Bruce Springsteen has used the first show of his current Australian tour to praise the thousands of people who took part in Women’s March events around the world at the weekend.
Kicking off his latest Aussie jaunt in Perth on Sunday night, Springsteen told the crowd that he and The E Street Band were “glad” to be in Australia, but were thinking of protestors back home who were standing up to new US President Donald Trump.
“We’re a long way from home, and our hearts and spirits are with the hundreds of thousands of women and men that marched yesterday in every city in America and in Melbourne who rallied against hate and division and in support of tolerance, inclusion, reproductive rights, civil rights, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, the environment, wage equality, gender equality, healthcare, and immigrant rights,” Springsteen told the crowd.
“We stand with you. We are the new American resistance.”
Springsteen also told the ABC that the election of Mr Trump is also influencing his Australian setlists.
“Art’s responsibility is always the same thing — it is to witness and to testify,” Springsteen said. “That is the basic job of the E Street Band, we observe and we report.”
Springsteen accepted that some of his fans would have voted for Mr Trump, and said that he hopes the new POTUS succeeds in bringing jobs back to the US.
“Plenty of good people voted for Donald Trump on the basis that I’ve written about for 30 years, which was the de-industrialisation of the United States and globalisation, and the technological revolution hit many people very, very, very, very hard,” he said.
“I hope he succeeds, if he can bring those jobs back I hope he does. If he can get a big infrastructure program going that will get people hired, I hope that that happens, I hope he keeps some of his promises.”
Springsteen also revealed that Australia will remain “a regular stop” on his touring schedules. “We hit something that felt like a deeper relationship, a deeper connection to our audience down here and suddenly it just got very, very exciting and very, very fulfilling and it’s gonna be a regular stop on our tours from here on in, that’s for sure,” he said.
“We’ve developed a beautiful audience, dedicated audience down here and that always feels great.”
Springsteen added that he has finished a new album, but “it’s just sort of sitting there, waiting”.
Springsteen’s current Australian tour is his third in five years. The tour has two more shows remaining in Perth, before heading to Adelaide and Australia’s east coast.
Watch him praise Trump protestors in Perth below, alongside the show’s full setlist.
Watch: Bruce Springsteen Praises Trump Protestors At Perth Show
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Perth Setlist (22/01/17)
New York City Serenade
Lonesome Day
Darkness on the Edge of Town
No Surrender
Out in the Street
Land of Hope and Dreams
Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?
Growin’ Up
Spirit in the Night
Lost in the Flood
Kitty’s Back
Incident on 57th Street
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
The Ties That Bind
Darlington County
Working on the Highway
The Promised Land
American Skin (41 Shots)
My Hometown
Candy’s Room
She’s the One
Because the Night
The Rising
Badlands
Encore
Blood Brothers
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Shout
Bobby Jean
