The Format finally re-announce reunion shows (NYC with Ben Kweller)

The Format, led by Nate Ruess (who went on to be in fun.) and Sam Means (who went on to be in Destry), have been on hiatus since 2008, but they announced their return at a surprise 2020 acoustic show in Phoenix, and they were supposed to play more reunion shows that year. Because of Covid, those shows wound up being rescheduled twice — first to July of 2020, then to July of 2021 — and in 2022 they cancelled them, saying, “we would much prefer to revisit the idea of playing live when things are more certain and when we can all travel and safely enjoy ourselves.”

Now they’ve finally announced new reunion shows, happening in Phoenix (September 27 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum), NYC (September 30 at Beacon Theatre), and Los Angeles (October 10 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery). The Phoenix show is with Sydney Sprague, Astrologer, and JPW + Dad Weed; NYC is with Ben Kweller; and LA is with Phantom Planet. Tickets go on sale Friday, July 18 at 12 PM local, with a fan presale starting Wednesday, July 16 at 12 PM local.

Nate has shared a note along with the announcement. It reads:

Hello everybody,

I guess the cat is out of the bag… yet again. Now that things have returned to normal (lol not!) Sam and I reconnected last year to try and find a way to finally do these Format shows that were supposed to happen just as Covid started hitting us hard.

Obviously first we’d like to apologize for continuously dragging out the make up dates- I think we optimistically wished things would normalize a lot sooner. Sadly that wasn’t the case and we had no choice but to scrap the shows altogether.

Secondly- we are sorry the shows last time were such a headache for most people to get tickets for. Truthfully, and in typical Format fashion, we wanted to play smaller venues during the first run of shows because that’s what seemed like a low pressure, good time hang to us- and we weren’t even remotely planning on you guys breaking the ticketing website trying to get into those shows.

With that debacle in mind- we’ve decided to play much larger (and scarier ) venues so that hopefully everyone gets a chance to come see us play. The Beacon in New York is one of our favorite theaters anywhere. Hollywood Forever seems like a special place to see a show, let alone put one on, and lastly Sam and I were at dinner one night trying to figure out a unique place to play in our hometown when Sam said “remember when we used to go to the Arizona State Fair as kids to see some of our favorite bands in the 90s?…I know it sounds crazy but we should play that”.

…I still think it sounds crazy, but we are gonna do that anyway…AND as our first show back in like 20 years. So here goes nothing!

To prepare for this insanity, we’ve all been getting together a lot lately trying to re-learn all this material- and I’m honest to god actually really excited to play this stuff and sing these songs with some of my oldest and dearest friends.

For the last like 10 years I’ve been much happier and much more sane at home raising kids, and I told myself it would have to take something so special to even take my mind off of that- and this reunion and preparing for these shows (specifically this go around) have been nothing short of magical so far. I didn’t even realize how much I missed these songs (and this group).

Well, we hope you have too, and we hope that once we get up on the stage we can all celebrate together. I’m pretty sure most of us could use a night out and away from the insanity. Let’s just hope the insanity doesn’t end up trying to cancel this round of shows too…

In the meantime- stay safe. See you soon,
Nate

Ben Kweller, meanwhile, just released his new album Cover the Mirrors, which features MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, The Flaming Lips and Coconut Records. He did an in depth interview about the album and more with Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden on the Artist Friendly podcast, and you can listen to that HERE.

THE FORMAT: 2025 TOUR DATES
Saturday, September 27 – Veterans Memorial Coliseum @ the Arizona State Fair – Phoenix, AZ
Tuesday, September 30 – Beacon Theatre – New York, NY (with Ben Kweller)
Friday, October 10 – Hollywood Forever Cemetery – Los Angeles, CA (with Phantom Planet)