic — but not in the way George Will or Ronald Reagan or Chris Christie or David Brooks or any Republican has ever chosen to interpret it.
It is interesting to consider the decision to select these two songs as the openers. They’re chosen for their visceral impact and for their indelible correctness, the juxtaposition of these two together. It’s meant to make a statement. That one-two punch is specific and direct and the kind of thing I think he would have avoided for precisely that reason on previous outings. They will knock the breath out of you. It completely bowled me over and I knew exactly what was coming.
“Death to My Hometown” felt like I was getting a moment to collect myself, even though it isn’t, you know? It was a song that didn’t get the respect it deserved because of the whole kind of frat-folk trappings that the E Street Band didn’t need (still doesn’t). While Jake Clemons and Anthony Almonte are still out there with decorative drums like they’re in some revolutionary war enactment, it feels tighter, leaner, more impactful. That is a good description of what is absent on this outing — there is no schtick this time out. There is no shirt ripping, there are no Three Stooges references, there is no fucking cowbell. The most we get is some deliberately dorky dancing on the back platform during “Two Hearts.” But because there’s not a lot of these moments, that one is just kinda adorable.
After its absence in Austin, “Clampdown” has returned. Were it not for one Thomas Baptist Morello, it would never have arrived on E Street. I got as much shit in high school for being a Clash fan as I did being a Springsteen fan (the Clash were punk! something about heroin and murdering your girlfriend. Bruce was just “gay”) and it’s not just that they’re singing this song, it’s that they are making sure that they are OWNING this song. The arrangement is tight. Bruce gives Morello the lines he can’t sell or can’t vocalize as cleanly. The horns picking up the second guitar melody is fucking genius, especially Curt Ramm picking up that high pitched filip between the verses which you notice if it is not there.
When the song disappeared from the set, the friend I attended tonight’s show with and I pondered which line caused the diversion, whether it was “in these days of evil presidentes” or “let fury have the hour/anger can be power.” Tonight Bruce sang about “corrupt presidentes” and Morello finished the line with “hopefully one or two/will fully pay their dues” instead of “but lately one or two.”
My favored protest sign for years has been ANGER CAN BE POWER. I approve of this message. And so would Joe Strummer, who loved him some Bruce Springsteen. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the conversation where adding this song to the setlist was suggested. (I’m going to stop right now because otherwise this will turn into an essay on what other Clash songs the E Street Band should cover.)
You know a show is great when “No Surrender” is time to relax, compared to the intensity that preceded it. At least a little bit, until:
There's a war outside still raging / You say it ain't ours anymore to win
“Darkness On The Edge of Town” is meant both literally but also figuratively; so many lines hit differently now in this particular configuration, on this particular mission, whether it’s “some folks are born into a good life/other folks get it anyway, anyhow” or probably in that last chorus: “I’ll be on that hill, cause I can’t stop/I’ll be on that hill with everything I’ve got.” There is no better description of what Bruce Springsteen is doing right now.
The introduction to “Streets of Minneapolis” arrives. I recognize the chord change, and I know I am not emotionally prepared to hear this live and in front of me. It was only a few months ago that Minneapolis was violently occupied (it's still occupied), and it was this year, only a few months ago, that this all happened. “They picked the wrong town,” Bruce introduces it. This song’s transformation from a folk song into an instant E Street Band classic shouldn’t be surprising, and yet it was, and seeing it live added another level of appreciation. I was not expecting those gorgeous harmonies at the end.
Once again, “Promised Land” fulfills its role as a protest song; it wasn’t written as one, but it has over the years acted as punctuation, as reinforcement, as reminder, as reproach. It was the segue the first time he performed “American Skin.” And now it is once again the reminder that this is what we are striving for, it is the counterbalance, it is the hand that picks you up off the ground when you’ve been knocked down.
Bruce has switched his footwear from those various types of amazing boots to what look like pretty solid platform sneakers.
I previously posited that “Two Hearts” was in the set as a tribute to the musical director and their decades of friendship and I was pleased to see that theory affirmed. It’s honestly just giving the two of them the spotlight, SVZ playing a gorgeous Rickenbacker I could not hear in the mix.
I almost never sit stage right, so I have never considered that Anthony Almonte has a really unique vantage point to observe Bruce chucking the guitar at Kevin. His facial expressions when this happens are priceless.
“Hungry Heart” is the second song in this emotional intermission, the roses in the ‘bread and roses’ segment of this particular revival meeting. And it is important to point out that the show in 1980 at Rosemont Horizon (now the Allstate Arena) that the crowd first sang back the first verse. That’s when he knew it was going to be a hit.
“Youngstown” is more of an anti-war song than I had previously considered; there’s a new camera setup onstage that allows for very close-up views of hands on guitars, and this is particularly delightful when it comes time for Nils’ solo. “Murder Inc.” can take on new layers of meaning, but it can also just be a moment when you get to shake your ass — or it can be both of those things, simultaneously. There’s a great moment between Steve and Bruce where they’re both silhouetted in a clear bright light and it is one of the coolest lighting tricks I’ve ever seen on that stage.
