Biffy Clyro – Revolutions // At Wembley (08/08/2011)
The first official live album from Biffy Clyro, recently voted ‘the UK’s best live act’ delivers everything fans of the Scottish trio have come to know and love in what is one of their finest achievements to date.
With five studio albums to their name, demand for a live album from Biffy Clyro has been in talks for a long time. When the time was right, Biffy Clyro along with touring member Mike Vennart (former vocalist of Oceansize) played to a sold out Wembley arena, the biggest show in their long career.
In an age where most bands now rely on intricate light shows and lazy guitar work saturated in effects, the core of Biffy Clyro’s performance lies in the sheer energy that each member puts into every song. From the opening track The Captain to the brilliant Bubbles (a song Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme originally contributed to) the early stages of Revolutions prove a treat. The always faultless drumming of Ben Johnston is wonderful in All The Way Down; Prologue / Chapter 1 which leads into That Golden Rule, a song that loses none of it’s raw and ragged edge. With bassist James Johnston providing it’s signature style and vocalist Simon Neil singing to his limit, you find yourself wondering if he’ll push himself over the edge at moments within the song, but with style he never once falters.
Having seen Biffy Clyro perform live on multiple occasions in small venues, the vigor from this live recording stirs up memories of those past performances. Dirty, grungy and everything great rock should be, the Wembley performance provides virtuoso moments, from the varied Drop-C structure of Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies to stunning moments of acoustic beauty in Folding Stars and Machines, it’s simply thrilling to listen to over and over again.
One of their best live tracks, Whose Got A Match? provides a brilliant sing-along, the crowd providing much of the chorus on the recording. One of their more commercial tracks Many of Horror (better known as When We Collide to fans of the X-Factor’s Matt Cardle, who many falsely believe wrote the song) is a beautiful closing moment of the album. Glitter and Trauma is a nostalgic reminder of how far the band have come before the pure epic that is Mountains closes one of the historical moments of Biffy Clyro’s career.
The first live release from Biffy Clyro never fails to disappoint. It’s a great reflection of their live show (which I urge everybody to see at least once) and a true testament to a band who well and truly give there all into each performance. You can’t ask for much more than that.
Mon the Biff!
Luke Sutton
With five studio albums to their name, demand for a live album from Biffy Clyro has been in talks for a long time. When the time was right, Biffy Clyro along with touring member Mike Vennart (former vocalist of Oceansize) played to a sold out Wembley arena, the biggest show in their long career.
In an age where most bands now rely on intricate light shows and lazy guitar work saturated in effects, the core of Biffy Clyro’s performance lies in the sheer energy that each member puts into every song. From the opening track The Captain to the brilliant Bubbles (a song Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme originally contributed to) the early stages of Revolutions prove a treat. The always faultless drumming of Ben Johnston is wonderful in All The Way Down; Prologue / Chapter 1 which leads into That Golden Rule, a song that loses none of it’s raw and ragged edge. With bassist James Johnston providing it’s signature style and vocalist Simon Neil singing to his limit, you find yourself wondering if he’ll push himself over the edge at moments within the song, but with style he never once falters.
Having seen Biffy Clyro perform live on multiple occasions in small venues, the vigor from this live recording stirs up memories of those past performances. Dirty, grungy and everything great rock should be, the Wembley performance provides virtuoso moments, from the varied Drop-C structure of Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies to stunning moments of acoustic beauty in Folding Stars and Machines, it’s simply thrilling to listen to over and over again.
One of their best live tracks, Whose Got A Match? provides a brilliant sing-along, the crowd providing much of the chorus on the recording. One of their more commercial tracks Many of Horror (better known as When We Collide to fans of the X-Factor’s Matt Cardle, who many falsely believe wrote the song) is a beautiful closing moment of the album. Glitter and Trauma is a nostalgic reminder of how far the band have come before the pure epic that is Mountains closes one of the historical moments of Biffy Clyro’s career.
The first live release from Biffy Clyro never fails to disappoint. It’s a great reflection of their live show (which I urge everybody to see at least once) and a true testament to a band who well and truly give there all into each performance. You can’t ask for much more than that.
Mon the Biff!
Luke Sutton