50,000 concert-goers flocked to London to mark a biblical night of anthems and legacy.
It wasn’t advertised as just a usual gig run. A slew of summer concerts to celebrate festival season and new material. It was something far bigger than that. For many, it had all come to down to this. A mammoth 50,000-capacity Finsbury Park show. An epic in scale and volume, it was to be Biffy Clyro’s biggest show to date.
And boy, did it not disappoint. A mammoth setlist – with a mammoth supporting cast to boot – it was a setting for the ages. Those that joined in on the celebrations were Wavves, Marmozets, Don Broco and Nothing But Thieves, all highly credible bands in the scene celebrating their own milestones. Truly bombastic performances all round, it seems all were here for one thing: to be part of this amazing night celebrating a band who are a childhood token in alternative rock – a reason for becoming a band of your own.
Anthemic alt-rock bolstered by the throaty lead-vocal brogue of Simon Neil and twin brothers James and Ben Jonhston, powerhouse trio Biffy Clyro are a vital cornerstone to the best of British rock. Since their formation in 1995, along with their ten studio albums, it is their live performances that has been a driving factor into what makes this band so unique.
Today, comes a stoic show of a band who are all in too familiar territory. While James will be sorely missed during these bouts of shows following personal addiction troubles, it will be business as usual for the original pairing with Naomi Macleod taking up the bass mantle for the time being.
Across a 24-song setlist, Neil and co took us down a memory lane as they careened into every studio record release, celebrating the new along with the old. 2009’s Only Revolutions received the most love with The Captain, That Golden Rule and Who’s Got A Match? which were all blitzed through in a blaze of noise and pyrotechnics. Fan favourites Justboy and Different People got their moments in the sun while Booom, Blast and Ruin received a welcoming return for the first time in nine years. A beautiful apacella of There’s No Such Man as a Crasp began in the second act – a mesmerising swan-song with all band members stood around a singular microphone – before it’s immense follow-up There’s No Such Thing as a Jaggy Snake brought about another roar from those that were familiar with some of the bands’ oldest from 04’s Infinity Land. A wave upon wave of unfettered anthems, there was seemingly little respite between one strike in to the next apart from the usual hellos and gratitudes.
The encore saw Jamie Campbell Bower emerge as a surprise guest list to serenade on the acoustic magic of Machines, before we were fully blown away with Elipsis‘ (2016) Wolves of Winter and finally Bubbles and Many of Horror waded out a night to remember.
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