A few nights ago, I went to see the excellent Biffy Clyro play live. Here’s what happened.
First, support band were the very poor Span. Sounding very much like a poor man’s Danko Jones they failed to impress from the outset. This was further compounded by the lead singers ill-advised and badly put speech about George Bush and the war. Unfortunately for him, he was playing in front of a largely pro-war crowd.
Next support band was the amazing JetPlane Landing, Whom I’ve seen before. They were, as usual, excellent; mixing new songs and old comfortably. From their 8 or so song set 4 new songs were played: the name of the first wasn’t mentioned (I think it was “Effect A Change”), “Strength Of Our Convictions”, “Conventional Thought” (the best of the bunch) and “The Violence”. How many bands are confident enough in their new material to devote half of a half-hour set to it? Importantly, though, it worked.
After what seemed like a moment of absolute genius, they left the stage and made way for Biffy themselves. I was surprised by just how good they were (to be honest, it was JetPlane Landing as support that convinced me to get a ticket). They rocked. But, at the end of the last song of the main set, Simon, lead singer, decided to jump off the amp stack; he landed badly and had to be carried off stage, and no encore. Turns out his leg is broken.
All in all a good night. I bought another copy of “Zero For Conduct” by JetPlane Landing, this time on vinyl and, with the exception of Span, enjoyed the whole thing.