Downsizing from their usual arena shows, Mumford and Sons treated an afternoon crowd at Rock City to a snapshot insight into their new album, Prize Fighter...
Bands who hone their craft to arena-sized proportions are rarely able to translate their live personas to much smaller venues - at least without losing their sense of awe - but Marcus and the boys proved able to do just this.
Opening with the title track to new album Prizefighter, the band are full of laughs and the crowd eases straight into the matinee show. Hozier’s co-written hit Rubber Band Man kicks into gear and reminds us how impressive it is to see a band stir so much drive in a song without the use of a drum kit.
White Blank Page is met with knowing cheers, a track from the band’s first record Sigh No More, which threw the indie-folk band straight into the sights of the mainstream scene. Frontman Mumford plays broad open-tuned guitars with the same effortlessness he imposes on his smiling interactions with the crowd - the "you could grab a beer with him" mantra rings true.
They follow this with three unknown tracks from the new record. Each builds on the recent launch of their fifth album Malibu, leaning into the story-telling elements prominent in their earliest works and revisited now in their most recent releases.
Half way through the set Marcus explains how they gathered together after a few years apart to write this new portfolio. The process began with the band chatting as mates (“for the first time in a while”), he says, and through these conversations songs began to “fall out of the sky”. They didn’t stop until they had a several album’s-worth of material. This explains the release of two bodies of work within a year - a gift fans are relishing.
A highlight of the night is I’ll Tell You Anything, which emulates the driving energy of Awake My Soul but with the kind of lyrical maturity only 20 years of writing can induce.
It’s also pleasing to see the re-introduction of the banjo into their work following two records channelled through more electrical soundscapes. While these works (Delta and Wilder Mind) were met with good reviews, the warm country sound has a sense of ‘homecoming’ to it - a return to the simpler things.
Closing with The Cave and aptly-named crowd-pleaser The Banjo Song, Mumford and Sons had delivered a flash-in-the-pan 40 minute set - more than enough to prime the ears for their next instalment.
Mumford and Sons performed at Rock City on 10th February 2026.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
