Bruce Springsteen used a stop at Nationals Park on Wednesday night to tease a new concert that he cast as “another night of music and resistance.” The 20-time Grammy winner is set to bring the Power to the People concert to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia on Oct. 3, with tickets going on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.
The bill is stacked with Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Tom Morello, Joan Baez, Jack Black and a long list of guests that also includes Dropkick Murphys, Cypress Hill, Killer Mike, Serj Tankian, Brittany Howard, Taylor Momsen, The Linda Lindas, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Matt Cameron, Grandson, The Neighborhood Kids and a DJ set by Shepard Fairey. Lawn seats will cost $125, general admission is priced at $225 and includes access to the pavilion and front-of-stage pit area, reserved pavilion seats with access to a VIP deck cost $375, and VIP suite access is listed at $1,500.
Springsteen has made no secret of the politics surrounding this stretch of his career. During his current Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour, he has repeatedly criticized President Donald Trump and the administration’s policies, and he has used his music to sharpen that argument in public. He released “Streets of Minneapolis” in January, describing it as a protest song against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, then performed it earlier this month on the penultimate episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” On that stage, he said, “I am here in support tonight for Stephen because you’re the first guy in America who’s lost your show because we got a president who can’t take a joke.”
Trump answered on social media by calling Springsteen a “very boring singer” and saying he had an “incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.” The new concert is being presented on the venue’s website as a non-partisan event, even as its VIP proceeds are earmarked for human rights and social justice nonprofit organizations. Springsteen will also be playing Merriweather Post Pavilion for the first time, and he last performed in Maryland on Sept. 13, 2024, at Camden Yards with the E Street Band. He told the crowd at Nationals Park that “we are no longer the land of the free, the home of the brave,” a line that fits the mood he has been building around these shows.
That combination of a star-packed lineup, charitable fundraising and a plainly political stage makes the concert more than another date on a tour calendar. It is a public test of how far Springsteen wants to push the language of resistance while still selling it as a broad, open event. By Saturday morning, the real measure will be whether the crowd sees it as a concert first or a statement first.
