Watch Green Day & Bruce Springsteen speak out about ICE occupation of Minneapolis

Green Day (photo by Edwina Hay) / Bruce Springsteen (photo by Ellen Qbertplaya)

Neither Green Day nor Bruce Springsteen have held back from getting political at their shows, and on Saturday (1/17), when each (separately) gave their first performance of the year, they each addressed ICE’s occupation of Minneapolis onstage.

Performing at Los Angeles’ ALTer EGO festival at Kia Forum, Green Day introduced “Holiday” by telling the crowd, “this song is anti-fascism. This song is anti-war. We stand up for our brothers and sisters in Minnesota… Ladies and gentlemen, Stephen Miller now has the floor.” That was the second song of their set, and on the first, “American Idiot,” they changed the lyrics like they have before, making “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda,” “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda.”

Springsteen made a surprise appearance at Red Bank, NJ’s Count Basie Theater for the annual Light of Day WinterFest (which he’s performed at numerous times in previous years as well). Introducing “The Promised Land,” he blasted the Trump administration and dedicated the song to Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent on January 7. “This next song is probably one of my greatest songs,” he said. “And I don’t want to be out of water tonight, but I wrote this song as an ode to American possibility: both to the beautiful but flawed country that we are, and to the country that we could be. Now, right now, we are living through incredibly critical times. The United States, the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years, is being tested as it has never been in modern times. Those values and those ideals have never been as endangered as they are right now.”

Springsteen continued:

So as we gather tonight in this beautiful display of love and care and thoughtfulness and community, if you believe in democracy, in liberty; if you believe that truth still matters, and that it’s worth speaking out, and it’s worth fighting for; if you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it; if you stand against heavily armed, masked, federal troops invading American cities, and using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens; if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest; then send a message to this president. And as the mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis. So this song is for you, and the memory of the mother of three and American citizen Renee Good.

Watch video of “Holiday” and “The Promised Land” below.