Friends and fans, Soggy & Stitchy here from HOTYTLM to tell you about the absolutely stellar time we had at the Back to Eden Music and Magic Festival this summer! It was SUCH a privilege to play at the London-based festival again this year to a sold out crowd (thanks to all our wonderful fans for your support!). To make things even more spectacular, we scored tickets AND backstage passes to see our favorite underground band, the Flash Bastards, after our set on Friday night on the Stage of Life. We doubt our ability to nicely and accurately convey our excitement for the whole evening in words, but we will try anyway, so buckle up readers—it was a wild ride.
We arrived at the Eastern Gate Stage and could sense the electricity immediately upon passing through the impressive walled entrance (did we mention how over the top this entire festival is?) The spectacle boasts life size replicas of Eden’s walls surrounding the central festival stages, which were adorned with verdant greenery, and staged around a prominent (but very off-limits) apple tree. This is their first major show since they’ve reformed with their current members. We expected it to be fabulous (spoiler: it was), and obviously hope it kicks off a glorious new chapter for them.
We had prime seats right in the pit, as befits Goblins of our caliber, and crowded right up to the barrier to soak in the magnificent stage design – all celestial starlights hanging in the night sky over the garden. The design was truly magical, even before the band made their entrance. It felt like someone had literally hung the heavens right on the stage.
In true Flash Bastard fashion, the band made an unforgettably stellar entrance, each appearing in a spark of light, behind phenomenal pyrotechnics like lightning had reached down and blessed the stage with their presence. We don’t know how they afford such heavenly effects on such an underground budget, but maybe their enigmatic and may we say dashing manager Mr. Nancy may enlighten us someday. Once the boys hit that electrifying opening riff for “Will it BURN”, they were off and running, and we knew we were in for one hell of a show!
The set was all over their four albums – at a wild two hours they kept the energy high. As longtime fans, we were SO hyped to see some of the deeper cuts from their first two albums like the pounding rhythm of “Ships Against the Current” from The Misled and the whimsical “Bentley’s Capers” from their first album, Primates.
The songs from their repertoire did focus mostly on repping their fourth album, released only a couple months ago, Four Scorned. This album felt a lot chewier than the third, Black Box Hearts. While Hearts focused on lyric driven ballads, penned by the silver tongued Loki Laufeyson, Scorned gives us lots of scorching layered guitar and bass interplay, leaning heavily on lead guitarist XII (Twelve) and bassist Crowley to banter like arguing lovers across the stage, especially potent in “The Summoning Dark” —a driving 7 minute throb of a song that had everyone mesmerized.
Loki as usual provided his megawatt smile and his honeyed voice to ensnare the crowd, who gleefully sang along with their new single “Heaven’s Sins” as well as on favorites such as “Special Pudding” and “(not another) Lead Balloon” to buoy the mood. Ed was spinning his sticks with aplomb as per usual – we got a rare live version of his blistering drum solo from “Close The Distance” on Misled.
Not to say we didn’t get a fun sprinkling of covers thrown into the setlist, notably a magnificent rendering of their cover of the RHCP’s Californication. Crowley gave us an amped up version of the hilariously self-deprecating “Self-Esteem” from The Offspring and a hauntingly ferocious duet with Loki on System of a Down’s “Toxicity”.
Of course, no show would be complete without an encore to leave the crowd gasping, and Crowley’s rendition of Amy Winehouse’s “Wake Up Alone” brought us all to our knees. With his raspy growl pouring on the emotions, the longing was palpable. More than a few people had damp eyes as they cheered the band’s exit.
After the show we had an absolute blast with the boys, who were kind enough to let us hang out with them after the set. By the time we got backstage, the band was already well into ‘relax and do mischief’ mode – sprawled in the greenroom amongst pizza boxes, a (few) bottles of whiskey, what looked like some in process lyric notes, long forgotten in the heat of the show, now scattered about the floor next to Twelve (yes, we tried to peek and, no, they were not at all legible). Stitchy immediately parked herself next to the guitarist to chat axes while he noodled meditatively on his “Gibson” SG. When prompted about its origin, Twelve quipped wryly, “you don’t really think we have the budget for a vintage ‘66 SG, do ya? … unless somehow I got it new”. Crowley chimed in that all the best guitars come as gifts anyway (which is more in the budget for this still underground band), and glanced with love at his jet black Ibanez bass as though it held some memory still too fond and fragile to share aloud.
This tender moment was interrupted by a calamitous brawl – as Loki scampered around a raging Ed who was coming at him with a bottle of what appeared to be glitter spray (also, he seemed to be leaving a cloud of sparkly dust in his wake). Apparently, Soggy, ever the Goblin, took Loki up on the opportunity to do shenanigans, and offered to erm… distract our innocent, tousle-haired pirate so that the Trickster God could fill his essential Not-Your-Madam’s detangler with glitter.
“What? I thought you loved being a glittering princess!” Loki cooed, taunting the rogue. Stitch dissolved into stitches, while Ed, putting together Soggy’s part in this prank, rounded on her and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. (very attractive potatoes, Loki made sure to add). (Stitch: I don’t think she minded). (Soggy: I didn’t mind, even though Loki stole my phone to photograph my shame).
All in all it was an unforgettable night, especially considering both of us left this chaotic evening with personal phone numbers. We’ll leave you to ponder whose 😉 This band of brothers sure has the charisma, personality, and talent to go far, and we can’t wait to watch them soar into stardom!
