Indie pop duo The Format had planned for a reunion tour in March-April 2020, but they’ve just announced that it has been rescheduled again for March-April 2022 due to ongoing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. The shows were initially postponed until July 2020, then pushed to July 2021, before now landing approximately two years from when they were first set.

The group will be playing three nights at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom on March 18-20, three nights at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall on March 25-27 and three nights at Phoenix’s The Van Buren on April 1-3. They also announced that Joyce Manor will be opening for all of the New York City and Chicago dates, and Phantom Planet will open the Phoenix shows. 

The Format announced, “Although millions of people are getting vaccinated every day, we’re feeling uncertain about this summer so we’ve decided to push the reunion shows to next March and April, almost two years to the exact days that they were supposed to happen. Hopefully the third time’s a charm? 🤞🤞🤞”

They also assured everyone that existing tickets will still be honored for the new dates, with New York City’s original first date transferring to New York City’s new first date, so Fri, March 20 to Fri, July 17 to Fri, July 16, 2021 to Fri, March 18, 2022 through each postponement and announcement, and so on for the second and third dates there, as well as for the other cities. It’s all written out on the announcement post and at theformat.com for those who want to make sure they know which new date their ticket transfers to. Those who can’t make the new dates have through May 6 to request a refund. 

The duo had played their first concert together for the first time in 12 years last February before they decided to open it up to this larger tour. It was an acoustic set, performed for a crowd of about 150 concert-goers. Vocalist Nate Ruess, who is better known as the lead vocalist for fun., the group behind hits like “Some Nights” and “We Are Young,” recounted how he had decided to reunite with bandmate Sam Means during that performance.

“About a year ago, I was driving and I was listening on random, and Interventions came on,” he began. Interventions and Lullabies (2003) was their debut album, which Ruess claimed they “absolutely despised” at the time. He continued, “I was listening to it and I was like ‘I should probably skip this,’ and I listened and I thought, ‘Holy (expletive), this kicks ass. This is totally rad.” He says he texted Means afterward, “Dude, Interventions is awesome,” to which Means replied, “I know.”