Biffy Clyro | Photo: Nic Howells

Live Review: Biffy Clyro – The Piece Hall, Halifax

It’s been 647 days, or just shy of 2 full years, since Biffy Clyro graced stages as a full band. While frontman Simon Neil has been off shredding stages across the world alongside Biffy touring member and former Oceansize frontman Mike Vennart, and legendary Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo as part of Empire State Bastard, fans have had to patiently wait for more Biff. Despite the time off, that hasn’t stopped the band from winning several awards and announcing some shows (for later in the year) to celebrate their first three albums. So what better way to return than with a small show (relative to Biffy Clyro’s usual outings) nestled into the iconic Piece Hall in Halifax, ahead of a mega headline appearance at Victorious Festival. Bringing along Doom Punk up-and-comers Witch Fever, the show was set to be a belter. Here’s what went down.

As the venue started filling up, Witch Fever’s doomy bassline crept into people’s ears, announcing Amy’s entrance, which was met with a loud cheer. What followed was a brilliant, energetic set that was truly a feast for the ears, seeing the band convincing people (Me) to open up a pit. Excitingly, the band’s set featured three unreleased songs, which I’m sure delighted fans in the crowd. It was overall a great display of their musical prowess. Sadly, the crowd did not quite match the energy that the band gave; their doomy punkiness clashed a bit with the less heavy Biffy Clyro fans. Still, having them as the support act was a solid choice. What they lacked in genre similarity, they made up for lyrically with shared themes of trauma, tradition, and religion.

As the evening started setting in, it was clear that the two-year wait to see Biffy live once again had been building a lot of anticipation. A simple ‘Hello’ from Simon as the band made their way on stage, before launching straight into ‘The Captain’, with the first drum beat perfectly releasing all the built-up energy from the crowd. The movement from the Halifax masses would build as the band went straight into ‘That Golden Rule’.

This was the start of a setlist that was clearly for the fans, hitting all the fan favourites. Built heavily off the backs of ‘Only Revolutions’ and ‘Puzzle’, and only giving a small percentage of time to the band’s newer albums. Unfortunately, there was a noticeable absence of anything from the band’s first three albums, something we would have liked to have seen to give us a taste of the band’s upcoming ‘Celebration of Beginnings’ mini tour later in the year.

While the show wasn’t flawless, with a few broken strings, and even a funny moment where James got a bit too excited while jumping onto the drum riser, missing and crashing into Ben’s drum kit during ‘Mountains’, the band didn’t let that faze them, laughing it all off and managing to complete songs where stuff didn’t go perfectly. This was a true showing of the trio’s skill-manship that they’ve honed across their twenty-year career.

Halifax was treated to a truly special show that’ll go down as one of the best in Biffy’s career. You’d have been hard-pressed to find anyone within the Piece Hall who didn’t leave with a grin from ear to ear. Their live shows have been missed, and this event was a great way to kick-start them off once again.