Ayrshire’s own Biffy Clyro made a triumphant return to Glasgow on the 24th of October with the first night of their “Celebration of Beginnings Tour”. Playing their first album, ‘Blackened Sky‘, in its entirety along with some classics and deep-cuts.
The atmosphere before the Biff took to the stage was electric. Everyone was excited and buzzing to see the lads make their return to Glasgow after two years. The queue wrapped around the street, full of the regulars you’d expect and a couple of folk asking for spare tickets last minute to try and get in.
Doors opened at 7pm but Biffy didn’t take the stage until 8:30pm. The wait was long considering their was no support act, just a long wait as everyone started to pile into the ballroom, a couple falling as they didn’t see the dip in the floor. What made the atmosphere so palpable was the sheet the band put up to cover the stage. It featured the album artwork of ‘Blackend Sky‘, the two clay men looking up to the sky.
When the clock struck 8:30pm the band took the stage to thunderous applause from the audience. Lead Vocalist/Guitarist Simon Neil spoke to the crowd briefly before jumping into the album. He introduced the tour, thanked everyone for coming and capped off the speech with sentence that perfectly set the stage for what was to come, “It is f***ing nice to be home.”
Image credit: Gary Dempsey
Biffy opened with ‘Blackend Sky’s‘ first track, Joy.Discovery.Invention. The slow build up of the song gave the crowd ample time to create a mosh pit and gear up for the killer breakdown the song is known for. The energy coming off of Joy.Discovery.Invention was immense and flowed perfectly into fans favourites 27 and Justboy. The crowd were roaring the lyrics of Justboy, cementing its status as an all time classic.
Kill The Old, Torture Their Young was the most surprising song of the night. Anyone doubting that the trio couldn’t scream as well as they could twenty years were proven wrong almost instantly. Simon’s jagged vocals paired perfectly with the wild crowd and intricate drum work courtesy of drummer Ben Johnston. The Go-Slow was my personal favourite out of the tracks they performed during the first half of the show. The heaviness of the bridge and chorus paired perfectly with the softer verses, the group vocals were also a major highlight.
After a quick conversation with the crowd, Biffy switched gears going into the slower, piano heavy track Christopher’s River. The mosh pit started to die down during the song as more of the audience employed the usual prog-rock staple of standing still and bobbing your head about a bit. Convex, Concave was given a full makeover live, instead of the original recordings stripped back opening, the lads went full on and brought the tempo up to a breakneck pace, this pace perfectly flowed into the next track, 57. Regarded as one of the best from their first album, it was a joy hearing 57 live and being in amongst a crowd of die-hards that knew every lyrics and were screaming them along with the band.
Hero Management was far better live, mostly due to Simon’s mental dance moves. He pranced about the stage looking like a demonic Billy Connolly, sent from hell to blow the crowd away. Going into Solution Device’s the band acknowledged that they haven’t played this one in a long time, as before the London ‘Blackend Sky‘ show the song hadn’t been played live since 2005, which is such a shame as its one of the forgotten gems of the album. Luckily, the crowd were thrilled to hear it live.
Stress On The Sky followed and it was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. The screams were shrill and loud and the varied instrumentation was kept perfeclty intact, only bolstered by Ben Johnston’s wild drum breakdown half way through the song. The trio closed off the ‘Blackend Sky‘ set with the atmospheric Scary Mary. Little did I know the band weren’t done yet.
What followed the first set was a ten minute intermission, half the crowd moved to the bar whereas the rest stayed stalk still, doing their best not to lose their spot. Another round of applause met the band as they took the stage once more. What might have been a couple songs turned into a whole other set that kicked off with a modern banger, A Hunger in Your Haunt. It’s easily one of the best songs off of their most recent album and hearing it live only cemented that fact in my mind.
Howl made it’s return after not being played for five years, the whole crowd sounded like a bunch of wolves during the chorus. Fever Dream was the most wild tune live as Simon stood on a platform for most of the song singing whilst back lit by an almost ethereal white light. In the last minute Simon took back his guitar and started to scream the lyrics at the crowd. It was a song I didn’t expect to see live and one that left me as baffled as I was thrilled. A Whole Child Ago followed and brought the pace back up, most of the crowd were excited once again to hear a classic that doesn’t get enough love.
Modern Magic Formula was another surprise, the whole crowd were up and moving once again and the mosh pit was massive, almost the whole of the middle of the floor was taken up by the mosh pit. After the breakneck speed of the previous song, Biffy took things down slightly with Space, another modern classic.
Purpose most surprisingly, a B-Side off of ‘Blackend Sky‘ was played, that being Hope for an Angel. Nobody in the crowd expected it but by god did they love it. The almost minute long breakdown had everyone in the crowd getting thrown about like rag-dolls as the trio screamed alongside their instruments. Just as the crowd thought the excitement was over, Biffy pulled out another classic, Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies. The lights on stage were wild, though they didn’t over do it with the lights during the show, the lads went all out for this tune, literally bathing the audience in white light.
Two more modern songs closed off the set, those being The Pink Limit and Witch’s Cup. Both songs got the crowd going wild even though it was clear everyone was starting to get tired. Upon finishing both tracks the band left the stage again for a quick wee encore, probably just to hear the crowd scream, “Biffy, Biffy, Biffy f***ing Clyro” again for the hundredth time that night.
After the short encore Simon took the stage alone to play an acoustic rendition of Break a Butterfly on a Wheel, it was a well needed break and hearing Biffy go acoustic live was a dream come true. But that wasn’t the last song of the night, the rest of the band returned and played one last classic to cap off a night that’s bound to be remembered for a long time. Stingin’ Belle closed the set on a bang. The crowd gathered for last massive mosh pit and Biffy left the audience one last time to thunderous applause.
Having grown up listening to Biffy and obsessing over their early albums as a teenager, getting the opportunity to see them live and witness them play their first album in its entirety was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was easily one of the best gigs I’d ever seen.