Biffy Clyro - Paradise Rock Club - Boston, Massachusetts - April 11, 2017

Biffy Clyro – Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA – April 11, 2017

Kilmarnock, Scotland rockers Biffy Clyro have long since established themselves as rock royalty across the pond in the United Kingdom.

The band regularly sells out 20,000 plus seat capacity venues while touring on hit singles and number one records. They’ve also leveled up to the degree where they’re even headlining some of Europe’s most revered music festivals including Reading and Leeds.

Despite their overseas stardom Simon Neil (guitar/lead vocals) and the brothers Johnston, James (bass) and Ben (drums), have been unable to translate that kind of success to the United States market. The strangest part of this anomaly may be there doesn’t seem to be any clear reason why the Biffy Clyro mother ship hasn’t launched in the U.S.

Larger than life-sized sing-alongs, hard charging prog-rock that rattles asses off seats and kinetic live performances are usually easy sells to America’s masses. Lets face it, bands lacking the track record of Biffy Clyro, including the UK’s own Bastille, have executed this same musical game plan to a T.

One positive for the band’s North America fans versus their European counterparts is they’re gifted the unique opportunity to chant “Mon the Bif” inside the hallows of music venues that are typically one-tenth to even one-twentieth the size Biffy normally plays to overseas.

Let me assure you the aforementioned fact should not be taken too lightly. Many Biffy Clyro disciples spanning the globe would likely agree to something as drastic as never reading the final books in Game of Thrones series just for the opportunity to see the band perform in such intimate surroundings.

The fact that fans in the U.S. have the freedom to purchase a face value ticket the day of most Biffy Clyro shows here in the States is probably looked upon as more blasphemy than luck by the band’s most passionate UK supporters.

Okay, winter is coming and several dragons are going to burn some unsuspecting Westoros inhabitants. Tickets to a Biffy Clyro club show held in London or Glasgow could be priceless. A pair of tickets to see the pride of East Ayrshire perform at this type of event could at the very least fetch several thousand pounds.

Biffy Clyro seem entirely unaffected by any white noise or outside forces attempting to influence or past judgement on the band. They also seem more than okay with playing to any size audience, at any time and at any type and size venue. Whether their audiences are comprised of tens of thousands or a mere few hundred the Scottish trio always take pride in delivering the type of red blooded, spirited live performances they’ve been known for since the band’s very inception. Biffy Clyro’s show at the Paradise in Boston last week did absolutely nothing but reinforce those very notions.

Currently touring on their seventh studio effort, 2016’s Ellipsis, Neil and the brothers Johnston held nothing back in Boston. The band effortlessly dropped a twenty-one song, two-hour searing set on the bean town faithful.

The evening’s performance was initially ignited by the boys stoically taking to the confined Paradise Rock Club stage. The band stood in place motionless for a few brief moments before feverishly launching into Ellipsis’ most “Biffy-esque” track, “Wolves of Winter.”

What’s more rock and roll then starting a show with a song inspired by a David Attenborough documentary about a pack of wild territorial beasts?

Ellipsis hasn’t been as well received as the the prog-rock dynamos that were the band’s previous three releases. 2013’s Only Revolutions, 2009’s Opposites and the record that help propel the band to international super stardom, 2007’s Puzzle, were all universally praised.

The new record has been criticized for of all things, being different. Most fans should have seen this change in direction coming at some point in Biffy Clyro’s career. How many times could the band put out records mostly rooted in maniacal time signatures and anthemic choruses?

Should the ultimate output end up being brilliant wouldn’t the band and their fans eventually tire of that same formula? Even at the height of their career Metallica abandoned the speed metal riffs that had elevated them to global metal domination. How’d that decision work out for the San Francisco thrashers?

Give Neil and company credit for at least trying to reach outside their comfort zone this time around. Whether or not you agree with the band’s choices for Ellipsis most should welcome the alternate approach Biffy Clyro took in terms of creating their new album. Why? Because it means the band is actually still trying to both innovate and challenge themselves.

Neil commented in an interview with NME last year on this topic stating, “We’ve always had people who think we’re great and people who think we’re terrible. I want it to be that way. I don’t want us to be a reliable band. No one wants the good old fucking Biffy Clyro. It’s not romantic or mysterious. I want it to be, those fucking nut jobs, what are they doing? Hopefully this album (Ellipsis) will remind people we’re plugged into different mains.”

All that being said, outside of “Wolves of Winter,” the tracks off of Ellipsis the band played in Boston, at times, lacked the intense punch of Biffy Clyro’s typical live material. To be fair, this could easily be attributed to the fact that any band’s shiny new tunes can and often do fall a bit flat compared to established hits.

Unlike the band’s massive stadium tour production their stage accoutrements on this brief tour run have also been bit scaled back. Outside of the venue’s static stage lighting the fireworks on the night came entirely from the band’s fiery performance.

Sometimes not having confetti firing cannons, extensive laser and light shows and other over the top production values can be a blessing as their absence can force bands to rely on making connections with the audience via the level and power of the performance alone.

This is exactly where Biffy Clyro shines more than the many of their contemporaries. One of the primary strengths of the band has always been their raw live performance and the natural symbiotic kinship they’re able to make with the audience at each and every one of their concerts.

Interview: Jake Oni of ONI

Many of Biffy Clyro’s songs are designed for thousands to chant in unison along to. The effect these sing-a-longs can have in venues housing only hundreds at capacity can be unique powerful. The cozy confines of the smaller venues can create an organic force that has the ability to generate more than few emotionally intense experiences.

The band’s performance at the Paradise in Boston didn’t just flash one or two of these compelling moments, the vast majority of the show was anchored by many of them.

Stand outs on the evening, that also included brilliant venue-wide and impromptu sing-a-longs included, “Many of Horror,” “That Golden Rule,” “Black Chandelier,” “Mountains,” and the first song to elicit what would end up being many “Mon the Biff” chants on the night, “Bubbles.”

Ensuring fans exited the venue on a high note Biffy Clyro concluded the night by Neil first taking to the Paradise stage solo to perform an evocative and emotive acoustic “God and Satan.” The full band then returned one last time to unleash a puissant version of regular set closer these days, “Stinging Belle.”

Biffy Clyro probably have earned and deserve the kind of success they’ve achieved in Europe here in America. I’m guessing though that Neil and the Johnstons are happy playing to any size crowd, on any continent, so long as they get to continue to sharing their music with all the citizens of the world.

Towards the end of the evening Neil exclaimed to the audience, “Boston you’ve been fucking awesome tonight.”

I can’t speak for the entirety of the Paradise crowd but I feel fairly confident in saying most, if not all those in attendance, probably left the show in Boston thinking that Biffy Clyro is pretty fucking awesome too.