As many bands do, Guster began in a freshman dorm room in college. In Guster's case, that was at Tufts University in 1991. They stayed underground indie throughout the majority of the next decade, before they went mainstream in 1999 with their single “Fa Fa.” Their fourth album, 2003’s Keep It Together, featured hits like “Careful” and “Amsterdam,” but their crowning moment came in 2006 with their album Ganging Up on the Sun, which reached #25 on the Billboard 200 and included “Satellite,” a single that reached gold status in 2018.
Guster did not peak in the 2000s though. The band continues to tour extensively and regularly creates great new music, like their latest single “When We Were Stars,” from their ninth (and latest) studio album Ooh La La, released in 2024. They gave us Guster fans an exclusive performance of the single during their soundcheck at Hoyt Sherman Place, which we're happy to share with you!
The band just finished the second leg of their “We Also Have Eras” tour, a Taylor Swift-esque celebration of their musical evolution of the last 30 years. These shows are not just regular concerts, though. The four members of Guster — Adam Gardner, Ryan Miller, Brian Rosenworcel and Luke Reynolds plus their fifth, honorary member David Butler — illustrate the band's story through skits, set design, choreography and, of course, their music on this tour.
“We just were imagining what our own ‘Eras Tour’ would be like and kind of ran with it. It's chronological, so it shows how the music evolved from our college days to our midlife crisis days,” Rosenworcel said. “We imagined some storytelling in between with theatrical bits and the script just kind of flowed out of us with the high points and low points of our journey together. And, you know, for people who have seen us 15 or 20 times, it's something very new.”
Rosenworcel, the drummer, may be better known as his nickname, “Thundergod.” Watching him masterfully perform on both the drumset and his second array of more unconventional hand drums contextualizes the nickname well. On last year’s leg of the “We Also Have Eras” tour, Rosenworcel upped the ante by physically ascending into the sky during the show at MGM Music Hall in Boston.
“I wore a rock climbing-style harness through the whole first set and I had to wear four pairs of underwear because in sound check it hurt when I went up like Peter Pan over the crowd,” Rosenworcel said. “During the show, it didn't hurt, and I didn't fall, and we got a great value out of the situation. It was a real thrill.”
Guster typically plays hundreds of shows a year to their hordes of dedicated fans. An environmentally friendly band, they continue to attempt to offset the environmental impact of their shows through green initiatives like eliminating single-use plastics and minimizing their carbon footprint. Guitarist and vocalist Gardner has spearheaded these initiatives for Guster and other touring acts through Reverb, a nonprofit he founded with his wife, environmentalist Lauren Sullivan.
“I think, in general, the industry still has a lot of disposable stuff around it, right? So that by default — like seeing these plastic water bottles and everything backstage — it's throw-out-able versus reusable,” Gardner said. “Instead of asking for your green M&Ms [in an artist's performance contract], maybe ask for actual reusable dishware and silverware or bring your own. It's some easy, like, low-hanging fruit stuff to do."
“On this particular tour, we have $1 per ticket going to Reverb, which will help Reverb with its Music Decarbonization Project, where we're actively working with how the music industry powers itself right now. So power is typically done with diesel generators. We're replacing that with solar-powered batteries [...] so that's been cool. And then here tonight, we have Support And Feed, which is a nonprofit that supports plant-based eating. And so we're asking fans to join us in a commitment of eating one plant-based meal a day for a month,” Gardner said.
Multi-instrumentalist Reynolds is the most recent addition to the band, having joined forces with Guster in 2010. He was well-acquainted with their former fourth member, Joe Pisapia, who left Guster to tour with k.d. lang, so Reynolds said that the transition into Guster was an easy one. Outside of the band, he's worked on albums for a multitude of other artists, including St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten and Neko Case (all of whom we love here at Studio One as well). He's also released seven solo records, and his current passion is a construction project at his home.
“For the last 19 months, I've been building my first and forever studio with my dad. So in between Guster touring, and sessions, and work outside the band, basically, I've just been doing construction of my studio,” Reynolds said. “And so I'm really excited to have like my dream and world-class forever studio back home in Vermont. And that'll be done in the spring.”
Every member of Guster displayed their talents on multiple instruments during the show at Hoyt Sherman Place. Miller was primarily on guitar and vocals, but has played many different instruments for the band, including harmonica, banjo and even keytar. He's also composed the score for over 15 films, been the creative director and host of Vermont Public’s live music and interview show Bardo and previously hosted a special interest TV show on Vermont Public called Makin’ Friends with Ryan Miller.
“What's fun about that show is that I had just moved to Vermont and I was trying to make friends, so I started a show called Makin’ Friends with Ryan Miller and I met, probably like my best friend on that show,” Miller said. “I just talked to him for an hour on the phone today. So I guess that's pretty fun. You can go look, you can go watch us meet for the first time on camera. And I talked to him today in Iowa for an hour. I told him about all my troubles.”
The members of Guster are unquestionably seasoned veterans of the indie music scene and have a very loyal fan base across the country. They’re not only doing their own thing and doing it well, they’re also collaborating with and uplifting many other musical artists in the scene.
Exemplifying this supportive spirit, and for a bit of extra fun, towards the end of our conversation the bandmates announced their own Gusties winners — their own version of the Grammy Awards — for their personal favorite new music of the last year.
The “We Also Have Eras” tour has brought Guster to some amazing venues, like a sold-out show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and a headlining set at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado with the Colorado Symphony. Their show at Hoyt Sherman Place proved why people clamor to come see them. Guster’s entertainment value is unmistakable and their new music continues to be ear candy.
We're living in Guster’s prime, and the only question we have now is — when will they get their NPR Tiny Desk premiere?
