Live at The Ambassador, Dublin

There’s a notice on the way to the auditorium which warns that “moshing and crowd surfing are not allowed and those who do will be ejected”.
Fat chance. It takes the first few bars of the night’s opening band, I Am Ghost, to disprove that theory. Mind you, the Californian sextet don’t help the management much, what with their energetic performance and fantastic theatrics.
Similarly, The Audition inspire quite the moshfest, but it’s thanks to their strong set-list, containing gems such as ‘Dance Hall Turn To Ghost Towns’, rather than their stagecraft, with frontman Danny Stevens ambling camply around the stage at a leisurely pace.
Any other night and the Chicago outfit would be considered decent, but unfortunately their five-guys-doing-emo formula is lost in tonight’s mix.
Any hope The Bronx might have had of trouncing the competition is quashed when a roadie-type comes onstage and announces that he is the frontman. Sheesh – talk about a let-down.
Next, the band belt into song after song of updated ‘80s-styled hardcore punk. For their most well-known track, ‘They Will Kill Us All’, frontman Matt Caughthran sets a terrible example and crowdsurfs to the centre of the moshpit, where he stays for the entire song.
He gets knocked off his feet, has a girl stick to him like a limpet, gets his shirt torn – but, hats off, he doesn’t miss a note.
Certainly, this is by far the most entertaining four minutes of live music your reporter’s ever had the privilege to witness.
It’s less of a surprise, more of a given, that Glasgow’s finest Biffy Clyro do nothing less than bowl the crowd over. Mind you, this might as well be a home-town gig – the audience seems to know all of the songs, even the new ones.
Tracks from their forthcoming album Puzzle, such as ‘Now I’m Everyone’, are previewed and – sweet relief – prove themselves to be classics in waiting.
Rock: 4. Rules: 0.