Former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, surprise guest Bruce Springsteen and a cadre of hard-rocking friends delivered a high-energy musical call-to-action during a benefit concert at noon Friday at First Avenue in Minneapolis.

The sold-out show, which had only been announced about 48 hours in advance, was billed as “a concert of solidarity and resistance to defend Minnesota.” All proceeds were donated to families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two Minnesotans both shot and killed by ICE this month.

EARLIER: The rumors are true. The Boss is in Minneapolis.

Onstage, Morello jokingly acknowledged the unusual timing, saying the show would be “the greatest brunch-time concert” the iconic Minneapolis venue had ever seen. And Morello, as usual, was right.

Folk-rock Ike Reilly Assassination frontman Ike Reilly opened the show with a 15-minute acoustic set; just a guitar, a harmonica and his son, Shane, singing tight harmonies against Reilly’s raspy lead.

“This is the home of the brave,” Reilly declared before launching into “At Least Another Day,” a 2024 tune inspired by Minneapolis.

The only disappointment of the afternoon was world jazz guitarist Al Di Meola who, reading sheet music off a stand in front of him, seemed a little under-rehearsed. While the Grammy winner and former Chick Corea collaborator is clearly a skilled musician, his playing at times had the choppy trepidation of a performer trying to bluff their way through a sight-read.

But the show got back on its feet as Chicago punk-rockers Rise Against — or at least two members of the band, Tim McIlrath and Zach Blair, sans drummer and bassist — took the stage. The crowd appreciated a nod to Minneapolis as they interspersed part of Soul Asylum’s “Misery” within their song “Welcome to the Breakdown,” and the pair closed the set with a rollicking cover of “Rockin’ in the Free World.” Did they rock as hard as they could’ve? Maybe not, but the passion was impressive even at 50 percent manpower at 12:45 on a weekday afternoon.

Morello, of course, brought the rage.

“In this very room, Prince created a revolution. Now it’s our turn,” he announced, before strumming the first chord of Rage’s classic “Killing In The Name Of.” Later, he performed an instrumental medley of other Rage songs, including “Bombtrack” and “Know Your Enemy.”

Otherwise, his set mostly consisted of songs from his work outside the band. Much of his recent solo music — “Soldier in the Army of Love” and “Hold The Line,” as two examples from Friday — echoes Rage’s particularly influential sound that lies somewhere between punk rock, metal and hip-hop. But he also offered the crowd a slower protest song from his long-running solo folk project The Nightwatchman, as well as “Like A Stone” by his mid-2000s supergroup Audioslave.

The show was billed as including a performance by a “very special guest.”

Although many had correctly predicted it would be Springsteen, the energy in the downtown venue was no less electric when Morello announced The Boss would indeed be taking the stage.

Solo, Springsteen performed the live debut of his just-released protest tune “Streets of Minneapolis.” Sure, he sounded a bit tired and weary at first — but aren’t we all nowadays in the face of the federal immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities?

Springsteen, 76, was fully revved up by the time Morello and his band returned to the stage for a Rage-ified rendition of “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” which rocked incredibly hard. All the performers on the day’s bill then returned to the stage for a grand finale cover of John Lennon’s “Power to the People.”

Friday’s concert was Morello’s first local show in several years. Rage quite notably last came to town in 2008 during the Republican National Convention, where they were apparently blocked by police from playing an impromptu free outdoor show but took the Target Center stage the next night as scheduled for what critic Ross Raihala called “a jaw-dropping, awesomely powerful” act.

As a solo act, Morello played the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis in 2019. Following a long break from performing as a band, Rage was slated to return for a pair of shows in early 2023. Those shows, along with about three dozen other tour stops, were cancelled due to an injury singer Zach de la Rocha sustained early in the tour, and the group ultimately disbanded in 2024.

Springsteen’s most recent local visit was a fiery three-hour set in 2023. During an unannounced appearance earlier in January at a New Jersey benefit concert, The Boss dedicated a song to Good and said federal immigration agents “should get the f— out of Minneapolis.” This week, he released “Streets of Minneapolis,” whose lyrics even more strongly decry “King Trump’s private army.”

Springsteen flew all the way here for this; of course, I wish he’d been given more than some 15 minutes of stage time, but that wasn’t really the point. Really, all the music Friday afternoon was secondary, though amazing, especially in such an intimate venue. The actual takeaway was chanted repeatedly by the crowd between sets and echoed by performers onstage: “F— ICE.”

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