Streetlight Manifesto first formed in 2002 to record a 4-song demo consisting mostly of material Tomas had written when in Catch 22, which would later get them signed to Victory Records. The line-up for the demo was half ex-Catch 22 (Josh Ansley, Jamie Egan, and Tomas Kalnoky) and half ex-One Cool Guy (Stuart Karmatz, Dan Ross, and Pete Sibilia), almost all of whom had also performed on BOTAR's A Call to Arms the year before. After recording the demo a third of the bands line-up changed, with Paul Lowndes replacing Stuart Karmatz on drums and Jim Conti taking the place of Pete Sibilia on saxophone. This new line-up then went on to record Everything Goes Numb which was released by Victory Records on the 26th August 2003 to a very warm reception. Before the band could start performing live the line-up had to change again, as Paul Lowndes left and was replaced by Chris Thatcher and Mike Soprano came in on trombone (because, as talented as Jamie Egan is, he can't play trumpet and trombone simultaneously). The band then performed their first live show at Rutgers University on the 9th December followed by a second gig at The Stone Pony on the 20th December.

In 2004 Streetlight continued to perform odd shows along the north-east coast before finally embarking upon the "They'll Never Tour" tour in July and August with support from Big D & the Kids Table, hitting 29 states as well as Canada. Unfortunately another member of Streetlight had now decided to leave: Josh Ansley, the bass player, was moving to California to pursue an acting career. Streetlight's last show of 2004 at The Stone Pony on the 19th September was slated to be Josh's last show but unfortunately he was note there. Instead Chris Paszik of One Cool Guy and more recently BOTAR filled in on bass duties, and later turned out to be the permanent replacement. This show was also notable for beinging the first time they performed "Dear Sergio:"

2005 kicked off with yet more bad news as Jamie Egan had also decided to leave, in order to devote more time to his family. His replacement, Delano Bonner, debuted at the 25th January show at Rutgers University, where Streetlight again showed off a new(ish) song, "Point/Keasbey Nights/Counterpoint". They then set off on the Ska is Dead 2 tour as joint headliners with the Voodoo Glow Skulls and support from MU330. The tour went extremely well but unfortunately right at the end Dan Ross had a family emergency and had to rush home, and Streetlight were forced to cancel 5 non-Ska is Dead dates that were supposed to take them home after it finished. However this was not the only bad news concerning Dan Ross, as it turned out that the Ska is Dead 2 tour was his last before heading off into the working world.

In April 2005 Streetlight embarked upon their first overseas tour when they headed to Europe, starting off in the UK before hitting the mainland. Mike Brown took over from Dan Ross on alto/baritone saxophone, though due to the short amount of time between him joining the band and heading to Europe he didn't manage to learn all the songs. This was the least of Streetlight's problems however as Delano Bonner was unable to fly out due to not having a valid visa. He was eventually able to get one and fly out about a week and a half into the tour, but unfortunately he also needed seperate visas for the rest of Europe to had to return at the end of the UK dates, 3 days after he arrived. This left Streetlight with a 2-man horn section as Jim Conti had also had to return to America about a week into the tour due to a family emergency. Despite all the setbacks Streetlight announced that they had throughly enjoyed the tour, and planned to return later that year.

After getting back to America Streetlight performed a short tour of Canada and north-east America before going quiet for 3 months. In September they hit the road again for the "No One Quit Since Last Tour" tour, however they were again beset with problems, though this time of a far more serious nature as on the night of October 3rd they were robbed while asleep in their hotel, loosing over $80,000 (approximately £45,540) worth of equipment, merchandise, and personal possessions, including hours of tour footage and photos. The band were forced to cancel their next 4 shows while they cobbled together spare equipment for the last 3 shows of the tour. Despite this humongous setback Streetlight decided to soldier on and not cancel the second visit to Europe for the "No Child Left Behind" tour, this time with the full line-up for the whole tour. Unfortunately their problems were not over yet, as they were robbed again while in Paris, this time losing $4000 worth of equipment, including a 24-track hard-drive recorder which they had been using to document their live shows, also described by Streetlight as the one expensive piece of equipment that wasn't stolen in last month's debacle. After finishing the Europe tour and returning to America Streetlight performed a short tour called the "Please Stop Robbing Us" tour to make up for the cancelled dates after the first robbery, before taking time off from touring to get jobs to help pay off the debt incurred from the robbery and also to record new material. While they were recording new material their album Keasbey Nights was released on the 7th March 2006.

New material is currently being recorded for both Streetlight and BOTAR. They are performing two tours in 2006, one supporting The Aquabats for part of their This Better Work or We Are Dead Summer Tour 2006 in May, and another one supporting Reel Big Fish alongside MXPX and Whole Wheat Bread in the summer. The Streetlight, BOTAR, and RISC Group websites are all in the process of being redesigned, which will hopefully be finished sometime this year.