Mumford And Sons: mumford and sons Surprise With Hozier, Dessner On SNL
mumford and sons made their fourth appearance on Saturday Night Live with two songs from their new album Prizefighter, bringing surprise guests Hozier, Aaron Dessner and Sierra Ferrell onstage during a Feb. 28 taping. The band opened with “Rubber Band Man” and closed its set with the Prizefighter opener, “Here. ”
Mumford And Sons on SNL
The English folk rock trio—Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane—returned to Saturday Night Live for the fourth time, their first appearance on the show since 2018 when they promoted Delta. On Feb. 28 they played two tracks from Prizefighter, which is the band’s second album in less than a year.
Hozier and Aaron Dessner
They opened with “Rubber Band Man, ” a track that features Irish musician Hozier and was co-written by Brandi Carlile. Aaron Dessner, who co-produced Prizefighter, augmented the live performance and joined the band onstage; Hozier emerged from side stage to reprise his guest vocal from the studio version. For both SNL songs the group had backup from Dessner onstage.
Sierra Ferrell joins 'Here'
The second song of the night was the Prizefighter opening track “Here, ” which features Chris Stapleton on the album. For the live rendition Sierra Ferrell sang the guest parts in lieu of Stapleton. Stapleton was performing two hours away that night in Uncasville, Ct.
Quotes on Prizefighter and Dessner
Marcus Mumford, 39, described Prizefighter as his favorite of the group’s albums thus far and said the record is the band talking straight about who they are: “It’s like we got to this stage in our careers where we’re comfortable in our skin now, and so we can talk straight, ” Mumford said. “And this is the straightest talking record I think we have. And so it’s the closest to the essence of who we are, honestly. And that’s why I love it so much, because it feels like representing that on record can be really hard and really challenging, and you can get most of the way to success. But there’s always edifice, I think, and this one doesn’t feel like it has much of that in it. It’s just f—ing us and our mates, and that’s what our band is. ”
Co-founder Ted Dwane, 41, praised Dessner’s production work and framed him as an ally: “Dessner, he just feels like a real ally, ” the bassist said. “We’ve obviously been a fan of The National for a long time, and we met him and worked with him as we were preparing to make our third record, Wilder Mind. ”
Warm-up show and touring plans
The band warmed up for SNL with a hastily organized secret show Tuesday at the 500-capacity Music Hall of Williamsburg, performing unamplified and backed by a four-piece string section and extra singers. Prizefighter had a top 10 debut on Glassnote. The group will begin an extensive world tour April 24 in Melbourne and are scheduled to tour Australia and New Zealand in April, hit North America in June, then Europe. They will be back in the United States through October and are slated to headline Louisville, Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival.
Sketches, cameos and additional musicians
During the taping—hosted by Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie, in his first time as host—Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane made a cameo in an office-themed sketch about an ill-advised workplace dance and performed a snippet of “Unchained Melody. ” The episode’s monologue included cameos from U. S. Olympic hockey gold medalists Jack Hughes and Quinn Hughes from the men’s team and Hilary Knight and Megan Keller from the women’s team. “It was gonna be just [the women], but we thought we'd invite the guys too, ” Knight said, a line referencing last weekend’s controversy when Donald Trump undermined the women’s hockey team during a congratulatory call to the men’s team. Unlike the male athletes, the women’s team declined Trump’s invite to that week’s State Of The Union address, technically citing their travel schedule, but they were invited to party with Flavor Flav in Las Vegas instead.
Other televised comedy moments included an ice skating sketch featuring Hudson Williams and a pre-filmed sketch cut for time that starred Veronika Slowikowska and Jane Wickline performing a hip-hop song about confusing car handles in Ubers. Mumford & Sons’ touring and backing lineup on the night also included Matt Menefee, Ryan Richter, James McAlister, Darius Christian, Lessie Conner, Kylie Resnick and Rob Moose.
Mumford and Sons’ Feb. 28 SNL return combined high-profile guests, a quick secret warm-up and sketches, as the band promotes Prizefighter and prepares for a global tour starting in April.
