The Big Man is back.

Apparently the scene was darkened, however, by a demonstration outside the concert hall by local residents who have been advocating a boycott of Cincinnati to protest alleged police brutality. Springsteen answered by opening the show with "American Skin," a pre-9/11 anti-police-brutality protest song that has drawn fire (figuratively speaking) from police backers. Springsteen has never, to my knowledge, opened a show with this number, and he often omits it entirely. And so starting the show with it was actually quite a statement. But I'm sure the current protesters weren't satisfied.