Biffy Clyro

It’s crazy to think that Scottish outfit Biffy Clyro have been around for over 3 decades at this point. Multiple #1 albums and millions of copies later, they’ve fully cemented themselves as one of the greatest British bands of the 21st century. Through all the struggles and obstacles they’ve had to deal with, they’ve faced adversity with a smile on their face and an abundance of rock songs to go along with it. Now on the tour for their latest album, ‘Futique’, founding bassist James Johnston made the brave decision to step away from the live shows in order to address his own personal issues. The fact that the band have not only continued with the tour (thanks to the help from stand-in Naomi MacLeod), but continued going from strength to strength is a leading reason as to why they’re still able to sell arenas out like this in the first place.

For a band that loves partaking in theatrics (and let me tell you, there were too many to count throughout the night), they opened the show in a rather bizarre manner. During ‘A Little Love’, the curtain drop happened to reveal another set of curtains covering the entire stage, as well as the band. It wasn’t until the end of the song’s bridge that we finally got a glimpse of the band for the first time - Simon Neil, unsurprisingly, was topless, adorned in his now-famous tattoos and flexing his impressive physique. Thankfully, we got to see the whole band for the next two hard hitters of the set, ‘Hunting Season’ and ‘That Golden Rule’. An impressive array of strobe lights brightened up the arena, and the energy of the songs certainly brightened up the fans. ‘Wolves of Winter’ is another resounding highlight, with streamers descending on the crowd below. The performance of this song was also the first opportunity of the night for backup bassist Naomi MacLeod to show that she was more than able to fill the gap that James Johnston has temporarily left behind - her backing vocals on the track’s chorus are stellar and add a unique, yet similarly impactful, variation to the song.

After hearing some of Biffy Clyro’s newest album, ‘Futique’, before the show, I was certainly excited to see whether these tracks had the same impact in a live setting as they did in the studio. Any doubts I had in my mind were erased as soon as ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Friendshipping’ came on. ‘Goodbye’ had Simon stage right and the strings stage left, providing an intimate moment with those on the sides in the crowd, and highlighting that no room is ever too big to bring everyone together. The latter track felt very reminiscent of 2000’s Biffy, and showing they haven’t fully ‘sold out’ or ‘softened their sound’ as many have suggested. There were even some tiny indoor fireworks (no pun intended!!) let off during the song, reflecting the high arena budget that the group have fully warranted. A word also needs to be said about how phenomenal the band sound together, even if missing an integral member. While I’ve already mentioned Naomi, drummer (and brother of James) Ben Johnston was at the top of his game - ‘Mountains’ was perhaps the song that reflected how good he is best, whether it was the switches between a 4 / 4  and 7 / 8 time signature or the half-time breakdown during the chorus. Long time touring guitarist Mike Vennart’s riffs continue to shred on songs like ‘Different People’ and ‘A Hunger in Your Haunt’, and the addition of two touring string players elevates many of the songs. ‘Two People in Love’ reflects this best, with dramatic vibrato strings in the pre-chorus and soaring melodies throughout the chorus and middle 8 of the track.

As the end of an epic 23-song set approaches, ‘Machines’ serves as a warm acoustic number and a conventional ‘torches on audience’s phones’ song. Some fans, however, went even further and ignited their lighters to wave in the air, which I thought was brilliant. The set ends with some truly epic singalongs, with 3 of the tracks being off their best-selling album ‘Only Revolutions’. ‘Living is a Problem…’ is every bit as operatic and electric as you’d want it to be live, though Simon makes a small interjection during the bridge that grinds things to a slow stop. In some prior instances, he’d play a short excerpt of a song (like when he played ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys at Glastonbury last year), but instead, we were treated to some interesting dissonant chords on the guitar. The last two songs of the night, ‘Bubbles’ and ‘Many of Horror’, were truly biblical (once again, no pun intended!!) - arms were flailing and legs were jumping, and those who had elected to sit during the main set were finally up on their feet. One last confetti drop was the perfect ending to an excellent night, which can be very hard to come by in January. And as long as bands continue to play during what is usually a depressing time of the year, those January blues can certainly be a lot brighter and more optimistic. In the case of Biffy, maybe being mixed in with a bit of white wouldn’t do any harm!!