Guster To Return To Boston To Celebrate 25th Anniversary

In December of 1991 Guster, a band featuring students at Tufts University, came together for their first show. This January the band will return to Boston to celebrate the group’s 25th anniversary with a series of four shows at the Paradise Rock Club from January 12-15.

“Every show in Boston is like a hometown show,” said Brian Rosenworcel, co-founder of the band along with Ryan Miller and Adam Gardner. “Boston is the town that built our career and we have a special relationship with the fans and the city. Every time we play here, we want to make it special. Boston will always be the spiritual home of the band.”

The trio played a series of six high-speed covers at their first show, but eventually started working creative original material into the mix. Guster’s inventive sound won them a spot in a Battle of the Bands at The Paradise not long after their first show. Brian, Ryan and Adam won which made them one of the go-to acts to open performances from such bands as The Bogmen, Rusted Root and Acoustic Junction at the rock club.

“I remember the feeling of playing on the stage at the Paradise for the first time, how huge it was and how I was standing on the stage where I had seen so many of my favorite bands,” said Brian Rosenworcel. “In the spring of 1995, they let us headline our own show. It was beyond epic. Sold out. I will never forget feeling that ‘if we can do this in Boston, we can do this in every city.’

“Boston has been so central to our experience as a band,” continued Rosenworcel. “We played with The Pops and felt the rush of 80 musicians backing us. We ran on stage during a Barenaked Ladies’ set at the Fleet Center wearing orange overalls with the ass cheeks cut out. Mayor Menino introduced us as ‘Gooster’ before we played a free show in Government Center to a shocking sea of heads in 2003. I am pretty sure we took the stage at Harborlights in South Boston by rowing a dinghy to the venue from the harbor, docking-and-rocking. We very nearly floated out to sea that night. We played a Halloween show at The Orpheum in 1999 in tuxedos and pretended it was a Y2K New Year’s celebration all night. But I think my fondest Boston memories will always be dumping the change from our guitar case into a bowl after a night busking in Harvard Square, and then buying as much Pinocchio’s Pizza as we could with it.”

Guster’s celebration comes not only as the band celebrates 25 years together, but in honor of the 40th anniversary of the club. The band has tapped Steven Page (January 12), And The Kids (January 13), The Bogmen (January 14) and John Wesley Harding (aka Wesley Stace) (January 15) to open. “All of the bands opening for us have a special place in our celebration,” continued Rosenworcel. “We used to play with The Bogmen and John Wesley Harding at the Paradise. And The Kids remind us of GUS back in the day, if we were female and much better at songwriting. And of course, we toured alongside Steven Page for so many years when he was a Barenaked Lady.”

Four-Show weekend passes go on sale today, while single show tickets will be available November 11.