Bloc Party, Biffy Clyro @ Brixton Academy, Brixton, London
20th May 2007
Tonight Is my pre-Reading festival decider, the 2 bands playing tonight both clash at Reading festival. By the end of the eve i hope to know which at which one I’ll be scrambling to
catch.
Now tonight proved that fashionably late, or an extra cheap pint as in most cases, isn’t the best course of action. For upon agreeing to get the first round in once inside the academy, it wasn’t till I was buried deep in the queue did I hear a distinctively Biffy riff fizzing through the air. We had already missed opening act Mahogany, so they were pants. But from what I caught of the latter half of the Biffy Clyro set, it was great! The heavy proggy rock and roll they have perfected sounds impeccably heavy, eccentric and damn noisy. The new tracks premiered here this eve sound great, especially a maniacal guitar noise wonder which can only be filed under ‘A for Awesome’. Retreating backstage Biffy left me wanting more, which is a good sign for my dilemma, I really enjoyed this short and swift thunderous set!
The clatter of drums signaled Bloc Party’s arrival, and got straight to the business of enthusing the crowd to strut their funky stuff. Opening the set with a few new tracks proved to be a hit, with ‘Song For Clay (Disappear Here)‘ and ‘Hunting for Witches‘ getting the most welcome receptions. The electronic samples and effects pedals were great, fusing their ethereal grooves with their distorted guitar licks to create a totally unique sound. Of course the band remained their uber-cool selves throughout the set, not saying much and hardly breaking to let the crowd draw breath, not that anyone cared.
Now these guys clearly are not partial to endless promos and new album plugging, with the majority of the set drawn from their cracking debut LP. The set closed with a rousing version of Banquet, but not to disappoint they swiftly returned to play out the night with Helicopter. Or so a lot of the crowd thought, a second encore ensued and as the words “We Will Not Be The Last…” faded us into the night. This was a fantastic show, which never slowed from its breakneck speed and lightning dance rhythms, well worth going to see indoors as I can’t see this getting much better at the festivals.
My decision is made, Its Biffy time at Reading ‘07!!
DOESITROCK.NET 