The Verse’s Lou Clement continues her review of Download Festival, telling us what she thought of headliners Biffy Clyro on 10th June 2017.
Biffy Clyro were the headline act on Saturday night. The stadium rockers sell-out tours across the world – I first saw them over fifteen years ago in the dingy Camden Underworld, where a band of devoted fans sang every word and moshed to their mix of heavy, punk-influenced indie hits. Since then, the band have grown musically, now occupying the quintessential role of rock balladeers. No shame in that, but sometimes metal and heavy music fans are known for their disdain that doesn’t hit the genre ‘notes’. By this, I mean there was a feeling of wonder at what Biffy were doing headlining at a heavy music festival…I imagine Biffy saw it as an opportunity to play for fans that they have amasssed over the three decades that they have been playing as Biffy.
So what was the performance like?
Biffy didn’t shy away from the quiet build of songs like Mountains and, as well as adding a heavy sound through the guitars, the song erupted across the night sky. The fireworks helped too.
The evening was just about dry and we felt lucky that we had fair weather. After a day of listening to Pierce The Veil and AFI, what else did the headline band have to offer? The effortlessly catchy Black Chandelier was delivered with vim and blasted across the excited crowd. At about half way through the set, I realised that this is why the stadium environment works well for the band since they are great performers.
They also took time to tip their cap (more than once) to the upcoming Sunday night headliners Aerosmith (review here) and the audience shared their enthusiasm by getting carried away – the stage fields became one big singalong for Walk This Way and I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing. Maybe this was a clever play on Biffy’s part, since Aerosmith have a expansive and varied back-catalogue. When you devote your life to music, your genre may shift and I am onboard with that. Hopefully Biffy will continue to evolve and I for one would love to hear some heavier stuff from them. Epic enthusiasm from the band even as the drizzle settled at the end of day two made it rain worthwhile.
‘Mon the Biff!
