Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band wrapped their 20-date Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour on Saturday night in Philadelphia at the Xfinity Center with a tour de force performance encapsulating one of Springsteen’s most fiery tours to date.
What set out to be a run of twenty shows from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C. was altered slightly when the Philadelphia 76ers’ playoff schedule forced a reschedule for the Philly date (originally set for May 8th) – making the City of Brotherly Love the last date of the run, rather than Washington. In almost perfectly poetic irony, the tour that’s ostensibly about the foundation and principles of the country wrapped in the city the nation was founded in.
Philadelphia marked the eleventh consecutive show of performing the same setlist, a notable rarity for an act who’s synonymous with dynamic live performances night after night, though an understandable choice given how pointed the message for these shows is.
In the opening monologue of the night — nearly verbatim for most nights on the tour — Springsteen ad-libbed some additional context, acknowledging the prescience of the evening.
“Good evening! It is great to be in Philadelphia,” Springsteen said, before acknowledging that the city is the “home of our Declaration of Independence and the birthplace of American democracy.”
