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Review & Setlist: New England’s own Guster relives its eras at MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Guster performed not only their hits, but also an off-Broadway style production that detailed their chronological journey as a band.
Three decades into their illustrious career, Guster is feeling nostalgic. The Massachusetts-formed band returned to the city where they first started to end their latest artistic feat, a tour humorously titled the “We Also Have Eras Tour,” accompanied with a tour poster that mimicked that of a certain pop star. Split into two acts, the band performed not only a rock concert of their most beloved hits, but an off-Broadway style production that comedically and unapologetically detailed their chronological journey as a band.
The unique theatrical performance featured extended “Evening with Guster” sets chronicling the band’s history from 1994’s debut album, Parachute, to the long-awaited Ooh La La , due May 17. Doubling as an album release party for their upcoming ninth studio album, the venue donned decorations in theme with the release, and the band held a CD signing prior to the show that gave Boston fans an exclusive opportunity to score the album before anyone else.
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The night kicked off with a solo set from Fruit Bats’ frontman Eric D. Johnson, who has been a friend of the band for years and was hand-selected to join them on this evocative journey. Hard-core New England fans congested the packed venue, all decked out in various iterations of Guster merchandise from over the years. To any passersby, the sheer amount of “Guster Is For Lovers” shirts marching down Lansdowne street shone like a beacon guiding fans into MGM.
With a dramatic opening monologue by the night’s narrator Dave Butler, he set the scene for the night to come. “Tonight we take a deep dive into the story of Guster,” he introduced. “We start way back in 1991 and end in 2024. What you are about to see is a true story, and please remember, no one on stage tonight is a professional actor.”
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The scene began in Fall of 1991 at Tufts University in Medford. Founding members Ryan Miller and Adam Gardner jam in their dorm room and officially form their band. Without tripping over their well-memorized scripts, the duo poked fun at their younger selves and joked “Do you know the D chord?” Soon joined by drummer Adam Rosenworcel, despite lack of musical training, the trio took off under the name of Gus.
Graduating from Tufts in 1995, the friends moved in together to Somerville to focus on furthering their musical career. Upon discovering another, more successful, band named Gus existed, they pivoted and changed to the name Guster, simply for lack of other ideas. This skit humorously chronicled their adolescent adventures, from busking in Harvard Square to releasing their sophomore album Goldfly in 1997.
Tracks like “Airport Song” and “Barrel of a Gun” reverberated through the venue, as fans eagerly sang along word-for-word, aiding this joyous homecoming. Later, hits “Satellite,” “One Man Wrecking Machine” and “Do You Love Me” would prompt singalongs and more costume changes. On the stage stood a “costume counter,” like a scoreboard, which ticked up higher throughout the night.
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Between songs, the band took moments of repose to express their gratitude and jest their younger selves with comedically-timed skits— at one point they reenact the story of meeting famed producer Steve Lillywhite, played by Butler in a blonde wig.
“This is the biggest indoor show we have played in twenty years, since Radio City Music Hall,” declared Ryan Miller in between tracks from 1999’s Lost and Gone Forever. Followed up by another set change, Butler returned to provide some context for the band’s transformation during the turn of the millennium.
“Things are going well for Guster at this point. Lost and Gone Forever was very popular and tons of people bought the album… on Napster,” he stated. Recalling the band’s tour with Barenaked Ladies in 2000, this time also brought big changes for the band, including Rosenworcel’s dramatic switch from hand-played bongos to using drumsticks, the addition of bass guitar, and new member Joe Pisapia (comedically played by Luke Reynolds holding a cardboard cutout of the former member over his head).
With great success, came a plateau in Guster’s career, portrayed with dramatic set change and sound effects. Two years after releasing Ganging Up On The Sun, the band was dropped from Warner Brothers Records and left to rethink their existence. With boos from the audience, and laughter at the “evil producer” character that took shape in an angry red puppet, Guster’s theatrics were only getting started.
