Biffy Clyro, Pulled Apart By Horses and Manchester Orchestra - Glasgow - 3rd Nov 09

Pulled Apart by Fucking Horses - what bands should be like. When I heard the initial announcement that Future of the Left were to support Biffy Clyro on their current tour, I was more than pleased. When PABH replaced them, it was probably the only band that I’d have been happy with taking up the mantle.

There’s something intimidating about Biffy Clyro, especially when they’re in their home turf at the world-renowned Barrowlands Ballroom in the east of Glasgow, which they’ve been selling out since the ‘Vertigo of Bliss’ days, and on the second night in a row, no less.. The infamous cult following that have propelled the band to their current dizzying fame; defying all predictions by the likes of the NME add even more weight to what has become a musical monolith.

I must confess to being exactly one of those fans - complete with the ‘b’ logo tattooed on my back aged 15. The number of gigs and places I’ve been to see this band is huge, and the friends made along the way are just as important. Biffy refused to just play by the rules, and managed to strike the balance of staying just distant enough from fans to be revered, but close enough to be everyone’s favourite secret. Playing venues no other band would ever even touch, and doing things that bands just didn’t do, they’ve forged their own genre spawning a myriad of copycats in recent years.

..and that’s part of the problem. With the glut of people jumping on the rise to fame, along with the more anthemic tunes like ‘Mountains’ and ‘Captain’, the band seem to have lost a bit of what made them unique. This isn’t any bawwing by a disgruntled fanboy, as that time has come and gone back when ‘Infinity Land’ became the Indie-favourite, but more a learned observation. It’d be unfair to expect a band to not change over time, and sometimes you just need to accept that the music they make no longer connects with where you’re at. There’s less art or obscurity these days, and more mainstream-alternative in the air.

Regardless, tonight we had about an hour and forty five minutes worth of tracks from the band’s five album career - noticeably lighter from the earlier three. Simon came out part-way through the gig to an acoustic version of ‘Machines’ - a song I’ve never really liked, but which actually turned out to send a shiver down even my cold, cynical spine. Tracks from the soon-to-be-released ‘Only Revolutions’ seemed to be received well by the crowd; singing along to every word of ‘The Captain’ and ‘That Golden Rule’ - the latter sounding far better live sans violins.

The latest album which is due out this month has literally just been leaked onto the interwebs as I’ve been typing this. It’s there for those who know where to find such things - it makes you wonder if labels factor in leaks into their schedule, given that they seem more and more inevitable.

Aside from the down-to-earth Horses from Leeds, the main support was the Georgian-state ‘Manchester Orchestra’, who had some long songs. That’s usually a bad thing, but with the mix of hard-rocking and tender vocals, not so in this case.

As first support, PABH did a valiant job. Their thrashy, messy live show was a welcome part of the night. Guitarist James telling me afterwards of his plans to include a clause in any new record deals to have his kneecaps replaced with titanium ones at a cost of £500k, given that his are ‘the knees of a prostitute’. That may well have something to do with dropping on them from a standing position on stage at every opportunity. My only fear for this lot from Leeds is that they had fall foul of the ‘Biffy Curse’ - which has seen a growing number of bands who’ve taken on the tour support role disbanding not too much further down the line in their career… Crackout, yourcodenameis:milo, McLusky, Cooper Temple Clause, thisGIRL… to name but a few.

Throwing themselves down across the stage-barrier, and writhing around whilst cranking out the likes of ‘I Punched a Lion in the Throat’, the band have got an energy about them that’s impossible to ignore; being extremely friendly and down-to-earth doesn’t hurt either. If it had been a choice between a headline PABH gig and Biffy at the Barras, I’d probably have opted for the former.