Streetlight Manifesto ends Myth of Monsters Tour in New Jersey

Streetlight Manifesto closed out the Myth of Monsters Tour at their annual Starland Ballroom homecoming show, just minutes away from their hometown on Saturday night.

The tour consisted of 31 shows, including The Long Summer Night at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in July, plus a show with the Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution orchestra on the west coast.

Brooklyn natives Sadlands opened the show, performing a forty-minute set after doors opened. The female-fronted rock band had much of the crowd in high spirits leading into Streetlight’s set. The band’s drummer and lead guitarist were notably very talented, as were the other members.

Sadlands shared some banter along the way, which the crowd enjoyed, including about Six Flags Jackson’s closure of Kingda Ka.

Streetlight Manifesto took the stage at 9:12 pm, and played for nearly two hours – the longest set on the tour. They concluded around 11:00 pm.

The band took the stage to Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Welcome to the Jungle,’ followed by a traditional Russian sailor dance intro on horns.

The real opener was ‘Watch It Crash,’ as it traditionally is, followed by ‘The Three of Us’ and ‘Ungrateful,’ which the band performed for the second time ever at this past summer’s Stone Pony show.

A rendition of ‘Hell’ by the Squirrel Nut Zippers was performed for the first time in New Jersey since 2019, though was played at about half of the shows on tour.

‘The Hands That Thieve’ was announced as a “new song” and was followed by banter over the new album.

“The music [for the new album] is finished and recorded,” frontman Tomas Kalnoky said. “But there’s one little problem: I’m still writing lyrics.”

After previously confirming the band’s new album would be released by the end of 2024, that was put to rest, however Kalnoky promised that the new album would be released in the first half of 2025. The statement wasn’t very convincing, and Kalnoky was booed by the crowd (per his request).

“It’s going to be the greatest album we’ve put out in over 10 years,” Kalnoky said.

The first set ended with ‘Here’s to Life,’ but the band came out again for their typical three song encore, which consisted of ‘The Big Sleep,’ ‘Somewhere in the Between,’ and ‘1234 1234.’

The closing track, ‘1234 1234,’ was the first time the band had played the song on tour.

The band does not have any tour plans announced for next year apart from a show at Europe’s Slam Dunk Festival. The band is expected to return to the Stone Pony Summer Stage next summer, as promised during the 2024 summer show, and will likely return to Starland at the end of next year for their annual winter homecoming show.

Full setlist: