Bruce Springsteen performed his new anti-ICE song “Streets of Minneapolis” for the first time in its namesake city on Friday, prompting widespread “ICE out now!” chants from the audience of protesters.
The rock legend performed his new protest song in Minneapolis in a surprise appearance during a benefit concert put on by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello Friday afternoon. The singer came out on stage to the surprise of the crowd gathered at Minneapolis’ First Avenue Club for the first live performance of the new song.
“In our chants of ‘ICE out now’ / Our city’s heart and soul persists / Through broken glass and bloody tears / On the streets of Minneapolis.”
During those final lines of the song, the crowd began their own “ICE out now” chants which carried on after Springsteen finished and continued to kick back up in between following songs. The singer was later joined onstage by Morello for performance of “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”
The “Born in the USA” songwriter penned the song over the weekend to tribute Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two Minneapolis residents killed by ICE agents this month while protesting the immigration enforcement agency’s occupation of the city.
“I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis,” Springsteen wrote in a statement released in conjunction with the song. “It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free, Bruce Springsteen.”
The proceeds from Friday’s concert – billed as “A Concert of Solidarity & Resistance to Defend Minnesota!” – go 100% to “the families of those murdered by ICE.”
