Biffy Clyro3Arena, Dublin★★★★☆
Biffy Clyro have been one of the best live bands going for a long time so the fans arrive at the 3Arena with high expectations. Few leave disappointed.
The crowd are well primed by punk support from American hard-core group The Armed and English duo Soft Play, the latter of whom brought in plenty fans of their own. Drummer Isaac Holman pre-empts any questions about his own kit by leading the crowd from the middle of the pit in a chant of “f**k the hi-hat”. The pair changed their name from Slaves in 2022 as it “doesn’t represent what our music stands for”. The visceral Punk’s Dead skewers critics of the change. They finish their set with “a 15-second song called Girl Fight, about girls having a fight” and an all-girl mosh pit. They also issue a warning not to “step on the white kabuki or Simon will have your guts for garters”.
Thankfully the curtain survives and frontman Simon Neil opens Biffy Clyro’s set from behind ghostly white sheets, the like of which have produced many a horror. However, he reassures us that “with a little love, we can defeat them all”.
The curtain rises to reveal the rest of the band on a three-tier stage as they launch into the bristling Hunting Season, also off the Kilmarnock trio’s new album, Futique.
Over their three decades together, the trio of Neil, and twins Ben and James Johnston, have progressed from small gigs in Scotland to playing Glastonbury and Wembley Stadium and picked up some touring musicians along the way. However, this show, at a less than sold-out 3Arena, still feels intimate.
The Scottish rockers began this tour in Belfast on Friday night without bassist James. In December, he said he would not join the band this time because of mental health and addiction issues. He said he had recently started to receive professional help and assured fans “there is light at the end of the tunnel”.
Biffy Clyro, Scottish rock band, at the 3Arena in Dublin. Photograph Nick Bradshaw
Naomi MacLeod, formerly of Dublin band Bitch Falcon, doesn’t miss a beat after stepping in at short notice but the band’s dynamic feels a little different, with the focus on Neil even more than usual. The band dedicate Friendshipping off the new album to Johnston midway through the gig.
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Futique features heavily in the set list so it’s just as well the long-term Biffy loyalists know the September release well. However, it’s the anthems from deeper in the catalogue that bring the place alive and That Golden Rule and Who’s Got a Match? light the touch paper on the evening.
After the uplifting Biblical, Neil says it’s good to be back in Dublin, “we’ve missed you guys so f***ing much”. A few years ago, it didn’t seem certain they would be back. Neil told the Independent recently they considered breaking up in the wake of the pandemic and the “f***ing nightmare” that was the “Myth of the Happily Ever After” tour in the midst of that. Instead, they took a two-year hiatus. Perhaps it’s telling that only one song for that album features Saturday night.
There’s the staccato power of Living is a Problem, classic crowd-pleasing sing-a-longs to Black Chandelier, Mountains and acoustic emotional favourite Machines, but much of the crowd are waiting to hear just one word: Bubbles. It arrives in the encore and brings even the old guard in the seated section to their feet.
‘Frontman Simon Neil opens Biffy Clyro’s set from behind ghostly white sheets’. Photograph Nick Bradshaw
There’ll always be a space in Dublin’s heart for Biffy.
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