Biffy Clyro, Edinburgh review: 'rich in emotional textures'
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Even without regular bassist James Johnston, Biffy Clyro feel like a band brimming with vitality, writes David Pollock
Biffy Clyro, Royal Highland Showground, Edinburgh ★★★★
Few bands are more suited to gathering several thousand people together in a Scottish field to sing their music than Ayrshire’s Biffy Clyro, and there are few places more dramatic to do that than Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Showground. As the late summer sun was going down and most of the set was performed in darkness, and the fusillades of fireworks behind the stage were given extra drama by the lights of planes taking off overhead from Edinburgh Airport nearby.
The music was perfectly suited to this natural backdrop, from the swaying anthemics of A Little Love, its spiky chorus set off by loud explosions in the sky, to the measured, gothic Black Chandelier and the perennial Biffy singalong Mountains. A mid-set highlight was Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies, lurching into life with its trademark tense, jagged guitar intro, juddering like the strobe lighting filling the night sky.
That song’s intense suitability for the live stage was a signature moment, while the a cappella campfire huddle around the mic for There’s No Such Man as Crasp was a less-familiar pleasure which feels like it should be included more in live shows. For a band known for being so thoroughly rock, in fact, a Biffy Clyro set is one rich in emotional textures, from the raucous nihilism of Cop Syrup, with its “f*** everybody” coda, to the lovelorn ballad Goodbye, the acoustic, violin-aided anthem Machines and the closing Many of Horror, now long since reclaimed from X-Factor hell.
Nearly a year after the release of their tenth album Futique, singer Simon Neil noted that 2026 has been a great year for the band, although “we miss James so much”; a reference to bassist James Johnston, who’s taken time off for personal reasons. His temporary replacement is Naomi Macleod, and although Johnston’s absence left Neil to stand alone as the only person brave enough to be onstage at the beginning of autumn in bare chest and a kilt, this still felt like a band brimming with vitality.
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