Music Critic Cameron Milner reviews Biffy Clyro’s performance at the Resorts World Arena, describing it as a perfectly constructed show from one of the UK’s best bands
Biffy Clyro are a well-oiled machine. Having headlined arenas for over a decade at this point, the Kilmarnock-hailing three piece fit effortlessly into cavernous venues like Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena, with their stadium ready rock anthems seeming purpose built for huge occasions.
In the spirit of the arena setting, support band Architects did an excellent job at energising the crowd, delivering a mix of their most recent two albums that have taken on a decidedly more radio-metal sound than their harder edged pre-2018 material. Whilst older fans may have been disappointed with the setlist, these newer records undeniably caught the attention of the crowd and the band left the stage to chants of ‘Architects’ reverberating around the arena. Drawing an extraordinarily large attendance for a support band, it feels as though Architects will be the headline act the next time they come back around to this venue.
…the band went on to deliver an effortlessly slick set that proved why they are booked time and time again for major headline and festival sets…
However, it was clear who the majority of the crowd were here to see as Biffy took to the stage. After the slow burning ‘DumDum’, Simon and co’s presence was greeted by a huge uproar, and the band went on to deliver an effortlessly slick set that proved why they are booked time and time again for major headline and festival sets across the country. Interestingly, despite the venue size, the theme of their set seemed to focus on stripping back in the best way possible. The production was standard for an arena show and the band wasted little time with crowd interaction or general chit-chat between songs. Instead, Biffy let their songs do the talking.
Storming through a mammoth 24 song set in just under two hours, the band delivered hit after hit in a seamlessly crafted setlist that covered eight of their nine studio albums. Despite the range of sounds across their discography, the band did an impressive job of interweaving old and new songs together on the setlist. Furthermore, when the set lulled with more tender acoustic moments such as the fan favourite ‘Machines’, the band were always carefully not to kill momentum completely and always re-injected energy when needed.
Biffy sounded unbelievably tight throughout the show, and also made their newer material…seem as though it had been part of their set for a number of years.
Highlights included ‘That Golden Rule’ which saw the standing area descend into a sea of writhing bodies whilst violins and thrashing guitars frantically culminated under a dazzling light show. Similarly, ‘Who’s Got a Match?’ and ‘The Captain’ also successfully whipped the crowd up in a frenzy of excitement. Biffy sounded unbelievably tight throughout the show, and also made their newer material such as ‘Unknown Male 01’ seem as though it had been part of their set for a number of years. Undeniably, the biggest audience response came with the final two songs, ‘Bubbles’ and ‘Many of Horror’.
Overall, Biffy constructed an excellent setlist that left very little to be desired. Very much at home in arenas and headline festival slots, there is no question that Biffy Clyro are one of the UK’s very best live acts, and their next tour should not be missed.
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