By Mark Zurlo

Photos By Mark Zurlo 

They say that when your ears ring, pharmacy it means you’ve lost just a little bit of hearing, site and you’ll never get it back again. It sounds like a harsh reality (if it’s true), but it’s something that most music fans have come to accept. After Wednesday night’s Biffy Clyro performance at Brighton Music Hall, everyone in attendance may be in the market for a good set of hearing aids in the near future.

The Scottish trio is one of those “huge in some other part of the world” type bands that has never struck it big in the US. In the UK, they headlined this year’s Reading and Leads Festivals over Fall Out Boy and Nine Inch Nails. In the US, they paid a visit to a club that holds 200 people.

Taking the stage following a solid opening set from English act Morning Parade, the shirtless duo of lead singer/guitarist Simon Neil and bassist James Johnston were joined by drummer Ben Johnston and a touring guitarist and immediately began melting faces.

The band did a good job of mixing the tracks from the recently-released double album Opposites with older material from 2007’s Only Revolutions and 2005’s Puzzle, but they could have performed a bunch of b-sides and Willy Nelson covers and this still would have been a frantic and at times dizzying performance.

For the most part, the band follows a familiar verse-chorus-verse-shred formula that allows Simon Neil to show off his impressive guitar work and strike as many shirtless rock star posses as possible.  It seemed a little bit absurd at times in such a small venue, but it was permissible given the way the sheer volume of each chorus shook the floor and enveloped the audience like a flood.

The band left the stage after closing with the anthemic “Mountains” soaked in sweat and happy with the reaction they had received from the sold-out crowd.  Opening slots for Foo Fighters and Muse on recent US tours have certainly helped to raise the band’s profile here in the states, but the chances of them ever playing their own huge headlining gigs on this side of the pond are slim. For fans who got to see them play such an intimate show, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.