Back in August, Seattle-based band La Luz headlined The Ritz, but they weren’t the main attraction. That’s not to throw shade at the indie rock quartet, who play an infectious brand of lo-fi surf-psych. It’s just hard to compete with Will Sprott in this town.
The lanky and soft-spoken Sprott, who was providing direct support to La Luz that night, clearly boasted the larger draw. It’s little wonder folks were excited to see him play. As the former frontman for The Mumlers, he was the face of one of the best bands to come out of San Jose in the past decade—right up there with Dredg and The Limousines.
“What can I say?” Sprott says. “San Jose has always been really, really good to The Mumlers. It feels good that people still care and are interested. We appreciate it.”
It’s likely that many were drawn to The Ritz that night with the hope that Sprott would reunite The Mumlers. And though he didn’t bring out the entire ensemble, he did call up some of his old crew for a few Mumlers numbers. The gathered crowd responded with loud, ecstatic cheers.
Sprott says that the enthusiasm of the audience—along with the urging of The Ritz’s owner, Corey O’Brien—led him to reach out to the original Mumlers lineup to see if they might come together for a reunion show. The answer was yes.
The Mumlers are playing their first show together in years this week at The Ritz. “This original line up hasn’t played together for a really long time, reaching back to something like 2008,” Sprott says. “We’re all really excited.”
Speaking from his newly adopted home of Los Angeles late last week, Sprott was still unsure exactly what he and the rest of the band would play, noting that he had only just begun rehearsing some of the Mumlers material and making sure he still remembers the words. He says fans can expect the band to play material from both Mumlers full-lengths—Thickets and Stitches and Don’t Throw Me Away.
“It’s been nice to go back and revisit those old friends,” he says, referring to the Mumlers songs he hasn’t played in so long.
The Mumlers
Dec 22, 8pm, $17-$20
The Ritz, San Jose
Check out Will Sprott’s solo material below:
