Report

Was Day One Of Mystic Festival The Busiest And The Best? With Twelve Sets And One Vader Exhibition Seen In Total, I’d Say Yes!

I mentioned in the Mystic Festival Warm Up Day Road Report that the official first day of the festival would be the most hectic for me. The tally consisted of twelve band sets and a visit to the Vader band exhibition (which was very cool!). I’m not going to touch on every band I saw, but I’ll pick my top 5 bands this day for me. If you’re curious of who else played, you can check them out in the photo gallery HERE!

I also mentioned the possibility of the weather not cooperating, and again, it didn’t. There were some periods of downpours and light rain here and there so because of this, I could only catch one or two songs max of some of the bands. It was a day where rain jackets and ponchos were high fashion and the indoor areas of the festival grounds were much more than a welcome sight and a convenience.

I wasn’t a fan of the day’s headlining act, but because they were given that honor, I feel obliged to write at least something about them. Being a headliner at a festival usually means you have something special planned or a stage show that makes just about every band that played before you somewhat forgettable. I didn’t see any of this. They’re great at what they do, which is sort of this power and progressive metal band that skirts the line of both genres. I can say this without prejudice: The vocalist, Anders Fridén, is very characteristic and can command a large audience with ease. Chris Broderick, one of the guitarists, was in Megadeth for a minute. Björn Gelotte, the lead guitarist, has been in the band since its inception along with Anders.

I’ve been told that In Flames was a lot heavier during its formative years and I’m not surprised. I didn’t listen to them back then, so I have no opinion regarding how heavy they used to be. I do admit, the light show was pretty cool during my abbreviated time watching their set. Most of the material they played came from the album, “Foregone,” which was released in 2023 and is their 14th studio album. So, there you go. That’s all I’m going to write about them and it’s been too much already.

Anders Fridén of In Flames

Suicidal Tendencies is a band that actually made an impression on me on this day. They are a band that needs no introduction unless you stumbled on this report by accident while researching dark and depressing subject matter. And unlike the subject matter, their live shows are guaranteed to leave you with happy thoughts and warm fuzzies.

When Suicidal Tendencies first came on stage, I wondered who the teenager was jumping around on the bass? Then it hit me like a skateboard deck against the head, that’s Robert Trujillo’s son! It’s been a minute since I’ve seen them and I remember reading about this a while back. He was all over the stage…in fact, they all were! I had forgotten how spastic their stage antics were. I was in the photo pit and I learned quickly that you just need to hold your ground and eventually the shot will come to you. Don’t chase the members around, you’ll only lose shot chances.

They opened their set with “You Can’t Bring Me Down” and in my head I heard “The Rain Can’t Bring Me Down” instead. At least it was dry during their time on stage. Mike Muir kept egging on the crowd to keep the mosh pit moving. The actual pit area was a mud bog only rivaled by The Redneck Yacht Club by the time band had finished. The coolest thing I saw throughout the festival happened during their set. During the song, “I Saw Your Mommy,” a gaggle of teenagers were let up on stage to help sing the song. They were jumping and headbanging along with the band. Even if you don’t for the music, you have to love this band for stuff like this.

Suicidal Tendencies

Elder is one of those band that you either love them or you can’t stand them. One thing you just can’t argue about is how talented they are. In fact, they might have been the most talented musicians at this year’s festival. If you’re not familiar with them, they are known for their very progressive style of metal. I’ve always likened them to a metalized version of King Crimson. The are definitely a musicians’ band but they also appeal to your casual metal fan. The band Tool even had Elder open up for them during their 2024 tour.

It was raining throughout the majority of Elder’s set, but the Desert Stage area remained packed with onlookers the whole time. They played flawlessly. How do I know that? Well, I’m a huge fan and I would easily have noticed if there was a flub or blunder. Elder had a reduced setlist consisting of only the songs “Compendium,” “Sanctuary,” “Dead Roots Stirring,” “Deadweight,” and “Halcyon.” I kid about the “only” description because if you know anything about the band, their songs run on average more than 10 minutes long. I didn’t stay for the whole set because my camera bag and gear was getting soaked after one song into it. I made my way to confines of the food court area to dry off and plot my next moves.

Elder

Even though they are not heavy metal or more so “death metal”, but more so a rock-n-roll band, “The Eagles of Death Metal” set needs mentioning. This was one of the magical sets in this year’s Mystic Festival. There’s a lot of history involved with this band.

When the news reported about the terrorist attacks in Paris and more specifically the attack on the Bataclan where they were playing that night, it was a mindfuck. It didn’t matter that they weren’t a heavy metal band, they were innocent musicians just on tour making a living. They miraculously survived the attack and even returned to Paris two months shy of their worst nightmare to finish the concert. I, along with the world, applauded their bravery for doing this.

In 2022, my wife and I were in Paris on vacation and visited the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery. We visited some of the famous graves and tombs to include Jim Morrison, but that’s not what left the biggest impression on me. I happen to look down at a random tombstone that had some random guitar picks laying on top. I saw there were some framed photographs of a young woman as well so I read the inscription on the tombstone and understood that she was mere 21 years old at the time of her passing. I then translated (It was engraved in French) the rest of the inscription with Google Translate and then realized that she passed on November 13, 2025. This was the same night of the Bataclan massacre. She was a victim. This hit me hard at the time and it continues to hit me the same way every time I remember it. She was so young and sadly died watching a band she loved. This made the terrorist attack real in a way that you can’t get from just reading the headlines or watching the news.

Fast forward to now, the realization that I was going to see Eagles of Death Metal perform some mere feet away from me made me emotional while getting my camera ready. I tried to wipe the tears that were leaking from the corners of my eyes, but it was in vain. Front-man and guitarist, Jesse Hughes, walked out on the stage and started singing along with the intro music, the 1979 Disco hit recorded by Sister Sledge, “We Are Family.” This was already perfection and their show hadn’t even started yet.

The Eagles of Death Metal is not only an auditory experience it’s very visual. They swagger and showcase that L.A. rocker vibe without apology. They kicked their set off with “I Only Want You” and continued to roll on from there. I only could stay for my three-song photo pit allotment because like I said earlier, there were a shit-ton of bands I had penciled in to see on this day. During my brief time there, I had a ton of fun shooting them because they looked so genuinely happy and grateful to be on stage. I hope to catch a full set sometime in the future because they love what they do and it’s not just a job for them, they love performing.

Jesse Hughes of Eagles of Death Metal

The last band I want to touch on is Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol. Don’t let the silly name turn you off, this band is legit. They were the first band I saw on this day and I think the first band scheduled overall, so there wasn’t much of a crowd to greet them when they stepped on the stage. What happened next was their music blew me away. I loved it so much so I immediately downloaded their most recent album, “Big Dumb Riffs,” and played it several times on my train ride home from Gdansk. They kind of remind me of a heavier Primus at times with some Weezer thrown in. Yeah, yeah, that’s not metal but if those bands played metal, they might sound like Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol. Don’t be close minded, check them out.

Leo Lydon of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol

In the first paragraph of this report, I mentioned that this year’s Mystic Festival had a Vader exhibition. I was curious what it could consist of and when there was time to kill (like during a downpour outside), I was able to check it out. The curator greeted me once he saw me start taking photographs. I forget his name now, but in his own words, he’s a close friend of the band and was there at the precipice of the band’s beginnings. There’s even photos of him in a display case holding a mace of some sort. He told me that 96% of the collection was his and I have to say, it was really impressive. There were hundreds of photos, some guitars, a few Vader stage banners, Vader t-shirts, and other band memorabilia that filled the exhibition area. It was a touching tribute to one of Poland’s arguably most influential metal band after KAT. The photo gallery isn’t posted yet, but I’ll update this report to have the link available HERE when it’s up.

That was Mystic Festival’s 2025 first official day in a nutshell. The next day wouldn’t be as busy, but the rain forecast was still casting a dark shadow on the day.