Biffy Clyro: Finsbury Park Takeover

My second time seeing Biffy Clyro this year was a stark contrast to when I saw them back in January for their ‘Futique’ tour. The British summer was in full swing with temperatures hitting 27 degrees as I walked into Finsbury Park for an exciting evening ahead. The energy was bright, bubbly and electric, much lighter than travelling to London to catch them earlier in the winter.

This gig was a huge career milestone for the band. With 45,000 people in attendance it marked their biggest headline show to date, a truly monumental feat. They were the first band to headline the park over the weekend only to be followed by Kasabian playing on the Saturday followed by Wolf Alice closing on the Sunday. This certainly added a level of pressure, but they certainly dominated and their performance was unmatched.

Marmozets took the stage as I made my way into the park, coincidentally another band I had missed at Download festival. This was an amazing opportunity for me to finally catch them and I was right on the front row. They did an amazing job at warming up the audience early on in the day; with only a 30 minute slot, they had so little time to deliver a striking performance. Unfortunately their set did begin with a shaky start due to technical errors, but through sheer resilience the band pulled through and delivered. These errors would cause anyone to shake, but once settled they carried on, playing a fantastic set featuring iconic songs such as ‘Captivate You’ and ‘Major System Error’. This was only the beginning of a fantastic night ahead.

Once again Don Broco blew my socks off. I may have some bias here because they have become one of my favourite bands over the course of the year and this was my second time seeing them within the span of a few months. I was very much enamoured with this set and I was belting along to every song on the setlist. From opening with ‘Cellophane’ they dominated and turned the park into a dancefloor, providing such an infectious energy that carried through the area surrounding me.

Rob Damiani is one of those frontmen who knows how to woo an audience and he was successful in doing it once again on a crowd of this scale. He effortlessly commanded the stage with his ‘Rob stomping’ and clean, powerful vocals. It was fantastic seeing the band on this scale after having seen them in a small, sweaty club venue only a few months prior. I also cannot forget to mention Matt Donelly, vocals compliment wonderfully with light harmonies working in tandem with Rob’s grit. Simon and Tom also did an amazing job on guitar and bass, with unforgettable riffs and cutting basslines.

I only have two qualms with this set. In my opinion they deserved a longer set, 45 minutes is not long enough to gauge the full Broco experience in my opinion, they have such a vast discography and they barely touched the edges with this performance. The second one is much more personal, they did not play ‘T-Shirt Song’ which is a setlist staple and really does prepare the crowd for the set to end.

Despite these strong feelings on my end, I am very happy with the set they played and their setlist was very strong overall. It mainly featured songs from their latest album ‘Nightmare Tripping’ alongside other tracks from ‘Technology’ and ‘Amazing Things’. With such a small amount of time on their hands, I can imagine it was tough making calls when deciding which songs to play. Even with a lack of t-shirts swinging, they won the crowd over and got everyone primed for the next band on the lineup.

Nothing But Thieves were next to play and the crowd went wild. The park was much more packed at this point as more people had got themselves settled over the course of the afternoon, I was pressed right up against the barrier- not quite fighting for my life though somehow. With the temperature cooling down, the heat was only starting to build up from here. The sun was still casting its afternoon light which added a layer of beauty to the stage in front.

These guys were a crowd favourite, they got everyone jumping around and singing. Their set kicked off with their song ‘Amsterdam’ which was the only song of theirs I knew, it was quite surprising that they would start the set with that one because their more known songs are usually reserved for the end. They did play an array of songs from their discography such as ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?’, ‘Welcome to the DCC’ and ‘Impossible’. They also used this set to tease their album ‘Stray Dogs’ by playing the title track which was unreleased at the time as well. Excitement was very much ramped up to the max for this which definitely pushed the energy up for the rest of the evening close to its limits.

Biffy Clyro made an incredible entrance as usual, opening their set with ‘The Captain’, the opening notes truly do stun a crowd and pull the focus into what’s happening on the stage. Simon Neil walked onto that stage with a dominating presence wearing a custom denim kilt which was crafted using vintage Levi’s. With his tattoos dancing in the evening sun, the set truly kicked off. We had the grit of ‘That Golden Rule’ followed by ‘Who’s Got a Match?’ which featured an actual flame thrower. I did expect some insane pyrotechnics for this song, but this definitely had a shock factor to it. It was truly a sight to behold.

Following this showcase, they went back in time and played ‘Justboy’. Lots of people had been wanting to hear the band’s older material and of course they delivered. The performance continued with some setlist staples and they did not disappoint. I would say we did get lucky with the diversity of songs though, ‘Booooom, Blast & Ruin’ was played for the first time in the UK since 2015 which was very fitting considering that this was such a monumental performance.

‘Space’ was emotional as usual with many tears shed. The crying didn’t last long though with the heavy atmosphere of this song was quickly sliced through by ‘Cop Syrup’, heavy, aggressive and incredibly punchy in all the best ways. This was also a song that I have been eager to see live, it wasn’t played in January so getting the chance to finally see it live was incredibly special as it was one of the songs that gave me the bug for Biffy Clyro to begin with.

The set continued as the sun began to set featuring many beautiful songs which fit beautifully with the atmosphere before the band decided to throw it back with ‘There’s No Such Man As Crasp ‘ followed by ‘There’s No Such Thing As a Jaggy Snake’ from the album ‘Infinity Land’. The crowd was certainly shocked and very happy with getting more older material. This was the tour debut of both songs before following up with fan favourites of ‘Black Chandelier’ and ‘Mountains’.

The encore was composed of a beautiful array of songs. We had a surprise appearance of musician and actor Jamie Campell Bower during ‘Machines’- a gut wrenching yet beautiful song itself. The voice of him accompanied by Simon Neil was just breathtaking and felt shockingly intimate, coupling that with the orchestral arrangements, it truly took my breath away.

Similar to the themes of ‘Space’ and ‘Cop Syrup’, we had ‘Machines’ followed by ‘Wolves of Winter’. This song is definitely a crowd anthem that gets everyone united. The confetti popped early into the song, showering us all at the front as we prepared for the night to close. I will also note that singing along becomes a lot harder when you have paper in your mouth too.