‘Connect immediately’

Meet the biggest little band touring the U.S. right now. Scottish power trio Biffy Clyro sells out Wembley Arena in their U.K. homeland and notches up hundreds of thousands in record sales. However, the band’s American tour this winter plonks Biffy in tiny clubs, where they’ll go nose-to-nose with their growing American audience.

“I’ve never really bothered about that stuff. Maybe some bands think if they get big in one country they don’t have to work as hard and don’t have to sit in a van for eight hours anymore. Maybe they think they should be living this life of luxury,” says singer and guitarist Simon Neil. “We’ve always been in a van, so it doesn’t impact us. We’ve had some of the worst times playing big places and the best times playing smaller ones. We want to play as many places in as many states as we can, and we’re willing to do what it takes.”

It’s two days before Biffy launched this tour in support of their fifth album, “Only Revolutions,” a re-cord filled with soaring altruistic modern rock anthems, somewhere between Muse and Fall Out Boy.

“There’s something about the energy when it’s a small room,” Neil adds. “You see every subtle look between the band that’s playing. In big places, a band has to get a bit over-the-top and bombastic. You lose that human element. In clubs, you connect immediately.”

It’s one thing gaining a bigger audience, but it’s another keeping them, says Neil.

“Unless your live shows get better and better, and every album is better than the last, then fans will move onto the new hot band,”?he says. “If you don’t make that effort and try to achieve that, then you’ll lose fans.”