Springsteen gives ‘elegiac’ secret show for Obama — report

A Bruce Springsteen fanzine says the rock legend performed a secret concert for US President Barack Obama and his staff as they got ready to leave the White House, urging optimism in uncertain times.

Backstreets, a long-running magazine and website that methodically documents Springsteen’s shows, says The Boss played a 15-song acoustic set in the White House’s East Room on January 10. Springsteen campaigned for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, telling a giant election-eve rally in Philadelphia that Donald Trump had a “profound lack of decency.”

The fanzine, quoting an anonymous “longtime Backstreets reader” in attendance, says Obama and his wife Michelle both attended but otherwise the crowd consisted of 200-250 mostly low-profile administration staffers.

The mood at the concert and a related reception “was not exactly somber, but it wasn’t festive, either. It was elegiac, I’d say,” the attendee writes.

“There was a clear sense of something ending, both with the conclusion of an adventure for the staff and the silent presence of the coming political transition,” the person says, referring to Trump taking power tomorrow.

— AFP