Several years ago, Bruce Springsteen's hero Bob Dylan won an Oscar for singing "I used to care, but things have changed."

Springsteen still cares.

At his one-man acoustic show at Boston's Orpheum Theatre Friday night, the Boss-who last year actively worked to get Sen. John Kerry elected president by spearheading the Vote for Change Tour-showed that President Bush's reelection hasn't taken the fight out of him.

With Kerry in the audience, Springsteen chided Bush for his immigration policy just before launching into set closer "Matamoras Banks," a beautifully haunting song on his new album Devils and Dust dealing with a Mexican man who dies trying to enter the U.S. to reunite with his love.

Springsteen told the crowd that instead of having vigilantes patrolling the border, the U.S. needs a more humane and compassionate immigration policy.

Earlier in the show, while introducing the late 1980s chestnut "Part Man, Part Monkey," he talked about how the teaching of evolution is again being challenged in parts of the country. He said he believes Bush probably believes in evolution but won't dare say so publicly "because he wasn't elected by the monkey vote."

Introducing a new song, "Leah," Springsteen reminisced about once meeting Roy Orbison, who was excited to play him a song about windsurfing. Springsteen said he had reservations before hearing the song, since it's cool to sing about surfing or even the wind, but not windsurfing, a sport which he noted caused Kerry grief during the campaign when the senator was photographed engaging in the activity.

Springsteen mused that it's more controversial to windsurf than to start wars.

But if anyone thinks the New Jersey rocker puts politics ahead of legendary showmanship, they don't know Springsteen.

The nearly 21/2-hour sold-out performance saw Springsteen showing off his chops by playing guitar, banjo, harmonica, pipe organ, piano and electric piano.

And despite its acoustic nature, the show often rocked, a noticeable contrast to his last acoustic tour 10 years ago promoting the somber "Ghost of Tom Joad" CD.

As his hero Dylan often does, Springsteen spent the night reinterpreting much of his older music-though, as advertised, virtually none of his best-known songs were played. There was an elegant piano-driven "The River," a menacing "I'm on Fire" with banjo and drifter-like whistling, and a country-swing version of "Ramrod."

But unlike Dylan's, his songs were immediately recognizable and the vocals impeccable.

The one exception was the second song of the evening, "Reason To Believe" off Springsteen's first acoustic album, Nebraska. Playing just a harmonica and banging his boot loudly to provide a beat, the Boss fuzzed up his voice and delivered the lyrics almost without emotion, giving the folk song a more house-music feel.

The new songs fared well live, with some having more kick than on the album.

In the past, Springsteen let his songs do the talking. His early stage raps focused on his complicated relationship with his father. As he got older, he'd talk about the plight of the hungry and urge the audience to donate to foodbanks. Rarely did he take on political leaders directly. Even when Ronald Reagan tried to co-opt "Born in the USA" as a campaign theme song, despite the lyrics' harsh indictment of America's treatment of Vietnam war vets, Springsteen's rebuke was relatively mild. But toward the end of the tour supporting his post-Sept. 11 CD The Rising, Springsteen began speaking out from the stage about America's impending march to war and what its role in the world should be. Last year's "Vote for Change" tour was a natural evolution, but it alienated a number of his fans who were either Republicans or simply didn't want to mix politics with their rock.

The fact that Devils and Dust debuted at number one on the charts and his tours, both solo and with the E. Street Band, continue to sell out makes it clear that most of his fans have not been turned off by what he has to say, leaving him one of the few artists his age who remains vital and not an oldies act.

For those who couldn't score a ticket, there's hope. Springsteen ended the show by telling the crowd he plans to return to Boston in the near future.