Scottish accents were abundant Saturday night at the Crocodile when a truly dedicated fanbase met U.K. sensations Biffy Clyro.
Although the band is accustomed to playing sellout arena shows across Europe, the first leg of their American tour has been met by significantly smaller audiences. But what the fans lacked in numbers was made up for in sheer enthusiasm, as hearty cheers, fist pumps and chants of “Mon the Biff!” punctuated the performance from start to finish. It was nice to be in such an animated crowd for a change. Especially warming my heart was an Englishman who timed his holiday from Denmark to Seattle to coincide with this show. I’ve done shit like that. Bless him.
A total of 13 guitars were racked onstage prior to the show, and I believe every single one was used during the band’s high-energy set. The show was mostly based around the band’s new album, Only Revolutions and its previous chart triumph, Puzzle. Boy howdy, the show really did have something for everyone. Biffy focused most of the set on their characteristic heavy electric rock anthems (“Shock Shock”) and there was a short acoustic respite about halfway through.
While some songs seem generic to the human condition, others speak in painful, personal narrative (“Know Your Quarry”). Some Glastonbury-infused English folk tones (“Bubbles”, “God & Satan”) rounded out the series. The band does lean heavily on its influences though, and I can’t say I understand all the hysteria. They’re talented as hell and a lot of fun to both watch and listen to, but I couldn’t help thinking “This beat Arcade Fire for best live show at the NMEs?”
Sure, the boys onstage are all shirtless and sweaty, with frontman Simon Neil having that ropy musculature that only comes from burning up the stage night after night, but I wouldn’t say I saw anything exceptional by way of performance. I did think there was a lot of layered complexity in their composition and the drums were really quite heart-stopping at times. Still, the devoted crowd ate up every second of it, down to the show’s final song with was a group singalong to the heart-filling final anthem “Mountains.”
PARTIAL SETLIST
1) The Captain
2) Booom Blast & Ruin
3) 57 (?)
4) Bubbles
5) Born on a Horse
6) God & Satan
7) Whorses
8) Joy. Discovery. Invention
9) Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand cover)
10) xxx
11) xxx
12) Shock Shock
13) 9/15ths
14) Folding Stars (Accoustic)
15) Machines (Accoustic)
16) Who’s Got a Match?
17) Saturday Superhouse
18) Know Your Quarry
19) xxx
20) Many of Horror (When We Collide)
E1) xxx
E2) Justboy
E3) Mountains
Long time biffy fan from Ayrshire Scotland checking in.
I was there on Saturday night and loved every second of it. I’ve seen them play a number of times dating way back to 2001 and I found it amazing to see them live again in such a small venue and also in a different country! Biffy are getting pretty huge in the UK so everyone that was there should feel pretty special to see them at The Crocodile.
My favourite song on the night was justboy but all of the songs of revolution sounded amazing too. Hopefully they’ll return to Seattle before not to long.
The missing songs from your setlist are…
10) All the way down
11) That Golden Rule
19) There’s No Such Thing as a Jaggy Snake
P.S. Are you sure that they branched into Franz Ferdinand, I don’t remember that!
First song of the encore was Cloud of Stink. And no, they didn’t play Take Me Out.