The Nate Ruess led indie rock band The Format played a surprise reunion show last night at Hello Merch in Phoenix, Ariza, during screening of their 2007 concert film Live at The Mayan. The band have also announced a brief set of five reunion shows, which will take place in New York City, Chicago and Phoenix during the last week of March going into April.
This reunion show preceded the first-ever vinyl release of Live at The Mayan, which was released a year before the band’s hiatus back in 2008. Ruess went on to form the commercially successful indie pop group fun. while the band’s other founder Sam Means, went on to form the indie folk band Destry.
Ruess and Means performed an acoustic set to a crowd of approximately 150 people during their performance in Phoenix, which served as the first time they had performed together in 12 years. Their last studio album release, Dog Problems came out in 2006, after the founders had been dropped from Atlantic Records.
Dog Problems was released on their own label imprint The Vanity Label (with help from their management company Nettwerk Music), and came at a time of new found independence for the band which had struggled through a series of mishaps with major record labels. Their first major label Elektra, folded and as eventually absorbed into Atlantic, however the label dropped them after releasing their Snails EP in 2005. Despite being dropped from a major label, Dog Problems received critical success at the time of its release.
“The Format’s sophomore release, Dog Problems, is an indie pop gem, “Jacquie Frisco wrote in contemporary mxdwn review of the project.”It’s almost impossible to listen without bopping your head to their quirky, unabashedly cheery tunes with imaginative orchestrations.”
Tour Dates
3/20 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
3/21 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
3/27 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
3/28 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
4/3 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
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