Biffy Clyro > Everything else.

Biffy Clyro are easily one of my favourite bands and after seeing them play live, they will always have a special meaning to me. The energy they put into the show was so high and the audience response so electric that it made for one of the best gigs I have ever been to. Before all of that, we had the support bands Rolo Tomassi and The Twilight Sad and for my money Rolo Tomassi were the most original whether you liked their sound or not. This isn’t to say that The Twilight Sad were bad, they weren’t... I quite enjoyed them. What it is saying is that they were nothing particularly new, coming off sounding like The Big Pink with slightly out of tune guitars, (whilst a Scottish Brian Molko of Placebo sings, or at least that’s how it sounded). The singer, whilst good also had a very odd habit of singing occasionally without the mic, something that made even his own bassist give him funny looks. Rolo Tomassi on the other hand were at best completely mental and at worst completely mental, some muddy sound meant that the keyboards were difficult to hear at the start of their set but the most distinctive thing about the band is Eva Spence’s scream. The diminutive front woman has a voice that can switch from melody to blood curdling screaming in a nanosecond and it’s impressive whether you appreciate the effort or not. I won’t be the only one checking out their new album Cosmology, due for release on the 24th of May.

Then came the longest wait of my life, (or at least it seemed that way), as the crew prepared the stage for Biffy Clyro. Having arrived at the venue at 18:30 it was 21:45 before Biffy actually took the stage and even with the quality support bands, it was an agonizing wait. Eventually though, they arrived. With no introduction at all they launched straight into the explosive That Golden Rule sending the mosh pit down below into overdrive. The chorus was sung by band and crowd alike with such emotion that you could tell the night would be a good one. Almost without pause the band launched into Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies and from the stabbing intro to the absolutely screamed lines of “bathed in white light, with halo’s in your eyes” the energy never drops. A total surprise to me and my friends next but for totally different reasons (something that will re-occur later in the gig), I hadn’t expected any songs from Biffy’s first three albums as their 2007 breakthrough Puzzle gained them a lot more mainstream fans. Imagine my surprise then when Glitter and Trauma from their experimental Infinity Land album suddenly began. My friends with me were surprised by it because, (for at least one of them), they had never actually heard the song before.

Next was Stephen Northey’s favourite from the new album, Bubbles. As amazing as it is on record, nothing and I mean nothing can possibly compare to how huge it sounded live. Next came 9/15ths which, on the album, is bolstered by a choir but instead of a choir, Biffy had the crowd and I think we did a fine job pulling off an amazing version of a song I never imagined they’d play live. Shock Shock was next making an impact purely because it meant we all got to shout the F-word at the top of our voices in the context of a song, “Well you talk and you talk, like you’re trying to shock me. I don’t even know, what the f**k we’re still arguing about”. Who’s Got A Match? followed with it’s “I’m A Fire and I’ll burn, burn, burn tonight” refrain causing a near riot. Even more surprisingly than Glitter and Trauma, the song that follows is from their 2001 debut Blackened Sky, as a fan of absolutely all Biffy’s songs, hearing the opening to Justboy in a show promoting their new album was like Christmas come early. A high five from Matt Deleay was all that needed to be said.


God and Satan is the first respite and almost the first time the band talks to their enraptured audience. “Hello London, It’s been a long time. Are you well?” Mountains follows causing an inevitably huge sing-a-long which everyone knows the words to, Biffy fans old and new. Biffy throw their old fans a bone next by playing Bodies In Flight from second album The Vertigo Of Bliss and although I felt like I was the only one who knew the song in my section of crowd, it didn’t make it any less amazing to see one of my favourite Biffy songs performed live. The funky Born On A Horse doesn’t seem out of place although it seems to be influenced by Simon Neil side project Marmaduke Duke, this is no bad thing either. Two songs from Puzzle come next with Saturday Superhouse blowing away the growing Biffy army of fans whilst A Whole Child Ago's jangly riff sounds even better live than on record. A brief pause to say hello to their guitar backup, (called Mike apparently) before launching into one of their most un-radio friendly songs, There’s No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake with its angular riffage and screaming first verse. A song that reaches about five minutes and yet goes through so many twists and turns it’s almost difficult to remember how the song started.


A long pause precedes Many Of Horror but when it finally arrives courtesy of that slide guitar effect with that vocal, the whole crowd is moving and singing, totally together under one band. Whorses appears to finish the gig with its soaring chorus and unifying lyrics it brings the evening to a perfect end. Or does it? Biffy Clyro obviously know how to make the tension build and no-one, absolutely no-one leaves their seat, the capacity crowd of almost 8,000 (seated and standing, cheers Wikipedia) collectively pray that there will be an encore. They collectively breathe a sigh of relief when it becomes apparent that an encore is coming, and duly go mental again. Cloud Of Stink opens the encore, one of the most ‘Old Biffy’ songs on Only Revolutions. Machines follows with Simon Neil leading the crowd with just his voice and an acoustic guitar in a performance that was actually beautiful, no other word for it. After getting misty eyed over the emotion of Machines the feeling continued as classic Biffy track Convex Concave from their first album began, the nostalgia hit (for me at least) was huge. What would they play last though, some reckoned Semi-Mental from Puzzle, I heard a different shout for 57 also from their debut but I put my money on The Captain and struck lucky. It was even more amazing live and as its final “Let’s love death away” lyric seemed to sum up the atmosphere in the venue as a large group of devoted fans came together all for one amazing band.


MON THE BIFF