It is always a treat when a band that can easily pack out stadiums and has headlined festivals of epic proportions comes to your town and plays a 300-capacity venue. It’s even more awesome when the show isn’t some sort of acoustic performance, but is packed with the same energy and intensity that the group employs when they are playing to a crowd of 20,000 people. This happened at Portland’s famous and intimate Doug Fir Lounge on Monday, February 10th, when Scotland’s Biffy Clyro stormed through the snow-ridden Rose City with the charm and intensity for which they are so well known.
The guys were just as shirtless and sweaty as anyone who has seen them play before might recall, but besides things like that, you absolutely must catch these guys if they ever come through your town. Even if you aren’t really a fan of hard rock, it’s something to behold when you see a band that is so passionate about what they do.
Their set was heavily packed with songs like show-opener “Different People” as well as “Sounds Like Balloons”, “Black Chandelier”, and “Biblical”, all of which hail from their most recent double album, 2013’s Opposites (QRO review). Another treat of note was that the Portland crowd beheld the first ever live performance of the Opposites song “Trumpet or Tap”. Attendees even got to hear the performance of a b-side in a solo acoustic performance by lead singer Simon Neil of the song “The Rain”, which comes from the Black Chandelier EP.
The rest of the evening’s festivities were comprised of a gamut of tracks from all of Biffy’s other albums such as “The Golden Rule” and set closer “The Captain”, both of which come from their superb 2009 album Only Revolutions, “Who’s Got a Match” and “Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies” from 2007’s Puzzle, and there were even a couple of pieces from their first two records – “57” from 2002’s Blackened Sky and “There’s No Such Thing as a Jaggy Snake” off of 2004’s Infinity Land.
But he truly amazing part of the night was the encore. It was a mere three songs, but just when the crowd thought they couldn’t handle any more but desperately wanted some, the night ended with “Opposite” and “Stingin’ Belle” from Opposites and the amazingly-cool song “Mountains” from Only Revolutions. That was the most fitting song with which to end the epic set and the whole thing left this attendee’s ears ringing the rest of the night.
Again, see this band if you ever have the chance.
