Biffy Clyro: A band worthy of Scotland’s music Hall of Fame
Playing Glasgow without bassist James Johnston for the first time ever, Biffy Clyro put on a robust and resilient show.
Photo: Press
In the strobe-lit haze, a presumably very sweaty banana-costumed man circled an expanding mosh pit as the fizzy riff of Biffy Clyro’s Bubbles bounced around the arena. When the chorus hit, bodies collided, arms flew skyward, and the crowd roared back every word. It was joyous, communal chaos — the kind Biffy Clyro have inspired for decades — and a perfect snapshot of the energy that defined the Scottish band’s return to Glasgow’s OVO Hydro.
The final date on the UK leg of their Futique tour, the night doubled as both a celebration and a quiet act of perseverance, proving the trio are more than worthy of Scotland’s music Hall of Fame. Delivering a robust and resilient show, Biffy’s Glasgow set mirrored their latest album’s central theme of getting through hard times with a lot of love.
Although Futique became the band’s fourth number one album, recent months haven’t been without difficulty. They were forced to postpone their planned US tour following visa issues and founding member and bassist James Johnston announced he was skipping the current tour due to mental health and addiction issues. None of it, however, was going to stop Kilmarnock’s finest from putting on a proper show in front of a sold-out Glaswegian crowd, even if it meant performing in the city without their bassist for the first time.
With Naomi MacLeod as an incredibly solid stand-in, Biffy were primed for something special. Opening with A Little Love, the band were initially hidden behind a curtain-like veil, silhouettes singing in shadow until the fabric lifted at the final chorus to reveal frontman Simon Neil, arm raised. The crowd erupted. It was a simple but effective visual trick that immediately established the night’s theatrical flair, setting the tone for a show that balanced spectacle with genuine feeling.
Throughout the night, nods to Futique — an exploration of ideas, objects and relationships across time — appeared everywhere. The pre-show music swung wildly from classical calm — think Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons — to the pulsing electronic beats of Mark Fell’s Multistability 1-B. Red lighting washed over the stage for tracks like Hunting Season, echoing the album’s colour palette, while projections of Neil’s profile loomed large on screens, lending a sense of intimacy to the arena-scale production.
As always, Biffy leaned hard into their huge rock moments. That Golden Rule arrived in a flash of berserk yellow strobes as the first proper mosh pit cracked open and crowd surfers spilled over the barrier. Wolves of Winter was all white strobes and tangled streamers, the audience singing not just the lyrics but the guitar parts back at the band, with leftover streamers quickly being repurposed as makeshift pom-poms.
Yet it was often the slower, more reflective moments that landed hardest. Space, bolstered by beautiful string arrangements, turned the arena into a sea of swaying bodies, arms aloft in a mass singalong that felt genuinely shared. A Thousand and One offered a tender pause wrapped in warm guitars and a powerful chorus, before Machines proved quietly devastating, its emotional weight carried as much by the crowd as the band themselves.
With such a vast catalogue of hits, there was barely time to breathe across the one-hour and 45-minute set. Black Chandelier, Different People and Many of Horror reminded everyone just how deep this band’s catalogue runs, with the latter still as euphoric as it was the first time it was ever heard live, confetti filling the air as every voice carried the song home.
While there’s no doubt that Biffy Clyro are exceptional musicians with a knack for enormous choruses, what truly defines them is the bond they share with their fans. Glasgow doesn’t just watch this band; it performs with them. Massive sing-alongs, knowing looks and shared moments of release made it impossible not to believe — as cliché as it is — in the power of live music.
Setlist:
A Little Love
Hunting Season
That Golden Rule
Who’s Got a Match?
Shot One
Space
Wolves of Winter
Tiny Indoor Fireworks
Goodbye
Friendshipping (Dedicated to James and Naomi)
Biblical
A Thousand and One
Different People
A Hunger in Your Haunt
Black Chandelier
Instant History
Mountains
Two People in Love
Machines
The Captain
Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies
Bubbles
Many of Horror