A blistering review of Bruce Springsteen’s concert in Newark on Tuesday had murder incorporated into it.
Bobby Olivier, a music reporter from NJ Advanced Media, which includes NJ.com and The Star-Ledger, gave the Jersey-raised Boss a brutal homecoming.
The review was headlined, “Springsteen’s N.J. concert was poisoned by hypocrisy. Anti-Trump final act is a tragic mistake.”
And it got more scathing from there.
Olivier was by no means siding with the president but instead attacking what he saw as Springsteen’s two-faced outrage.
Olivier noted the singer’s bitter spat with Trump and his repeated rebukes of the president’s immigrant crackdown by ICE. That includes the song he wrote about it, “Streets of Minneapolis,” after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed there by federal agents.
“One problem,” the critic wrote. “It’s all hypocritical crap. Profiteering over legitimate protest. Springsteen’s artistic identity, as a bleeding-heart populist who sings for the destitute and downtrodden, has never been more disconnected from his economic behavior as a touring act or businessman.”
He wrote that the “Born to Run” performer charged “exorbitant” prices for top seats to preach to the converted at the Prudential Center.
“The unrecognizable reality of the 2026 Springsteen experience, coupled with this tour’s political framing — an exploitation of American division and outrage in a manner no better than any cable news pundit — is a damning contradiction, a lapse in logic,” he wrote. “It threatens to tarnish the final act of Bruce’s career and is no small tragedy for New Jersey’s greatest rock star.”
He accused Springsteen of operating as a high-falutin’ working-class firebrand doing more than he should to make a buck.
“His impulse, to preserve his standing as rock’s last great prophet in the most commercial way imaginable, is shameful and frankly, a bit boring in its perceived antagonism,” the critic explained. “Of all the themes for a tour, he’s pitching anti-Trump … in the president’s second term? Singing to 15,000 fans who already agree with him or they wouldn’t have spent a car payment (or two) on a ticket? What a revolutionary.”
The writer praised Springsteen’s genuinely felt opposition to Trump as “an act of bravery” but criticized him for not being more selective about it. He also called the concert a “fine night of music” and reminded fans of the spectacular blue-collar anthems he’s crafted, such as “Jungleland” and “The River.”
But those were scant positives in a commentary that cut deep.
“To frame it all now as some act of protest, set at a price few can afford, is not the tradition or high ground it pretends to be,” Olivier wrote. “It’s a hollow monetization of a fraught time in American history and a significant blemish on a storied career.”
Amy Aiello Lofgren, wife of Springsteen’s E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, called the write-up “wildly inaccurate.” Fans also hit back at Olivier on his Facebook page.
One wonders if Trump himself will weigh in on the review. The administration recently called Springsteen’s Minneapolis song “irrelevant” and “inaccurate” and the president said the rock legend was “boring” and looked like a “dried up prune.”
But Olivier’s extremely candid critique of Springsteen may have already done the work for the president this time around.
celebrity.land has reached out to a Springsteen rep for comment.
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