🎸🔥 TOM MORELLO SETS MINNEAPOLIS ALIGHT WITH FIERY ANTI-ICE PROTEST SHOW AS BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN JOINS THE STAGE

Tom Morello Ignites Political Fervor in Minneapolis With Star-Studded Anti-ICE Concert

Tom Morello brought his signature blend of music and politics to First Avenue this week, headlining a benefit protest concert that many are calling one of the most overtly political music events in recent memory. The midday show, billed as A Concert of Solidarity and Resistance to Defend Minnesota, featured Morello alongside Rise Against, Al Di Meola, Ike Reilly, and a surprise appearance by Bruce Springsteen—and it centered squarely on opposition to federal immigration enforcement that has roiled Minneapolis.

Rather than a typical benefit gig, the event was explicitly linked to recent tensions surrounding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city and the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti amid those actions. Morello opened his set with impassioned remarks framing the moment as resistance, telling the crowd Minneapolis was an “inspiration to the entire nation” and that if “it looks like fascism, sounds like fascism, acts like fascism… it’s f*cking fascism,” urging attendees to push back collectively.

Springsteen, the event’s unannounced “very special guest,” debuted his recently released protest song “Streets of Minneapolis,” a sharply critical track written in response to the immigration-related violence in the city. He also performed The Ghost of Tom Joad with Morello, creating an unusual musical pairing steeped in protest tradition.

Rather than simply entertain, the concert blended activism and artistry—100 % of the proceeds were pledged to the families of Good and Pretti—and served as a prelude to an afternoon protest march. Attendees told local reporters the mood was fierce, defiant, and charged with a sense of collective purpose not typical of music shows.

While critics of the government’s immigration policies have praised the event as a powerful expression of solidarity, others see it as a boundary-pushing example of political messaging intersecting with popular music. Still, for many in Minneapolis, Friday’s lineup—especially Springsteen’s surprise involvement and Morello’s forceful rhetoric—represented a rare moment of artistic voices taking the stage in direct opposition to federal policy, turning a historic music venue into what some attendees called a “gathering for resistance.”