Bruce Springsteen Delivers First Live Performance of ICE Protest Song in Minneapolis
Bruce Springsteen hit the stage at Minneapolis‘ First Avenue club on Friday to perform his new anti-ICE protest song “Streets of Minneapolis” for the first time live. Spingsteen released the track on Wednesday following the the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Amid backlash in response to their respective deaths, Tom Morello announced a…
Bruce Springsteen hit the stage at Minneapolis‘ First Avenue club on Friday to perform his new anti-ICE protest song “Streets of Minneapolis” for the first time live.
Spingsteen released the track on Wednesday following the the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Amid backlash in response to their respective deaths, Tom Morello announced a benefit concert would be held Friday, with 100 percent of proceeds going to “the families of those murdered by ICE.”
In the promotional flyer the rage Against the Machine guitarist shared for the concert, Rise Against, Al Di Meola and Ike Reilly were all listed as slated performers, alongside a mystery “very special guest.”
After Morello introduced Springsteen as “my good friend and fellow freedom fighter,” the crowd erupted in applause. Once he hit the stage, the 20-time Grammy Award winner explained the story behind the song, and the advice Morello gave him upon releasing the track.
“Now I know Tom is an excitable man. I say, ‘Tom, what do you think? It’s kind of soap boxy’” Springsteen said. “He says, ‘Bruce, nuance is wonderful, but sometimes you have to kick them in the teeth. “So this is for the people of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the people of our good country, the United States of America.”
Entitled “Streets of Minneapolis,” Springsteen sings about “King Trump’s private army from the DHS,” with the chorus line, “Here in our home they killed and roamed / In the winter of ’26, we’ll remember the names of those who died / On the streets of Minneapolis.”
“I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis,” Springsteen said Wednesday when he released the song. “It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renée Good. Stay free.”
Following its release, the Trump administration called the track “irrelevant.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement toThe Hollywood Reporter, “The Trump administration is focused on encouraging state and local Democrats to work with federal law enforcement officers on removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from their communities — not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information. The media should cover how Democrats have refused to work with the administration, and instead, opted to provide sanctuary for these criminal illegals.”
Springsteen is not a new Trump critic. During a May 2025 stop on The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, heslammedthe Trump administration, he said, “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration. Tonight we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!”
The president laterrespondedto his comments on Truth Social, where he said the musician was “dumb as a rock” and that “this dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare’. Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
And in a September Time Magazine profile, the singer-songwriter said he “absolutely couldn’t care less what [Trumps thinks about me.” Springsteen added, “He’s the living personification of what the 25th Amendment and impeachment were for. If Congress had any guts, he’d be consigned to the trash heap of history.”
