The Scottish rock mega-stars make a one-off appearance in London for the select few fans who managed to bag tickets. Here's how the evening went down.
**It’s thrilling to see Biffy Clyro back in a venue of this size. **With a capacity of 2600, The Troxy is far from London’s smallest venue, but when you take into account the fact that Biffy have been able to sell out arena tours and headline festivals for a few years, it’s great to be able to turn back the clocks and see them in a venue they’ve long outgrown. They’ve proved they can drop jaws when faced with gargantuan crowds, but nothing gets lost when the experience when is pulled back into a smaller room.
**There’s a few trips down memory lane. ** They treat the London crowd to a number of songs taken from their less-played first three albums. Wave Upon Wave and Strung To Your Ribcage provide a nice little treat for the longtime fans. It’s great to see songs from those albums get the attention they deserved when the band were a lesser known proposition. Glitter and Trauma sounds monstrous, while 57 has evolved into the mega anthem it was always meant to be.
Biffy Clyro’s back catalogue is ridiculous. With a little over an hour onstage and six albums (the most recent of which is a double) to pick from, this was always going to be a tight squeeze. But when the only real complaint about a set is that you want more (what, no Saturday Superhouse?), it’s clearly been a great show, be it the all-out rock vitriol of That Golden Rule, the joyous jump-around pop of The Captain, or the fact that enough time has passed since Matt Cardle’s godawful cover that everyone can go back to appreciating Many of Horror for what it is: one of the most beautiful rock songs written in recent memory.
**Biffy Clyro are one of the best bands in the world. **Tonight provides a reminder of just how incredible Biffy Clyro are. In a world where many of the go-to festival headliners are starting to eye up retirement, Biffy Clyro are one of the select few to be credible replacements. The reason for this is never more obvious than tonight. They’re a band who write huge rock songs for the masses, while retaining that air of eccentricity that makes them a one-of-a-kind outfit. With the band claiming that their Glasgow shows are closing the second chapter on the band — not to mention Simon Neil contributing his first solo track to the BBC’s Drive re-score under the guise of ZZC — who knows what’s next for the band? Whatever it is, we pray to the gods of Rock that they’re not away for too long. The world is a much brighter place when Biffy Clyro are around.
