Biffy Clyro at Irving Plaza

Biffy Clyro is committed to entertaining its audience with showmanship while also playing solid rock music. Irving Plaza is a modest-sized club, and Biffy Clyro played it like it was an arena or festival stage.

Formed in 1995 in Kilmarnock, Scotland, Biffy Clyro (vocalist/guitarist Simon Neil, bassist James Johnston and drummer Ben Johnston) has released nine studio albums. Back home, Biffy Clyro repeatedly has topped the sales charts, sold more than a million albums, and headlined the main stage at major music festivals. In the United States, however, the band is barely known, headlining much smaller venues including the 1,200-capacity Irving Plaza.

Visiting the United States for the first time in five years, the three core members of Biffy Clyro returned to the Irving Plaza stage shirtless, revealing dozens of tattoos. Supplementary musicians Mike Vennart (guitar, backing vocals) and Richard "Gambler" Ingram (guitar, piano) kept their shirts on and remained out of the spotlight and  largely invisible along the back wall for most of the show. Biffy Clyro was set to introduce live renditions of 10 songs from two pandemic-era albums, 2020's A Celebration of Endings and 2021's The Myth of the Happily Ever After, plus revisit nine older songs.

Too many musicians today have minimal stage presence and rely on the light and sound technicians to make their concerts come alive. Biffy Clyro's presentation was radically upgraded from the dimly-lit ripped t-shirt and hair-in-the-face presentation more common at concerts these days. Front person Neil and the Johnston twins rhythm section all were highly animated, continuously energizing the audience. For most of the show, white spotlights kept the three musicians very visible, allowing the audience to enjoy the musicians' rock star posturing and activity. Rather than staring down at their musical gear, the musicians remained very present to the attentive audience. Biffy Clyro used bright lights, open eyes, chats with audience members from the stage, and a lively. energetic performance to enhance the concert experience for the fans. This tour was crafted to be a very human experience, with no video projections, stage sets, balloons or confetti canons needed.

Beyond the staging, Biffy Clyro's music offered many carefully-curated dynamics as well, from sensitive ballads to raucous loud-soft-loud rallies. Building melodies often escalated to crescendos with gang vocals. Brief brushes with grungy hard rock and complex prog-rock made the band sound edgy, offsetting the recurring pop punk melodies. Every movement of every song structure was crystal clear, with no instrumental clutter or muddy solos. Neil's vocals were lucid and intelligible, leading listeners to tenderness as well as fist pumping.

Biffy Clyro's uphill road to success may be a greater challenge in the United States, where genres are more precisely defined, compartmentalized and isolated than in the United Kingdom. How will Americans be exposed to a band that bridges pop, grunge, experimental and prog-rock? On these shores, Biffy Clyro will be discovered and adored by the more adventurous rock fans.

Setlist

1. DumDum
2. A Hunger in Your Haunt
3. Tiny Indoor Fireworks
4. Black Chandelier
5. North of No South
6. That Golden Rule
7. Instant History
8. Mountains
9. Machines (Simon Neil solo acoustic)
10. Unknown Male 01
11. End Of
12. Wolves of Winter
13. Space
14. Slurpy Slurpy Sleep Sleep
15. Re-Arrange
16. Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies
17. Bubbles

Encore

1. Cop Syrup
2. Many of Horror

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The Manhattan Beat covers New York City's live music developments as they happen. All articles are written by Everynight Charley Crespo. All photographs are taken by Everynight Charley Crespo, except when noted otherwise. For a list of Manhattan venues that are presenting live music regularly, swing the desktop cursor to the right of the home page and click on the pop-up tab "Where to Find Live Music." For a listing of upcoming concerts for live audiences, visit The Manhattan Beat's April and May calendars.