Biffy Clyro – 25 January 2017 (Sant Jordi Club – Barcelona)

Barely two weeks after attending to Izal concert, we returned to the Sant Jordi Club with a very different outside situation from the one we that we live through with the Spanish band. The endless queues to enter to the cold local on the mountain of Montjuic had disappeared this time and most of the public that was around were British who were preparing to enjoy one of the best live bands on the current scene, Biffy Clyro, that surprisingly in Spain can't mobilize big quantities of fans beyond their presence in festivals..

Photo from Biffy Clyro's gig at Lowlands 2016

Anyone who arrived late would miss the spectacular start of the warm-up band, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes. Frank Carter's band, a former leader of British basics hardcore-punk bands of  the last decade as Gallows or more recently Pure Love, was a cyclone on stage thanks to the charisma of his singer and a few bass lines that warmed the club. Among continuous interactions with the public, singing even two songs in the middle of a mass that held him as an idol, the British proved that their new album Modern Ruin that this week was in the Top-5 in sales in the UK is full of powerful hits such as "Lullaby", "Wild Flowers" or "Vampires", to end later a great concert with the rabid "I Hate You", belonging to their great unknown debut album Blossom.

Photo from Biffy Clyro's gig at Lowlands 2016

With tail wind, the great protagonists of the night jumped punctually to the stage under an incredible game of lights and also with an intro full of classic touches and endless epics, to then start at full speed with the overwhelming "Wolves Of Winter", one of the best tracks from their new album Ellipsis. From here on, and sustained by the support of an extra guitar and a keyboardist who break the usual presence as a trio of the band on stage at the expense of greater sonic richness, the first third of the show demonstrated the strength and power of the Scots, who alternated songs from their last three albums, lending us hits like "Biblical" or "God & Satan".

Photo from Biffy Clyro's gig at Lowlands 2016

After the brilliant "Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies", one of the few references in their setlist to their first post-hardcore records, the concert will decay slightly in rhythm as the Ellipsis songs were playing, proving that the last Lp of Kilmarnock's band is perhaps the weakest of their discography. Inside this sea of doubts highlighted the great "Mountains", one of their great themes with which they used to close shows in previous tours, and "Re-arrange", that with its catchy humming and among the falsettos of Simon Neil served to demonstrate that the Johnston brothers are essential in the vocal part of the band with their characteristic choirs.

Photo from Biffy Clyro's gig at Lowlands 2016

Like if they had a new bullet in the chamber, the Scots returned to dive into their past to rise up the concert again with "Glitter and Trauma" and remove the sleepiness installed in the room to start a wonderful ending that would begin with "Black Chandelier", would return the strength with "That Golden Rule" and later unleashed the madness with their mythical theme "Many of Horrors", chanted in unison by a devoted room. Already in the encores, and as the culmination of an amazing final 45 minutes, Simon Neil picked up the acoustic guitar to play the most emotional song from their latest album, "Machines", and then close the concert with their rocker side in the animated "Animal Style" and "Stingin' Belle", a song that incomprehensibly has been gaining weight little by little in their discography instead of hits like "The Captain" or "Folding Stars".
Thus, a good concert generally speaking of the British, who still have one of the best international live and whose sound reaches a new level with the presence of two extra members as a band, but that had too many ups and downs due to the excessive presence of songs from their last album. Before such a broad setlist, which is not limited by the time or by the heterogeneous crowd of a festival, we missed a small tour to their first three albums, as well as more themes of the magnificent Puzzle, which is reduced to mere microwave today..