Bruce Springsteen’s wholehearted support for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign was as emphatic as he’s ever been for a candidate — he even filmed a — and he spoke of that support multiple times in recent weeks, even ” at a Harris rally in Atlanta.
In concert, his endorsements at times have been a bit more subtle: He opened his show in Toronto on Sunday night with his 1975 classic “She’s the One” — apparently the first time he’d ever opened a show with that song.
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But Wednesday night at Springsteen’s first post-election concert — a second show at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena — his reaction to Donald Trump’s victory was similarly subtle.
After apologizing to the audience for the show’s late start (due to a flight delay that left them “sitting on our asses” for hours), he changed the subject quickly and said, “This is a fighting prayer for my country,” and launched into “Long Walk Home,” another song he rarely chooses to open a show.
The song, from his 2007 album “Magic,” is about familiar Springsteen themes — hometown, a woman, family, freedom, summer — but the relevance of it on this night came in the third verse:
“My father said, ‘Son, we’re lucky in this town
It’s a beautiful place to be born
It just wraps its arms around you
Nobody crowds you, nobody goes it alone.
You know that flag flying over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone
Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t.’”
How set in stone those certain things will remain over the next four years is an open question.
His next song? “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
The evening took a strange turn when sources reported that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was spotted watching from the side of the stage during the early part of the night, although this was not immediately confirmed.
Christie, a die-hard fan who has seen Springsteen more than 150 times, has had a complicated relationship with the Boss. Amid a widely reported scandal emanating from a politically motivated 2013 shutdown of lanes on the crowded George Washington Bridge that was eventually traced to Christie’s administration, Springsteen and Jimmy Fallon (impersonating the Boss by his side) performed a parody of “Born to Run” titled “.”
Christie was mortified by the parody, but said last year that his relationship with Springsteen has warmed. And although Christie initially had a close friendship with Trump during his first presidential campaign, that relationship after the former and future president refused to concede the 2020 election.
The situation took another twist today when Christie published an editorial on the addressed to “Nervous Canadians” titled “Canada Should Embrace the Opportunities of a Second Trump Presidency,” in which he outlines policies he claims could benefit the country while emphasizing — in the article’s third sentence — that he is not “not a Donald Trump advocate.” And apparently capped off his strange Canadian adventure with a Springsteen concert just a few hours later.
Additional reporting by Caryn Rose.
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