Here's a song that was actually created earlier today, January 30, 2026. I don't think I've ever posted anything this fast at this blog before. Just two days earlier, Bruce Springsteen released a new song called "Streets of Minneapolis," which he had written only a couple of days before that. That released version was performed with a full band. But today, he was in Minneapolis, and he was a guest at a Tom Morello concert held at a small club. While there, he performed two songs, and one of them was "Streets of Minneapolis," done in solo acoustic mode. I thought this version is different enough, and interesting enough, to merit being posted here.
The recording of this song was just done by someone on their cell phone, so there were some sound quality issues. Another reason I'm posting this is because I figured I could make this version more listenable with some audio editing improvements. I used the MVSEP program to reduce the crowd noise during the song. I kept in some roars of the crowd where they were warranted, but I got rid of a lot of ambient noise, as well as random loud screams and woo-hoos. I also used the Adobe vocal enhancer program to add some clarity to Springsteen's comments before the song began.
In case you haven't figured it out from the song title, or from hearing about it already, the song is about the current crisis with I.C.E. misbehaving in Minneapolis. While I'm a political progressive, I usually try to avoid talking about politics on this music blog. But I have to say I'm glad that Springsteen has written a song to express what a majority of people in the U.S. are feeling right now: that I.C.E. is going too far, and they're harassing, hurting, and sometimes even killing people they don't like instead of properly doing their jobs. Democracy is in danger of being replaced by a de facto dictatorship. I hope other musicians follow Springsteen's example and lend their talents to help push back against this power grab.
Springsteen's performance of this song was newsworthy enough to result in some articles. Here one, from the Daily Beast:
Bruce Springsteen Kicks Trump ‘In the Teeth’ at Rage-Fueled Show
And here's all of Springsteen's participation in the concert:
Bruce Springsteen at First Avenue 1/30/26
After playing his new song, he was joined by a full band, including Tom Morello, and they performed "The Ghost of Tom Joad." Morello played some blistering lead guitar on that one. Then the concert ended with John Lennon's "Power to the People," though really it was just the chorus repeated a few times along with some shouting to get the crowd worked up.
Here's the link to the cleaned-up live acoustic version:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/yo8eER1S
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/krciqmn65DBSKGU/file
Normally, I post album covers. But this isn't an album. Besides, I'm having problems running Photoshop on my computer in the past few days. So if anyone wants a cover for this, it will have to wait.
Oh, one final note. The "Brucebase" Bruce Springsteen Wiki has a lot of good links and information relating to this performance, including a bunch of photos. You can find that here: