Photo: Justin Edwards

The hard-drinkin’, hard-fightin’ Scottish rock crowd I’d expected are mild-mannered, if lukewarm in their appreciation of Yves Klein Blue, who have markedly improved since I last saw them supporting You Am I in November. It still irks me that singer Michael Tomlinson introduces every guitar solo with - literally - “guitar solo!”, though Charles Sale’s bluesy lead break in Polka is rather delicious. Bizarrely, drummer Chris Banham is forced front-of-stage, between his bandmates, while the headliner’s shiny kit sits behind him in the shadows.

A singular clean guitar phrase, then the three-man powerhouse that is Biffy Clyro tear into their taut and – dare I say it – anthemic single Saturday Superhouse from 2007’s Puzzle record. Several hundred of us gather tonight to witness the trio’s first journey to Australia since their inception. Guitarist Simon Neil is shirtless and visibly agitated from the set’s outset; he blindly alternates between microphones that face the crowd and his twin-brother bandmates, James and Ben Johnston. Mid-set Puzzle opener Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies is one of the most impressive individual performances I’ve witnessed thus far this year: Neil’s palm-muted notes between the staccato blasts of sound in the introduction provoke the first cries of “Mon the Biffy!” from the crowd, before the proverbial floodgates open and we’re joyously swept up by the soaring chorus. Neil’s playing is enthralling in its own right; his mastery of utilising the contrast between softly plucked notes and jarring, dissonant chords is no more evident than in 9/15ths. The customary and deserved encore begins with Neil’s touching solo performance of Machines, wherein the crowd almost overpowers his voice. That’s right touching – he’d ‘dig a thousand holes to lay next to you’! That’s a lot of holes, if he wants to lay next to us all. A blistering reading of Glitter And Trauma from 2004’s Infinity Land primes the sated audience to confront the cold reality of the outside autumn air.

ANDREW MCMILLEN

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