The Mission / IST IST - TV Studio SWG3 Glasgow 25th October 2023

Several years ago it was recommended that I should check out IST IST. This is now the fourth time I have had the pleasure of seeing the lads in Glasgow. As the crowds get bigger, they get better and better! If you have not seen IST IST before, just imagine Joy Division for the 21st century. They unashamedly wear their influence on their sleeve.

Tonight's 10 song set kicks off with "Stamp You Out" followed up with "Something Has To Give" and then "Fat Cats Drown In Milk" before they get to one of my favourite songs "Black". As "Black" kicks in, I get a bit of an adrenaline rush, so have to be beckoned to leave the "photographers pit", so I'm unable to get the usual chat with the band at the end of their set! Oh well, on with the show. "Discipline" and "Lost In Shadow" blast out as I try and grasp a few shots from the edge of the crowd. As IST IST are the support band, stage lighting isn't great. Song seven, another favourite of mine, "Emily". By this time, the crowd are cheering louder and louder when songs finish. "Nothing More, Nothing Less" is song eight followed by the epic "You're Mine". Their set is rounded off with "Trapdoors". Before the band leave the stage, bassist, Andy Keating asks for the lights to be turned on so he could get a photograph of the crowd. Looks like they are winning a lot of new fans!

Fifteen minutes later the lights go down we are bombarded (pardon the pun) with The Dambusters March, as it fades the band take to the stage with an almighty roar from the crowd the band kicks off with "Beyond The Pale", during which, Wayne drifted into some ABBA lyrics, "Evangeline" and "Kingdome Come" came next. Time for me to re-join the rest of the crowd behind the barrier. Wayne and Co are marching through the songs, as if time was going out of fashion, giving the crowd maximum amount of songs in the allotted amount of time. "Fearful" "Naked And Savage" then "Severina" followed in rapid fire with minimum interjection from Wayne (not very chatty tonight Wayne!) However, that didn't detract from an amazing set "Stay With Me" "Grotesque" "Butterfly On A Wheel", the latter with backing vocals, at top volume from the crowd. "Metamorphosis" followed by the fitting "Swan Song", which was "Deliverance", another classic where the crowd were singing at the top of their voices, encouraged by Wayne to keep singing, the band left the stage, the crowd sung on for about 5 minutes. Wayne then came back on to the stage while the crowd were still singing. The encore begins with a lone Wayne singing "Love Me Me To Death", as that begins to fade, the rest of the band re-join and give us "Blood Brother". For an October night, it is extremely hot and sticky inside SWG3.

The Mission have covered some amazing songs, so next up we get a cover version, a song that has also been done by The Sisters of Mercy, sometimes it's forgotten that it it is a cover! After a dab with a towel to mop up sweat, we get The Stooges "1969". The next song begins, and in a few spots in SWG3 copious amounts of torn up paper gets thrown in the air, yes, it's THAT song ....... Wasteland! Is this the end of the show? Not quite, as I had a sneak at the setlist. It couldn't be a Mission gig without the song that Wayne wrote about his fans, we now get the extended, extended version of the quintessential "Tower of strength". An epic song to round off an epic night, lots of smiling faces as everyone leaves the venue, which just goes to show that Goths are not miserable and full of doom and gloom lol.