Biffy Clyro @ Rock City – 8/11/09
Aww, you used to be cool man – what happened? I liked you better when no one listened to you. Wow, sorry – I lost myself for a minute there, in a sea of pretension and LIES.
Many would argue that becoming popular means you’ve done one or both of two things: sold out or diluted the essence of whatever it was made them interesting in the first place. Sadly, for a band to truly reach the dizzying heights of the mainstream airwaves, they have to bend around the ears of catatonic morons who want more pantomime-stadium-dirge wankery. But this is not always the case.
Biffy Clyro have been haunting the live circuit since time began. They hit the road back in 2002 in the glory days of Brit-rock, when the underground was owned by a brilliant crop of awesome talent in the shape of Cooper Temple Clause, Hell Is For Heroes, Hundred Reasons, Reuben, Million Dead, Yourcodenameis:milo, Vex Red, McClusky, JJ72, Crackout, My Vitriol and countless, underrated others. Many of these bands fell by the wayside as lazy-Libertine-copyist-scumbags were championed instead. Without the sponsorship of Topman, NME and E4, many bands died on their arses. But not the Biff, oh no; never the Biff. Biff relented and marched on to cult and critical acclaim, filling three albums with brilliant schiz-pop insanity.
But then, in 2007, something quite peculiar happened. Three hairy, shirtless, Scottish mentalists became popular. Yeah, I know, weird eh? What was this a sign of? Had Biffy sold out? Had Biffy done a ‘Lost Prophets’ and lost the battle against the skinny-jean-wearing-emotionally-underdeveloped child inside them? No, they just got good, but like really good. Their fourth album ‘Puzzle’ saw the band successfully match the weird and wonderful prog intricacies of old with more universal pop-anthemics. The balance was perfect.
But then, word on the street is that they went even more pop on latest album ‘Only Revolutions’, leading even more die-hard cynics to cast their hazy-eyed gaze to the past, recalling sweaty Biffy gigs in tiny toilets and bitterly muttering “you weren’t there man.” Recent single ‘The Captain’ forced many into a dark corner – rocking back and forth and wondering what all this pop-up pirate b*llocks was about and where THEIR band had gone. Was their unhinged cynicism justified?
No, no it wasn’t. Tonight we see a band at the pinnacle of their career. They’ve waded through all of the sh*t that THE MAN left in their path, marching their cult fanbase to the heights of pop-rock Valhalla. Welcome Viking, to Biffy at Rock City.
Opening with *gasp* newbie ‘That Golden Rule’, Biff go straight for the jugular with a behemoth of the hardest prog pedigree. Surprisingly the trio then launch straight into the epic odyssey of ‘Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies’. A bold move indeed, as any other who’d have written such a sky-reaching monolith of rock brilliance would have save it until the end of the set. But this is not any other band, this is Biffy F*cking Clyro, and they’re just getting started.
Even the best of bands meet a trough in the middle of the set, when the bar gets pretty busy – but not Biffy. Their flawless back-catalogue lends itself to a truly relentless mind blowing performance – being both marathon and sprint. Even the jaunty pirate-friendly pop-mockery of ‘The Captain’ is thankfully enhanced by an overdose of hairy-Scot exuberance.
Cuts from the new album (like the worryingly infectious ‘Bubbles’) prove certain to become favourites amongst other live staples on show. Old-school classics like the jittery alt-rock gem of ‘Glitter And Trauma’ and the wee-emo-pop-bubble of ‘57’ are received with sheer rapture and ecstasy. ‘Joy.Discovery.Invention’ and ‘Machines’ allow brief moments of brief but beautiful tenderness before ending on ‘Mountains.’
“I am a mountain, I am the sea” sings frontman Simon Neil; “You can’t take that away from me.” That says it all. That the band still have enough fans to conduct an effect circle-pit is impressive enough, but after exhibiting such consistency and myriad highlights in tonight’s performance, Biffy have proved themselves untouchable. So, to you indier-than-thou nostalgiaholics I say this: get over yourselves. ‘Mon the Biff. Now more than ever.
Andrew Trendell
Photos: Laura Payne
Tags: biffy clyro, nottingham, rock city
