Live Review: Biffy Clyro's 'Only Revolutions' tour

 

As the crowd begins to get impatient, the lights dim and Simon Neil, Ben Johnston and James Johnston take to the stage. It all kicks off with forthcoming fifth record ‘Only Revolutions’ second single, and when I say it all kicks off, I mean a pit is forming immediately and we are neck deep in the energetic guitar riff of ‘That Golden Rule’. Following is ‘Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies’, which I half expect as Biffy have quite often opened with it since the release of ‘Puzzle’. Despite the predictability however, it’s probably the best song to get everyone shouting the lyrics after their mosh.

Then, out comes their brand new ‘Bubbles’ flanked by ‘A whole child ago’ and ‘Who’s got a match’ which are undoubtedly two crowd favorites since the success of ‘Puzzle’. Safe? Perhaps, but probably for the best. It may have resulted in an atmospheric drop had they thrown all their new stuff together at once. I had a similar feeling again with ‘Born on a Horse’ but it’s ingenious placement (following head-banging ‘9/15ths’ where the crowd inevitably chanted) served as an intense build to the insanity that was ‘57’, with Biffy owning the entire venue for the first time in the evening. The set of angled metal girders came alive with flashing lights, the strobes were on overtime and the crowd were alive with passion, screaming along with James Johnston’s renowned vocals in the chorus.

‘Machines’ then gave the crowd to relish in melody (as well as give them time to catch their breath after ‘57’) as Simon served it up with real emotion. The purple up-lighting and crowd involvement was very reminiscent of Biffy’s festival performances over the last year, a welcome refreshment for the die-hards. The rhythm’s of ‘Now I’m Everyone’ and ‘Love Has a Diameter’ had the crowd nodding with the beats again and lead us beautifully into the melodic ‘God and Satan’. This was another safe move by Biffy using two ‘Puzzle’ songs to flank a newbie, however crowd reactions to ‘Blackened Sky’ and ‘Justboy’ highlighted that Biffy know their audience.

After a successful reception of ‘The Captain’, their encore began with ‘Joy.Discovery.Invention’, which was happy relief for early fans and a great sing-along for the crowd, finally ending with the hugely popular ‘Semi-mental’ and ‘Mountains’ which left the crowd leaving on high.

Where I could take away points for some safe choices, I could also add points for delivering exactly what paying fans wanted. So it must be a solid:

7/10.