Biffy Clyro: MTV Unplugged @ Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 21 Sep
With a laid-back pastoral feel to the evening's proceedings, Biffy Clyro nail their MTV Unplugged show tonight in the regal surrounds of Usher Hall
Throughout the late 80s and 90s the MTV Unplugged series saw seminal performances from classic rock royalty like Eric Clapton and Aerosmith and the superstars of the new decade like R.E.M. and Alice in Chains. By putting established and aspiring stars in a new setting it shone a different light on their art, prodding big names to switch off the cruise control and reinvent themselves. Plodding on into the new century, the likes of Kanye West and Florence and the Machine have released uninspired live records but throughout the whole MTV era, one session, in particular, has come to serve as a lodestar for the series: Nirvana’s seminal 1994 New York recording.
How appropriate then, for a band of avowed Nirvana devotees to pick up the torch on the first instalment of the series in years to feel fully deserving of a supporting tour. While hairy rockers reinventing themselves in a semi-acoustic format is now just another part of the game, it’s still easy to overreach. Fortunately, on home turf, there are no such worries for Ayrshire’s own Biffy Clyro.
First though, it’s up to Aussie indie-country singer Juanita Stein to set the scene. Fresh from supporting The Killers on their recent European tour she’s no stranger to big audiences, with the biggest applause reserved for Forgiver, a recent composition she wrote with The Killers’ Brandon Flowers.
With a spindly tree similar to that which adorned 2013’s Opposites in the centre of the stage and Simon Neil and co mostly sitting down to play, there’s a laid-back pastoral feel to the evening’s show.
Ordinarily, a ticket to a Biffy Clyro show guarantees a certain degree of debauchery so it’s initially a little strange to see them in such a refined setting as the Usher Hall. All-seated shows are after all, not what one typically associates with bands who pen songs called Toys Toys Toys Choke, Toys Toys Toys and Kill the Old, Torture Their Young. It’s a setting that even Neil can't resist commenting on as, clad in a rootsy, flowing shirt and silk scarf, the Biffy frontman reveals that this is a rare show at which he won’t get topless.
Initially, there’s a suspicion that drummer Ben Johnston would much rather be belting these songs out at full blast, but as they settle into the set they deliver a singalong Saturday Superhouse and an anthemic Mountains that loses none of its energy despite the more restrained delivery.
Where Kurt Cobain used the mantle of the biggest band in the world to reinvent forgotten blues laments and introduce the world to some of his less famous friends, Biffy Clyro mostly play it safe, reeling off hits like Bubbles and Black Chandelier, but there are a handful of more personal moments too, including a minimal heartfelt Folding Stars and the lopsided countryish Different Kind of Love.
By the time that Machines brings the set to an end the audience are out of their seats, clamouring for the short encore of Friends and Enemies, God & Satan and Many of Horror which will send them out into the night. “We may never do a tour like this again,” says Neil. If that ends up being true, it would be a real shame. The Ayrshire lads have done it again.