Biffy Clyro

Edinburgh’s Edge Festival has seen some truly amazing acts take to the stages around the city: The Stranglers, Bluetones, we Were Promised Jetpacks, Calvin Harris, Broken Records and Frightened Rabbit have all wowed their audiences over the past couple of weeks. Tonight however steals all biscuits as Edge Festival present the highlight act in The Corn Exchange: ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage, Ayrshire’s rock legends Biffy Clyro.

There is absolutely no doubt that Biffy Clyro are one of Scotland’s biggest bands: the trademark jaunty guitar, those nauseous riffs, manic drums and Simon Neil’s inimitable (although attempted by so many other bands) screaming, accented vocals. Their recent success is one not to be sniffed at, this trio have spent years working towards it. However Biffy Clyro do have their cynical fans, seemingly determined to trample on their show tonight.

The first remark from one doubtful fan is 'I remember when they had to change the guitars on stage themselves’. And now they have roadies to that for them, what a treacherous mark of a band not staying close to their roots! Why should Biffy not have roadies, the big stage, the sold out show, the band have released 4 tremendous albums, and are set to do the same with a 5th.

Another pretentious shout and our irritating punter announces that the band will not play any older material. Wrong again sir, tonight Biffy Clyro thrust into the crowd, performed proudly and enthusiastically as if they were written yesterday, 'Justboy’, '57’ and 'Glitter and Trauma’. EELS frontman Mark Oliver Everett once said that if you found change dull and didn’t enjoy new material, 'then you sir are boring, not me’. The new and unreleased songs played this evening show Biffy Clyro in a new, refreshing light: quite frankly if you’d rather hear old songs performed again and again, you should have stayed at home crying, cuddling your 'Blackened Sky’ CD.

'If the crowd are singing along, it’s clearly a song from Puzzle’ – that’s because it’s a phenomenal album, annoying man! Puzzle granted the band their biggest success, with inspirational tracks 'Who’s Got a Match’, Saturday Superhouse’ and 'Folding Stars’. These tracks were seemingly written to be played live, combining Biffy’s signature musical brilliance with a mass popularity amongst the fans. Of course the majority of the Corn Exchnage show is dedicated to Puzzle, it’s a 49 minutes and 46 seconds reflection of Biffy Clyro at their best.

Tonight in Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange, 3 gorgeously topless men took to the stage to throw off all stigmas from their ostentatious critics. Biffy Clyro put two fingers up to all the people who have said they’ve sold out, succumb to the big stages and overly-produced albums, with an intensely fierce rock gig. Biffy Clyro were as fresh tonight as 10 years ago, and will continue to propel themselves up that ladder of legendary musical triumph.