Sam Means (L) and Nate Ruess of The Format Credit: theformat / Facebook
Fun. had a quick two-album run that changed radio pop between 2009-2012, but that supergroup wouldn’t have been possible without The Format.
The band was made up of Nate Ruess and multi-instrumentalist Sam Means. Ruess went on to form Fun. with Anthathollo’s Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff of Steel Train (and now Bleachers).
The Format’s Arizona homebase unfairly landed the duo in the “desert pop” category, but its bouncy, everly-optimistic sound landed the band to deals with Elektra and Atlantic Records.
The Format released two EPs (one in 2022 and Snails in 2005), plus three albums including 2006’s indie, self-released hit Dog Problems.
Ruess and Means amicably went on hiatus in 2008 as Fun. took off but reunited last year for a short run of summer dates ahead of a new album, Boycott Heaven, released last January. This fall, The Format is back on the road “hitting some states we didn’t get to hit on the Spring leg of the Boycott Heaven tour (including Florida).”
The Format played St. Petersburg’s long-shuttered State Theatre in July 2006 in support of Dog Problems and returns to the neighborhood this fall alongside The Get Up Kids.
The show is the only Florida show on the tour.
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This article appears in Apr. 09 – 15, 2026.
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Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief…
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