Bruce Springsteen’s Philadelphia ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ show is now a concert film
The music movie, subtitled the Philadelphia Freedom Cut, starts streaming Sept. 9.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour had its grand finale at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in South Philly this spring.
That May 30 concert — originally scheduled for earlier in the month but moved due to a scheduling conflict with a Sixers playoff game — was the culmination of a tour built around “Streets of Minneapolis,” the anti-ICE protest song Springsteen penned after the deaths of Renee Goode and Alex Pretti at the hands of U.S. immigration and border enforcement officers.
Now, the Philadelphia show is going to be a concert film titled Land of Hope and Dreams (Philadelphia Freedom Cut), which will begin streaming on YouTube on Wednesday.
As of Saturday afternoon, Springsteen had not officially announced the film or any details surrounding it via his social media or a press release. But a trailer for the film appeared on the Bruce Springsteen.net website on Friday afternoon, labeled “Streaming September 9.”
The Philadelphia show began with a speech — as did all the shows on the tour, which opened in Minneapolis in March and played to sold-out arenas across the country, as well as one stadium date, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.
In it, Springsteen called President Donald Trump’s administration “corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous.” Trump, in response, has called the Jersey rocker “dumb as a rock” and “not a talented guy,” among other insults.
In The Inquirer’s review of the May 30 show, I called the show “a thrilling, sharply-focused marathon that played like an unabashedly partisan spirit-lifting revival meeting — and sounded astoundingly good in a cavernous sports arena — as the band roared through a standard Springsteen-length 3 hour show that included 27 songs and several spoken interludes.”
The show, with guitarist Tom Morello guesting on several songs, featured covers of Edwin Starr’s “War,” the Clash’s “Clampdown” and Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom,” as well as Springsteen’s own protest songs, such as “American Skin (41 Shots).”
Watch the trailer, which begins with Springsteen stating the obvious — “It is great to be in Philadelphia” — below.