Morello returns for “American Skin.” Jake Clemons is standing with his hands up the entire time, and it is the quietest, simplest, most powerful punctuation — yes, he has done this before, many times, but not for the entire fucking song, to the best of my recollection. Watching Bruce’s face when Morello takes his solo was an incredible moment; it looked like a combination of amazement and admiration and appreciation for what Morello heard in his song and had the ability to animate into what we all get to hear live.
“Long Walk Home” sits in a place of summation and dignity. It is and will always be criminally underrated, it was not given its propers when it came out and now it sits at the midpoint of this particular narrative arc like a respected elder. It has always been a great, enormous, expansive song, it is durable, it is true and correct, it is here because it represents Springsteen’s indefatigable optimism that there is still a version of the America he believes in that can be restored.
I will never understand how people still mistake Lisa Lowell for Patti Scialfa.
“10k Guitars” goes into “My City of Ruins,” and we got not one but two “yes yes”’s. Roy Bittan sits there hitting the chords while Bruce takes a seat and gives his “this is happening right now” speech, which is an updated and expanded version of the Magic tour preface to “Livin’ In The Future.” That speech never quite worked because you were never sure if you were supposed to be cheering or booing.
This is a song called “Livin’ In the future” but it’s about what’s happening right now. How along with all the things we love about America…cheeseburgers, French fries, motorcycle engines, the Bill of Rights, Steve Van Zandt on “The Sopranos,” Big Man Clarence Clemons. To add to all those things that we love about America, we’ve had to add to the American picture: voter suppression, illegal wiretapping, rendition, black sites, an attack on the Constitution. These are all things that shouldn’t be happening here that are happening here and we plan to do something about it right now! We plan to sing about it.
I’m including this because I want him to get credit for having tried to talk about this 20 years ago.
The speech before MCOR is similar, in that he lists the many offenses committed against the American people, and punctuates it with “this is happening now.” From Chicago:
We are making our way through troubling and troubled times. Our young men and women's lives are at risk, in an unwise and illegal war. This is happening now.
There are immigrants being held in for-profit detention centers around the country, and they're being deported without due process of law to alien countries in foreign prisons. That's not America. And that's happening now.
Our Justice Department has completely abdicated its independence, takes its marching orders straight from a corrupt White House. They prosecute our presidents’ perceived enemies. They cover up for his misdeeds and they protect his powerful friends. And this is happening here right now.
Are you with us? Are you with us? Are you with us? Then let’s go!
“My City of Ruins” is a song that utilizes every single element of the 2026 E Street Band. It has always been a moment of glory in an E Street Band show and it is still a singular moment of beauty. It lifts you up. It warms your soul.
Speaking of warming your soul, it’s now time for “Because the Night.” I would gently suggest that this number could actually take a rest but it is the moment in the crowd where the dudes leaning against the back barrier with their arms crossed actually raise an eyebrow or shrug a shoulder. It is a crowd favorite! It is a Nils Lofgren spotlight! I don’t dislike BTN! I just feel like something else could swap in. I did not feel the same level of intensity here that I did the rest of the evening.
Till Victory Press
if you are interested in other thoughts about "Because the Night"!
“Wrecking Ball” is the only song in this set I think we could do without. A knowledgeable friend offers that it remains in the set — despite being a song Bruce wrote about Giants Stadium getting knocked down, and (in my opinion) should not have had a life beyond that particular moment in time — because the crowd loves it and Bruce relishes the energy he gets back from the audience. And I think it’s just because of the chorus where everyone can just sing “whoaaa whoaaa whoaaa,” they don’t have to know the words (because those are the words). Really, it’s fine, even though I wrote “no one would miss this song.” I stand by this. I will come up with a replacement.
If you’ve ever seen X, or John Doe solo, there’s a point in the show where he introduces “The New World,” noting that the song was true when they wrote it — it’s about promises made by politicians, and the inevitable disappointment when none of those promises come to fruition — and that it was still true right now, and would likely be true in the future. And at this point in the set, when we get to “The Rising,” I thought about how that particular album was a place he never expected to be and yet he met that moment and those songs still ring true today, that he wrote that song and that album to be in service.
Tom Morello is back and it is time for “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and I will tell you that his solo was one of the greatest things I have ever seen in my life. It was vivid and emotional and ecstatic while simultaneously exquisitely triumphant. And that is everything that is in the song, everything Bruce meant in writing it, everything in the evolution of Tom Morello getting to the point in his life where he is onstage with the E Street Band (in addition to his many other musical accomplishments) honed and rarified and crystallized into this moment. Before you say “well, it was a hometown show” he has been doing this every single night on this tour. You could say “Well, it’s not E Street” but, like, the next song is “Badlands,” and I have never seen anyone so happy to be playing “Badlands” onstage with the E Street Band the way that Tom Morello — a former Backstreets subscriber! — was. He was glowing.
A king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything : holy shit, dude.
Bruce is also on fire at this particular moment, sliding down the fretboard in a way I have seen him do before, granted, but not with this much focused intensity. He is 76 years old! He has been on fire the entire night, while I am noting that there is no point in this set where I could see myself sitting down for even 30 seconds.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and rock and roll originator, lived in Chicago — she arrived during the Great Migration — and got her start as a guitar player here, playing at church. I think of her during “Land of Hope and Dreams” because her song “This Train” is at least some of its inspiration. LOHAD is always heart-lifting and inspiring on its own, that chorus with the horns can pick you up in your darkest hour.
