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According to reports, Bruce Springsteen will perform at Barack Obama’s inauguration welcome week event at Washington D.C.’s National Mall on January 18th. According to the Washington Post, the concert will take place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and be free to the public. Springsteen’s performance in the days leading up to the January 20th inauguration should come as no surprise, given that the singer was one of rock’s biggest Obama supporters on the campaign trail. Springsteen performed a handful of Obama benefits, and even joined Barack during a campaign stop in Cleveland. There was also that benefit concert in New York with Billy Joel and shows in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio.

“Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest. He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President,” Springsteen said in his endorsement letter to fans in April 2008. “He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit.”

The Obama inauguration show in D.C. is the first chapter in what promises to be a busy few weeks for the Jersey rocker: His new album Working on a Dream is due out on January 27th, and then Springsteen will head to Tampa, Florida to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show on February 1st. For an in-depth preview of Working on a Dream from RS‘ David Fricke, check out the current Bush-taunting issue of Rolling Stone, on stands now.

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