What makes Biffy Clyro great is increasingly difficult to answer because there’s so much to love. The Kilmarnock titans now have nine studio albums to their name, all dense with ambitious, beautiful music – some of which leans into the mainstream, while much flails wildly away from it. Perfecting a live show that wrangles those many concerns, then, has become an ever more ambitious enterprise for Simon Neil, James and his brother Ben. They’re evidently equal to the task, though, as this latest iteration of their live show is the most extraordinary yet.
Opening track DumDum finds Biffy, including touring guitarist Mike Vennart and keyboardist Richard ‘Gambler’ Ingram, scattered across different levels of the vast stage, bathed in a red light that blends them with the incessant visuals, painted into their own canvas, indistinguishable from their art. Perhaps it’s a statement; maybe it’s not. Whatever the thinking, it’s an expert pairing of sound and vision that continues throughout.