Bainbridge Island band Gruff Mummies had a great launch to its musical career: a first place finish in the 2005 Experience Music Project Battle of the Bands contest earned it a spot on the EMP stage to open Bumbershoot 2005, professional studio recording time, technical help from former Nirvana producer Jack Endino, a gig with the Presidents of the United States of America and air time on a Seattle radio station.

Not bad for a group of kids fresh out of high school.

Band members Kirk Nordby, singer; Paul Phillip (aka Brinkley), guitarist/singer; Caleb Strickland, drummer; and Cameron Snyder, bassist, all graduated from Bainbridge High School in 2005. Keyboardist Geneva Pritchett is a junior at BHS.

Nordby and Phillip sat down recently over coffee in a downtown Winslow cafe, hair and clothes appropriately scruffy for the “rock look,” to talk about the band, and their show Saturday at the Island Center Hall.

Phillip related that the boys in the band got together when they were juniors.

“We all had a passion for a similar kind of music,” he said. “We just sort of clicked.”

Nordby and Snyder go back farther than that, to the dark days of music class in middle school, when Nordby played the tuba and Snyder wailed on alto sax.

They’ve come a long way from those Sousa days, with a sound they describe as being heavily influenced by the “larger arena” and “art” bands of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Bands they admire include Led Zepplin, T-Rex and King Crimson, as well as Iggy Pop, Taj Mahal and James Brown.

“People have said we remind them of The Doors, or early Yes, but we don’t see it,” Norby said.

“I’m influenced by all the music that I listen to,” Phillip said.

Their songs are written collaboratively, with everyone throwing in their ideas.

On stage the band is full of all the energy you would expect from a group of young musicians who love what they do, and want to pass that on to the audience. One problem they have seen, especially with an under-21 crowd, is a lack of people willing to get out on the dance floor.

Nordby plans on working to correct that at the Island Center Hall show. Concert-goers can expect the rustic wooden hall to be transformed, with a light show, visual effects, and food and drink — non-alcoholic, of course.

“Think ‘Woodstock,’” he said.

Gruff Mummies has a CD, “Fogged Nights and Porcelain Eyes,” and performs frequently in the Seattle area and on Whidbey Island.

Whidbey has one of their strongest fan bases, much to their surprise.

At their first concert there, as one of a number of bands performing in Langley, Nordby said, “At first they were just looking at us like ‘who are these guys?’ But then they loved us.”

In Seattle the band has performed at The Vera Project, El Corazon, Chop Suey, and EMP several times. It also opened for the Bainbridge Island-based production of “This is Now. . . That was Then” at the Moore Theatre in Seattle.

A West Coast tour in the summer of 2005 turned out to be more of a “learning experience” than a star vehicle.

“It was like a long road trip with a few shows along the way,” Nordby said.

While the band plans to continue playing, the members are also hedging their bet with college classes.

Nordby has been earning credits at Seattle Central Community College, while Phillip plans on attending the University of Washington in the fall.

But the beat goes on.

“We’re just going to keep on playing and persevere,” Nordby said. “It’s a very long process, but we’re willing to stick with the project and move forward with it.”

Also on the program for the March 24 show is maiphyre, from Olympia, and Bainbridge-based Bad Otis.

March 25 Gruff Mummies plays at the Island Music Guild Hall with Mon Frere and The Lonely H.

The March 24 show begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Island Center Hall, 8395 Fletcher Bay Rd., Bainbridge Island. Admission is $5 at the door.

The March 25 show begins at 7 p.m. at the Island Music Guild Hall, 10598 Valley Rd. NE, Bainbridge Island. Admission is $3 at the door. The concert is part of the Zeitgeist teen concert series, hosted by the Island Music Guild.