Rise up... The "Land of Hope and Dreams" Tour has begun.

photo by René van Diemen - used with permission

May 15, 2025

"Our band was built well, over many years, for difficult times. When people wanted a dialogue, a conversation about events, internal and external, we developed a language that suited those moments. We were there. It was a language that I hoped would entertain, inspire, comfort and reveal. The professionalism, the showmanship, the hours of hard work are all very important, but I always believed that it was this dialogue, this language, that was at the heart of our resiliency with our audience."

-Bruce Springsteen, in his Born to Run autobiography

While officially it's still being described as the final set of scheduled/rescheduled dates for their 2023-2025 world tour, it only recently became clear that Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's 2025 return to Europe will offer something very different than their 2023 and 2024 shows. Asked by Variety just under a month ago about his first - and only - set of 2025 concerts after Donald Trump's official return to the U.S. Presidency earlier this year, Springsteen said, “One of the artists’ jobs is to make sense of existence and to make sense of the current times that you live in, and to contextualize those times. Every artist does it in a different way. So I’ve got that on my mind, and I’m sure it’ll be reflected in our next leg of the tour.” And then just a week before the first 2025 show, what originally had been billed as simply the final leg of a two-year set of tour-legs that have gone under the most basic of names like "2023 Tour" and "2024 World Tour" was officially re-dubbed "The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour."

Compared to those equally-great 2023 and 2024 shows, the LOHAD Tour's debut show last night in Manchester, England's Co-op Live arena featured a radically altered setlist and arc for the evening. And immediately after he took the stage, welcoming his audience to the show before he and the E Street Band opened with the song after which this 2025 tour has been renamed, Bruce Springsteen made it crystal-clear that he and his band would be offering a very different kind of show indeed:

"Welcome to The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour. The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock-and-roll in dangerous times. 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 experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring!"

Below you can watch and hear the officially released compilation of Springsteen's onstage spoken statements throughout last night's show, one of the most overtly political concerts he's ever performed:

We'll soon have much more to share about last night's show, as well as the rest of this unique and important tour, including more of René van Diemen's beautiful photography. Stay tuned...