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In a dramatic moment as Pisapia left the band to tour with k.d. lang and the status of the band was left in limbo, Rosenworcel reached new heights, quite literally, with a solo musical number, titled “Thunder Song”. Recounting opening bands of Guster’s past, all of whom eventually went on to win Grammys, images flashed of John Mayer, Maroon 5, Train, The Avett Brothers and Sara Bareilles, as the drummer was dramatically propelled into the air. Flying ten feet above stage, he professed, “What award does my band get? / We’ve been around since before the internet / And now Adam Levine won’t return my texts / I formed a band with my college friends and is this the end?”
As the story goes, current-member Luke Reynolds joined the group in 2010 and the band carried on, now back on track (yet still with no Grammys), with the release of Easy Wonderful and 2015’s Evermotion.
Jumping into the crowd to perform “Don’ It By Myself,” Miller weaved through the floor to give fans an even more intimate experience, as if the night was not yet special enough. “Look at all these happy people! I want my whole life to be like this,” he declared from within the crowd.
More skits followed, detailing the release of their eighth studio album Look Alive, COVID times that saw them playing drive-in shows, and the band’s 2021 sold out show at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado.
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Landing in 2024, Guster are thirty years into their profound career and are quick to thank their fans for never straying. “There is something magical about starting in our dorm room a couple miles away and looking out and realizing there’s thirty years of an arc,” said Miller. “We hear you and know this music is important to you. It affects all of us in the same way. To be able to stand up here every night for the last three and a half weeks and take this narrative journey and watch this cauldron of emotion just cycling through time, it is just so humbling. Thank you for giving us this gift.”
Playing for two and a half hours, only punctuated by a short 15 minute intermission halfway through, Guster performed with the energy and inspiration that launched them three decades prior.
Exhibiting their tight camaraderie and talent, the night broke down just how they have evolved with each album and “era”, adding new members, new instruments, and new sounds that have shaped not only the band, but the community that surrounds them. This was exemplified during the swell of “Come Downstairs and Say Hello,” ushering a moment of musical bliss that moved the room with the realization that Guster had returned home, to the city that will always accept them with wide open arms.
The meticulously crafted show contained all the weirdness and fun you’ve come to expect from Guster, flourished with decades of hits and some tracks off their upcoming album. Closing the night with encores “Happier” and “Amsterdam,” both played acoustic by the campfire, the gentle moment paralleled the night’s theatrics and provided a final moment of intimacy before the band said goodnight.
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Ending their tour in the city where it all began was only right. Coming full circle, emotions were high both on stage and within the crowd, as Guster and their fans re-lived thirty years of their eras, with tracks that have chronicled life’s major moments. To grow up alongside a band is a special thing, and in New England, it’s a sentiment that is cherished. Guster are weird, exhilarating, and unapologetic— and we love them all the more for it. Grammy or not, they’ll always be winners in Boston.
- SETLIST
- Act 1:
- Sketch 1: Dorm Room
- Parachute
- Sketch 2: Enter Brian
- Happy Frappy
Sketch 3: Harvard Square - X-Ray Eyes
- Airport Song
- Sketch 4: Lillywhite
- What You Wish For
- Barrel of a Gun
- Fa Fa
- Sketch 5: Tour Bus
- Jesus on the Radio
- Sketch 6: Joe Joins the Band
- Diane
- Ramona
- (Nothing but) Flowers (Talking Heads cover)
- One Man Wrecking Machine
- Manifest Destiny
- Satellite
- Sketch 7: Evil Producer
- The Thunder Song
- Act 2:
- Do You Love Me
- Sketch 8: Joe Leaves the Band/He’s Luke Reynolds
- Architects & Engineers
- This Could All Be Yours
- Long Night
- Doin’ It By Myself
Sketch 9: Dave Get’s Appreciated - Hello Mister Sun
- Terrified
- Sketch 10: COVID
- Keep Going
- Black Balloon
- Come Downstairs and Say Hello
- Encore:
- Happier
- Amsterdam
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