Living is a problem because you missed Biffy Clyro
Words: Matthew Moore
Photos: Coal Poet Media
★★★★★
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Few bands in modern rock have perfected arena-sized catharsis quite like Biffy Clyro. Over almost three decades of performing, the Scottish powerhouse has evolved from jagged math rock-infused cult heroes into one of the UK’s most exciting festival headliners. The trio, often accompanied by two or three extra members live, has the power to tear your chest apart with the rare kind of raw, sweat-soaked magic that feels hard to come by.
But before we get to a crowd shouting “Mon the Biff”, we have a couple of bands to talk about.
Photo: Coal Poet Media
Humour
Biffy Clyro seem to have a talent for finding bands to join them on stage that, at face value, would not necessarily fit the bill. The last time I saw the band in Cardiff, they were joined by The Armed. They are a chaotic boundary-pushing collective. Today we were joined by Humour. Once again, this band might be slightly more out there for a casual Biffy listener. Humour are another band that seems to float between genres (which will become a theme for this show), from post-hardcore to post-punk to that more grungey and shoegaze vibe.
Our first frontman, Andreas Christodoulidis, treats the crowd to unhinged and frantic vocals. Delivering a vulnerable, raw mix of vocal styles. Their second song, ‘Neighbours’, was a standout for me. Frantic post-punk verses combined with soft shoegaze choruses give members of the audience a state of unease. I much prefer their songs that lean into post-hardcore rather than post-punk. That’s more personal taste rather than commenting on the ability of the band.
Humour delivers a diverse and, unfortunately, short set. The band gives you a quick throwback to the earlier, more angular aspect of Biffy Clyro. They combine it with those modern post-hardcore and shoegaze aspects, which really resonates with me. I’d like to catch these guys on a more intimate club or academy stage, which I feel like would really let the performance shine.
Photo: Coal Poet Media
English Teacher
Speaking of shining performances, English Teacher are a band that I have not had the pleasure of listening to before. I cannot overstate how impressed I was with each member of this band, even before talking about them as a whole. I tried to count how many times I found myself changing who the standout performers were, but each song, each member impressed me every time I zoned in on them. I think at one point I counted three separate musicians playing the piano part away from what I would call their main instrument.
English Teacher are another genre-fluid band, this time combining neo-classical elements with slow-building chamber pop and math-rock-infused intricacies. An absolute stand-out master class in throwing out traditional guitar music and blending it with whatever they feel like at the time. Their first song, “I am the words biggest paving slab”, has playful, bouncy verses with massive choruses in one beautifully packed sonic treat, and a great introduction to how the group likes to weave genres and sections minute by minute and section by section.
The rhythm section had me transfixed, especially in the song ‘Albatross’, which was a standout for me. Almost feeling like a love letter to early Midwest emo, the song takes us on a musical journey, with the latter half of the song giving ample room for pure instrumental bliss. The drum and bass part from this song, accompanied by the hypnotic repeating guitar lines, made me feel like I was watching a purely instrumental band trying to get the absolutely most out of their instruments to portray imagery set up from the first half of the song, which was much calmer and more tranquil. Which, to me, along with the very short lyrical section at the start, invokes the beauty and freedom in realising your self of worthlessness and importance in the world around you.
If you’re into the more post-punk side, songs like R&B will give that fix you need. With the angry and angsty vocal delivery from frontwoman Lily Fontaine, you’d think this was a different band from the music you heard 20 minutes earlier. And it works. It works so well. I will absolutely be trying to find a way to watch this band again, in any setting and at any point.
Biffy Clyro
I have to start by stating that I am a big fan of Biffy Clyro, so my biases will seep through a lot here.
Much like a lot of musicians in the alternative rock scene, a lot of the music I play is heavily inspired by the band, and it was a treat seeing them for the third time. In the grand timeline of Biffy Clyro, I got into them around the release of ‘Only Revolutions’. Biffy Clyro have released a mouthwatering 10 albums. At Cardiff Castle, they played songs from 9 of those albums, giving fans a rare treat of deep dives and classic hits.
Cardiff Castle has seen its fair share of massive acts, but few bands command those stone walls quite like Biffy Clyro. Walking out to the throat-punching riffs of ‘The Captain’ straight into the math-infused ‘That Golden Rule’ and ‘Who’s Got a Match?’, of which a flamethrower was brandished by Simon for the first half of the song. What makes a modern Biffy set so thrilling? It’s the way they can pull from a massive catalogue of lesser-known gems and colossal hits and weave them effortlessly while somehow keeping the set feeling intimate despite being alongside 10,000 people.
Simon paused for a moment to talk about his connections with the city, and briefly mentioned how they played the much-missed Barfly before tearing into ‘Justboy’, giving long-time fans a nod to the old era of Biffy Clyro. But just a few tracks later, you have thousands of people shouting along to ‘Biblical’, and ‘A Little Love’. The trio are masters of the pendulum swing of stripped-back emotion to diving right into massive stadium anthems.
Things got heavy in that classic Biffy fashion in the middle of the set. ‘Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies’ is an absolute monster live, and seeing a crowd of that size trying to clap along to those erratic stabs at the end of the song was a delight. They also played my favourite track, ‘Cop Syrup’, including the entire instrumental section in the middle. The song blew me away live; the way they build the cinematic instrumental section, juxtaposing the beginning and ending, is a real fit for a song slap bang into the middle of their set. Simon Neil once described the song as a statement of artistic freedom, ripping up the rulebook and no longer pandering to expectations, and having that precisely placed into a set with so much variation, whether intentional or not, shows just the path they’re on.
Towards the end of the set, we had every member on stage joining Simon in a beautiful vocal chamber with ‘There’s No Such Man As Crasp’ right into the pure chaos of ‘There’s No Such Thing As a Jaggy Snake’, a quintessential early Biffy Clyro track with wild time signatures and bizarre instrumentation. They balanced the erratic math-rock riffs with the giant anthems ‘Black Chandelier’ and ‘Mountains’ to close out the main set.
For the encore, Simon started ‘Machines’ vulnerable and on his own on a giant stage far from home, which brought goosebumps before the rest of the band joined him for another riff masterpiece, ‘Wolves of Winter’. Closing out with the massive sing-along anthems, ‘Bubbles’ and ‘Many of Horror’ under the dancing lights of the castle.
Bringing a perfect ending to a loud, sweaty, and brilliant night. A masterclass of how to build a setlist, balancing heavy nostalgia with massive stadium hooks from start to finish. If anyone needs a reminder of why Biffy Clyro remain one of the greatest live acts in the world, this performance at Cardiff was all the proof you need.