The difference between Sister Rosetta’s train and Bruce’s train is that Rosetta’s train is a clean train, you need to have repented in order to ride, while Bruce’s takes everyone. And this is what he is striving for in this set, I think, it isn’t just a harangue against people who are doing things he doesn’t want them to do, it is a representation of his vision of America, of the promise of this country, of putting into practice his belief that “The country in our hearts is waiting,” like he wrote in a New York Times editorial explaining why he was hitting the road for Vote for Change back in 2004.
I wrote, “What is the purpose of rock and roll?” in my notebook last night at some point during or after LOHAD because the strength and the breadth and the depth of this particular show is a level that Bruce has tried to manifest in various parts but hadn’t really found its form until last summer, when he rebranded the rescheduled summer tour dates as “The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” and began to introduce these targeted, specific spoken word interludes, naming names. Bruce Springsteen is not telling you that you are not welcome at his concerts if you disagree with him, he simply no longer cares if you disagree — this is what he has to say right now and he is going to say it with anger and rage and sadness every single night, but also with purpose and exhortation and joy.
Which brings us to “American Land.” At the end of LOHAD, the entire band came down front, and when I realized what song was next, everything clicked. It is introduced as an immigrant song, and we already discussed all of that, but the reason “American Land” works and avoids many of its previous transgressions is because no one is trying to make the song whimsical. It is handled like a serious composition (which it always has been!) and the performance is completely devoid of the hokeyness which has plagued it since its inception.
Morello exeunt.
The house lights come on and it is time for “Born to Run,” and it feels more jarring than usual when the house lights come on, because it has been a bullet train of intensity heading straight down the track at us and now we are in the moments where it is time to prepare to head back into the real world. “10th Avenue,” and Bruce heads into the crowd, down the sides and across the runway at the back of the pit. It seems to take longer, as we are singing “Tenth! Tenth! Tenth! Tenth!” much longer than usual — which is fine, because I was glad to see the video of Clarence and Danny again (perhaps it is time for a refresh? I am not the only one who has watched and enjoyed and appreciated it many, many times). It feels like “Tenth” is lacking a little bit of the gravitas it normally enjoys but I appreciate that it has been a very intense evening.
When Bruce returns to the stage, he sits down on the front stairs and talks about how they first came to Chicago in 1974, and “thanks for a lifetime,” which would feel ominous and summational but we have also been saying this since the Reunion tour ended. He mentions that the E Street Band was made for hard times, and that America would make it through — in Minneapolis he pointed out that this tour was not planned.
We got a president who says he wishes nothing but ill on those he disagrees with. I don’t feel that way! We were born out arguments and disagreements about what course the country should take, while we still recognized our common humanity, and our dignity, and our unity. I think back to a very heartbreaking example of this: Renee Good, the last words she said, before she died, to the man who would take her life, the last thing she said to him was, ‘I’m not mad at you.’
In the morning, do as Renee did: find a way to take aggressive, peaceful action to defend our country’s ideals. Say something, do something, sing something — that’s all I do! — i you’re feeling hopeless, if you’re feeling helpless, if you’re feeling frustrated if you’re feeling angry if you’re feeling betrayed — I feel all of those things. And that’s why the E Street Band is in Chicago tonight. I needed to feel your strength and your hope. And I pray that we brought some hope and some strength to you tonight.
Meanwhile, behind all of this, Charlie Giordano is quietly riffing on the intro chords to the one song I have never ever seen Bruce Springsteen perform and one I never, ever, EVER thought I’d get to see: his version of Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.” There are so many quotable lines and moments and phrases but this one hit me hardest:
And for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail /And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
The band leaves the stage, Bruce handing each one off as they leave, before he comes back to center stage and waves at the crowd. The lights go down and it is over, at least for tonight.
The setlist tells a story but it is not the complete story. The E Street story is only complete when 1+1=3, the equation of rock and roll, where the audience and the band combine to make a third unpredictable and ephemeral creation, that only exists when everyone is in the same place and evaporates the minute it is over.
Go see this if you can. Bruce Springsteen has done great things for a long time, but this is greatness on the level he was always meant for. It reminded me of something he told Peter Ames Carlin in Bruce: “I was a strange product of Elvis and Woody Guthrie, and I pursued the pink Cadillac in my own way, but I was fascinated by people who had become a voice for their moment.”
Springsteen has stepped into the moments before, but this particular time he is, indeed, a voice for a moment.
See you in Pittsburgh.
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Tonight’s charity was the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights.
If you attended a show on this tour and made note of the beneficiary, please drop me a line, I'd like to compile a running list without having to buy every single show, thank you.
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p.s. I'm finishing this on the Amtrak back from Chicago and this is not where I want to try to upload video (and to be honest I didn't want the distraction of filming and taking extensive photos at my first show on this tour) but I'll put some things on Instagram later; that said, I am certain other people have already uploaded much better video.
