Springsteen Slammed Over Pricey Protest Tour
Bruce Springsteen has spent months wrapping himself in anti-Trump outrage. But the way he is selling that message is raising eyebrows, even in his own backyard. A sharp critique from NJ Advance Media put the whole thing on blast, and the timing could not be worse for a singer who built his image around the working man.
At the center of the backlash are the ticket prices. Reports say the best seats at his Newark show went for as much as $2,900. That is a brutal number for a performer who made a career out of writing about regular people trying to get by. When the “blue-collar” label starts looking more like branding than reality, people notice.
The criticism did not stop there. Springsteen was also called out for selling “No Kings” merchandise in the arena, including flags priced at $90. That sort of thing turns a protest tour into a retail operation. It is hard to tell people you are standing up for the little guy while charging premium prices for the message.
Bobby Olivier, a food and culture editor and music reporter for NJ Advance Media, described the Newark concert as “all hypocritical crap. Profiteering over legitimate protest.” He also wrote, “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. The blue-collar troubadour now charges exorbitant amounts for his tickets — up to $2,900 retail for the best seats in Newark Monday; prices he agreed to despite fan backlash,” Olivier writes at NJ.com.
He added, “He’s selling ‘No Kings’ branded flags for $90 in the arena concourse,” Olivier says of Springsteen. “And last week, his merchandise distributor got an injunction passed to ban bootleg T-shirt sales outside the venue, even as crews of independent sellers — fine examples of working-class people he’s romanticized for 50 years — hawk merch at nearly every other Prudential Center show without issue.”
Springsteen kicked off his “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour in February and has taken direct shots at President Trump from city to city, including Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Newark. Nobody is saying he cannot have political views. He can. But once the activism comes with luxury-ticket pricing and pricey branded gear, the message gets muddy fast. For a lot of fans, that is the real story. Not the speeches. The bill.