"love...care...thoughtfulness... community..." - Standing together, & standing up, @LODWinterFest'26

photo by Mark Krajnak - used with permission

January 18, 2026

Last night Bruce Springsteen was yet again an unannounced "surprise" addition to Light of Day's annual WinterFest "Bob's Birthday Bash" Main Event. We're still prepping our full report from Lisa Iannucci, along with plenty more great photos from Mark Krajnak, but of course the most timely and relevant news from the evening is Bruce's introduction to "The Promised Land," which he performed with Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers, along with special guest John Rzeznik of Goo Goo Dolls. Here it is, in both full transcription and audience-shot-video forms:

"This next song is probably one of my greatest songs, and I don't want to be out of order tonight, but I wrote this song as an ode to American possibility. It was both to the beautiful but flawed country that we are, and to the country that we could be. Right now we are living through incredibly critical times. The United States - the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years - is being tested as it has never been in modern times. Those values and those ideals have never been as endangered as they are right now. So as we gather tonight in this beautiful display of love and care and thoughtfulness and community, if you believe in democracy, in liberty... if you believe that truth still matters, and that it's worth speaking out, and that it's worth fighting for... if you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it... if you stand against heavily armed, masked federal troops invading an American city and using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens... if you believe you don't deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest... then send a message to this President, and as the mayor of that city has said, 'ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.' Well, this song is for you, and in the memory of mother of three and American citizen Renee Good. Thank you..."

Again, Letters To You has MUCH more to report and share about last night. Stay tuned...