IST IST - Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh Thursday 11th April 2024

Which brings us back to tonight. We are in Edinburgh's Voodoo Rooms to see IST IST for the fifth time. I have reviewed the band before for Rockfiend. IST IST opened up for The Mission on their last UK tour. This time however, IST IST are the band doing a small UK tour. Tonight's set is by far the most comprehensive set to date. There are twenty songs on the setlist, covering all three of their albums plus a couple of new songs. Before I get started on the set, an introduction to the band is called for

Adam Houghton - lead vocals/guitar, Joel Kay - drums/backing vocals, Andy Keating - bass/backing vocals, Mat Peters - synthesiser keyboards/guitars. 

The crowd for tonight wasn't the usual Edinburgh crowd. A fair crowd travelled up from Manchester, and the couple next to me were from Leeds. The IST IST crowd follow the band, no matter where they are playing. Their set opens with 'Stamp You Out'  followed by the oddly titled 'Fat Cats Drown In Milk', next is 'The Kiss' which is one of the few songs that I am not sure I've heard before including 'Repercussions', 'Dreams Aren't Enough', 'Fools Paradise' and 'Lost My Shadow', however, they are all great songs. There are also many of their most popular songs like 'Black', 'Nothing More, Nothing Less', 'Watching You, Watching Me' and 'Emily'. 

Usually, it is Andy that does most of the talking, but tonight, Adam does his fair share of conversing with the Edinburgh crowd! We get to where the band tell us that we are going to pretend that they are going to leave the stage then return to carry on with a few more songs. The "encore" is the afore mentioned 'Emily' next is my personal favourite 'You're Mine' and finally 'Slowly We Escape'.

A short while after the band leave the stage, they re-emerged and mingled with the crowd, posed for selfies and signed merch. I find myself in a fortunate position, having photographed the band in several small venues, being recognised by the band is still quite novel to me, so being asked if I got some good shots and they couldn't wait to see my photos, is a bit ego enhancing. I am also a memorabilia collector, after the first time I saw the band, I asked Joel, the bands drummer for one of his old sticks, he replied that sticks were for "repeat offenders" and to his word, next time I saw the band, he came to me and handed me a pair of his used sticks, I didn't even need to remind him. Speaking to him after the gig, I asked him, next time will be my sixth gig seeing them, would that mean I would get to join them on stage, he thought for a second, and said no! and we both had a little laugh about it.

I did find out that the band would be back in Glasgow, maybe October-ish, and back to King Tuts. So we will see the band for the sixth time then!

And at that we headed back to the car for the journey back across the M8 to Glasgow

See you at the barrier!