Springsteen & the E Street Band: Phoenix, April 16, 2026

Bruce Springsteen, Phoenix, April 16, 2026. All pictures and video by Matthew Orel.

Bruce Springsteen is angry. And boy, oh, boy, is he holding on to his anger.

Last night, through a bit of clever planning with a family trip, I managed to be in Phoenix for the "Land of Hope and Dreams - No Kings" tour.  It's also, for the most part,  a "no surprises" tour. Last night was the third consecutive show with the same setlist. To some fans, setlist variation still matters. To them, I'd say this: Get over it.

Going in, even those of us in "blackout" mode basically knew what to expect. Bruce has been very vocal about his rage over the current administration, culminating in his sudden January release of "Streets of Minneapolis" and the subsequent announcement of this 20-date E Street Band tour. The show is positioned as a rhetorical call to arms, with Bruce directly stating the purpose multiple times during the show: "This American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people. So join us and let's fight for the America that we love."

But still, there's a show and the show needs to be righteous.

This show was righteous.

The 27-song set, which has evolved slightly since the tour started at the end of March, is more tightly focused even than the 20-date European "Land of Hope and Dreams" tour that culminated last July in Italy.

What's changed? For one thing -- and certainly not for the better in terms of "the state of the world" -- the US administration has presented a lot more material: the shutdown of USAID and the threats against Canada and Denmark almost quaint now (though it's obviously a major item) when placed next to the ICE activities in multiple states or a war of choice in Iran. This has opened up the set to songs like "War" and "American Land" and "American Skin (41 Shots)," which fit in well with songs already in the setlist such as "Born in the U.S.A.," "Long Walk Home" and "Chimes of Freedom." In terms of setlist construction, in order to keep the show at around two hours and 50 minutes, old fan favorites such as "Thunder Road" and "Bobby Jean" have been dropped, but that seems like more than a fair trade.

Another thing is Tom Morello re-joining the band. Morello was on stage for only 12 of the 27 songs, but he brought an undeniable combination of passion, energy, and virtuoso playing. "The Ghost of Tom Joad" was so incendiary in Phoenix that it seemed the entire band needed to catch its breath when he finished. "Clampdown" was another Morello/Springsteen collaboration track that just exploded off the stage in a 3-minute ball of fury.

But more than anything, it's Bruce's passion for giving these performances: Off the charts. This was not a planned tour, he emphasized. But after the murder of Alex Pretti, which followed so closely upon the murder of Renee Good, he made his choice and went all in. The show I saw in Phoenix burned like nothing I'd seen in many years. From the opening -- slightly before the posted 7:30 start time -- until the concluding 170 minutes later, he never once let up. Also, though the setlist itself was static, both he and the band made a point of interacting with the audience. Most amusing to me was his recollections of The Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, a venue he first played 52 years ago, and its revolving stage. After first noting it during the intro to "Wrecking Ball" (seeming a designated spot in the set for spoken local references, from what I've been told), and then coming back to it repeatedly after multiple fans affirmed that the venue -- and the revolving stage -- are still there.

There's one other elephant still in the room, and of course that's the ticket prices. Yes, it's expensive to be in the pit, or close to the pit, even in Phoenix. At this point, I'd say, "get over it." If you can afford the cost to be in the pit or in a close seat, that's a great choice. But there were also tickets available to this show for less than $30, and that's a great choice, too. The show on Thursday was inspiring. There's no place on earth I'd have rather been.