I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 7, 2026] Biffy Clyro

Four years ago I saw Biffy Clyro at Union Transfer.  They were great.  And I couldn’t get over how back home in Scotland they typically headline festivals of thousands of people.  They recently had a film made about the: Biffy Clyro: Cultural Sons of Scotland in which they played a concert for some 50,000 people.  And yet here they were playing 1,000 person clubs.  But they put on a show as if they were playing for 50,000.  It was awesome.

They had initially announced the tour for December 2025 and there was no Philly date.  But they had visa issues:

“Some [expletive] genius put the wrong start date into our work visa, so when we received our visas in the last couple of days, we realised it doesn’t begin until after our tour is meant to finish,” he said in an Instagram video, adding: “We are so angry about this.”

But their problem is my luck because the newly scheduled dates now included a Philly show.  Whoo hoo!

Last time, they were the trio that they have always been.  But for this tour, bassist James Johnston was seeking treatment for addiction issues and wasn’t able to tour.  In his place was  Naomi Macleod, who has plays bass with Empire State Bastard, Simon Neil’s side project with Dave Lombardo–wish I had gotten to see that!  They also brought out touring guitarist Mike Vennart (who is also in ESB).

As always, the other two guys were shirtless from the get go.  I was in front of singer/guitarist Simon Neil, who puts everything he has into a live show.   His vocal cords must be totally shredded by the end of the night.  Naomi was in  the middle and her bass was excellent.  I couldn’t really see Mike that well, but it was clear when he was adding extra parts to the song (especially when one of them had an acoustic and the other had the electric).

I suspect that when they play big festivals, their stage show is massive–I’ve seen pictures with fire.  But for these shows, it’s simple.  There was a microphone in the back of the stage where Simon (wearing a kilt) sang the first song.  Then he came down and sang from right in front of me, occasionally jumping on the amps and jumping off. It’s also fun to hear him speak in

The band put out a new album, Futique, this year and so naturally they played many songs from it.  But they also mixed up some old songs that  saw last time and some old songs that they didn’t play last time.

One thing that is so much fun about the Biffy fanbase is that they love the band.  There was a guy with his little kid there and both of them were so excited.  And the folks in the front were singing along to everything.  And even if you’re not much of a singalonger (I want to hear the band, not me), Biffy songs practically insist that you sing along.  Between the soaring catchy choruses and the wordless singalong parts, it’s impossible not to participate.  I mean the hey hey hey of Tiny Indoor Fireworks is irresistible and jeez, the chorus of Mountains demands everyone to sing along, even of you’ve only heard  the song once.

I didn’t know the new album all that well–I had listened a few times–so I was much more familiar with the older songs.  Having said that, the new stuff was great too.  I probably know their previous two albums best, and I know that bands tend to ignore the album that the toured previously.  So there was only one song from The Myth of Happy Endings (the awesome Hunger in Your Haunt).  And two from A Celebration of Endings.  I loved that they played two songs from their 2007 album Puzzle (nothing earlier than that though).

With only one song from Ellipses, that meant that the rest of the show came from Opposites (two of which weren’t played last time and the iconic Black Chandelier) and Only Revolutions (5 songs, including the bulk of the encore).

I love how many of the songs have stops and starts–a little prog rock in their heavy anthems.  And the band is tight as anything.  It was also cool when, during Hunger, Naomi went up to that middle elevated spot to play the rumbling bass while the lights flashed out the complex start stop of the guitars and drums.

Last time, Simon Neil played a solo acoustic version of Machines in the middle of the set.  This time, he saved it for the opening of the encore.  And I think it works better there, because it gets people pumped up for the end of the set.  The end of the set was super fun, with some goofy moments from Simon spread in between some of their catchiest songs like the super fun Bubbles and the set ending Many of Horror which, although a far more mellow song, has a big soaring chorus that the room sang along to.

After the show I went to Jim’s for a cheesesteak and by the time I was done, I think the band was heading out to the van.  I briefly thought about hanging around, but decided I didn’t need to.  It was a really fun show and I was totally satisfied.  I also told my wife that the next time they come to Philly (hopefully in less than four years’ time) she will have to come with me.

£ Futique (2025)
µ The Myth of the Happily Ever After (2021)
€ A Celebration of Endings (2020)
∴ Ellipses (2016)
⊄ Opposites (2013)
© Only Revolutions (2009)
¶ Puzzle (2007)