😡🎸 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ERUPTS ON STAGE: Explosive Rant Shocks Fans at Historic Manchester Gig! 🚨🔥 “The Boss” Unleashes Anger, Drops Bombshell Statements—What Pushed Him Over the Edge? Crowd Reactions, Hidden Truths, and Uncensored Moments—You Won’t Believe What Springsteen Said! Full Story Inside!

Bruce Springsteen at Manchester’s Co-op Live (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)

Thousands of fans both young and old are packed inside a heaving arena before screams erupt when the figure of a bona fide rock-and-roll legend walks out into their midst. You know when The Boss is back in town.

Bruce Springsteen is now 75 years old. The hair is whiter, the lines are more pronounced, the muscles aren’t quite as tight. Gone are the days of the ripped denim sleeveless shirts and bandanas that graced thousands of stages and historic album covers, replaced instead with a waistcoat and tie.

But what hasn’t disappeared is the Boss’ determination to hold what he sees as injustices to account. This rock and roller who made his name with powerful, impactful and relatable lyrics ain’t fading away quietly into his old age. Because if there’s one thing to take from the opening night of his 2025 tour, it’s that Bruce Springsteen is pissed off and angry at what is going on in his home country.

On what is a historic night for Manchester’s Co-op Live arena – marking its one-year anniversary this week with its biggest star to date – the capacity crowd inside soon know what Springsteen is about straight away.

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band play the opening night of the Land of Hope and Dreams tour at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena. (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
After saying the E Street band were about to ‘call upon the righteous power of music, art and rock and roll in dangerous times’, he told the crowd: “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 spirit, to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom reign.”

Land of Home and Dreams – the title of the 16-date European tour and a powerful, gospel-inspired ballad that has long been a fan favourite but which harkens to the optimism he urged the crowd to hold onto, was then blasted out. The finger is jabbing towards the crowd, the guitar is being strummed with seemingly more meaning that ever and Springsteen is launching into the lyrics with a gusto that shows his voice hasn’t lost the edgy grittiness that defined him. He is clearly out to make a point.

The mixture of defiance, sorrow at the state of his home country and hope continues with the next half a dozen or so songs right from the catalogue of powerful Springsteen song-writing, a batch including ‘Death to My Hometown’, ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ and ‘Promised Land’.

Bruce Springsteen at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
And while a couple of other fan favourites are thrown into the opening mix (‘Hungry Heart’ and ‘Murder Incorporated’ will never not get the crowd going), Springsteen – a staunch Democrat known for his liberal political views over his career – isn’t done yet with imparting his clearly desperate fear about the USA.

After telling people ‘when the checks and balances of government has failed… all we’ve got is each other’ before a solo effort with ‘House of A Thousand Guitars’ (The criminal clown has stolen the throne/ He steals what he can never own), Springsteen then goes to the edge of the stage to take a seat.

“There’s some very weird strange and dangerous shit going on out there right now in America,” he says, before launching into a string of attacks on the Trump administration, including ‘inflicting pain on loyal workers… abandoning our allies and siding with dictators… removing residents off American streets and without due process or law deporting them.”

(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
“A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government,” he finished.

“They have no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American. The America l’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and regardless of its faults is a great country with a great people.

“So we’ll survive this moment. Now, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said, he said ‘in this world there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.”

After his speech, the E Street band played out ‘My City of Ruins’ (the repeated chorus of come on, rise up doesn’t leave much to the imagination).

In all likelihood, not many other stars would be able to get away with such a focus on politics, especially when it is in a different country entirely. But Springsteen has built his rock and roll persona and his fanbase around his heart-on-his-sleeve, call-it-as-you-see-it attitude that means he only gets rapturous applause from those who scrambled for tickets to see him.

Bruce Springsteen playing in Manchester (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
And it also helps that both he and the 17-piece E Street band remind you with almost every song why they are the world’s best ensemble on stage, as the volume and best-known hits are rolled out and the crowd get off their feet.

The anthemic ‘Wrecking Ball’ and ‘The Rising’ are soon followed by classics ‘Badlands’, ‘Thunder Road’ and three of his best-known hits, ‘Born in the USA’, ‘Born To Run’ and ‘Dancing In The Dark’, all sung out to a jubilant crowd, who reserve special shouts for Jake Clemons – nephew of famed Clarence Clemons – and Steve Van Zandt.

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
And it’s while playing the hits and playing his guitar across the stage that hammers home another point. Springsteen is 75, and most of his E Street Band he has known since his New Jersey days could claim pensions if they wished. But they left none of the 23,500 capacity crowd in any doubt at their ability to bring the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking energy to the max with every tune.

Rounding off with ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze Out’ as the penultimate hit, Springsteen walked out into the middle of the crowd, still being mobbed by fans in disbelief they were within touching distance of the icon as he walked by.

As is always the case, two-and-a-half hours is seemingly nowhere near enough time to cover all of his fan-favourite songs, and there is no doubt some of his better-known hits were missed out in favour of the theme of the night. It’s not a greatest hits tour – but you wouldn’t expect that going to see someone with a musical persona such as Springsteen.

And after his three shows in Manchester are finished next Tuesday, it won’t stop nearly everyone in attendance hoping he will return to the city just one more time to repeat what was a spectacular evening of music.

“I’m always a little bit nervous on that first night, even after all this time,” he said before finishing.

He could have fooled us.