The Format, who recently released their first album in almost two decades, played two sold-out shows at the Castor Theater in San Francisco on April 16 and 17.
The duo of Nate Reuss (the Grammy-winning musician who went on to found fun. with Jack Antonoff and Andrew Dost) and Sam Means (who, post-The Format built the highly successful Hello Merch in their Phoenix hometown) split in 2008 and originally reunited in 2020, but the reunion shows were eventually scrapped as the Covid-19 pandemic emerged. Reuniting once again for a string of shows in 2025, the band our now out on a tour in support of their third record Boycott Heaven. The night was a rousing celebration of the band’s new music mixed with nostalgia of old faves, and the 21-song setlist on night one featured songs from across the band’s three records. Old favorites like “Snails,” “The First Single,” and “She Doesn’t Get It” mixed seamlessly with new singles “Holy Roller” and “Boycott Heaven,” plus a cover of R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” (One of the other nostalgia-raising things that night: The merch prices seemed more 2008 than 2026. A rainbow foil show poster for only $25? Easy buy!)
Opening the show was another long-running rock band with a massive early-aughts hit, Phantom Planet. And if you’re wondering if their biggest single/The O.C. theme song, “California,” didn’t bring down the house (many of whom were parents with your young kids) you probably weren’t a sentient human being in 2003.
