Ist Ist opened their UK and European tour in support of their top 30 album Light A Bigger Fire with an intimate opening night sell out at Hebden Bridge Trades Club. Playing the album in full as well as a selection of big-hitters from their first three albums, they confirmed their burgeoning reputation as one of the most powerful independent bands around. Support came from Nottingham's Cucamaras.
At the centre of Cucamaras live is the energetic interaction between twin vocalists Olly Bowley and Josh Hart switching between the pair of them throughout the set within each song in their half-hour set. Unfazed by having a stand-in bassist for the opening night of the tour they win over an initially reticent audience. Bleachers Yard, in the middle of the set, is the stand-out track, a sprawling journey of a song that really showcases the breadth of their influences and the strength of their songwriting. It's followed by their forthcoming single Laughter, their first release since 2023, which catches the ear immediately.
Ist Ist take to the stage and dive straight into Lost My Shadow and The Kiss, Light A Bigger Fire's two lead singles and first two tracks. It's a statement of intent that they follow through with across twenty songs from across their four albums. They've now got even more of an armoury of surefire live hits that it's almost an embarrassment of riches and plenty of live favourites from earlier in their career have not made the cut.
Emboldened by the success of Light A Bigger Fire and the euphoric reaction to it amongst their ever-growing fanbase, they're supremely confident. A simple but effective lighting set-up captures the mood of the songs and the sound and its ambition, now built for rooms much bigger than this, pushes the boundaries of this wonderful grassroots venue's ability to handle it. The audience, you sense, are even more bought into this increasingly potent version of the band.
The power emanating from the stage is relentless. The songs from Protagonists - Stamp You Out, Mary In The Black And White Room, Something Has To Give, Fools Paradise, Nothing More Nothing Less and Trapdoors - feel like they've been on an accelerated course of steroids since the European tour earlier in the year. Black, as beautiful and melodic as ever, and a soaring anthemic Emily, a song from the debut EP that now feels like thousands and thousands could sing along to the song's insistent hook line. You're Mine, their breakthrough song in many ways, steadfastly refuses to budge from the encore. The Art Of Lying's sole representative It Stops Where It Starts has a razor-sharp edge to it, an increasing urgency that grabs the audience by the throat and doesn't let go.
The biggest stars though are the songs from Light A Bigger Fire. Building on the template of what's gone before, they bring to the life the intent of the album's title. Bigger bolder hook lines, soaring synths, more powerful drums and melodies so affecting that you can't help but fall under their spell. Adam's voice really comes to the fore, as does his live performance, once static and frightening, now engaging as if possessed by the spirit of the music. He means every word of these songs and that conveys itself directly to each and every person in the room.
It's hard to pick out highlights because there's not a single moment where the quality dips. The audience have taken the new songs to heart, a week and a half after release, a glimpse around sees people lost in the moment. XXX and the night's final song Ghost are more reflective but still pack an intense punch, the latter as it brings the night to a close in an accelerating crescendo of keys that wouldn't be out of place in the movies. The rest are resplendent with melodies in the choruses which counter the underlying menace of the lyrics and the darkness that lurks behind the synths and jagged bass lines. What I Know and Dreams Aren't Enough soar and aim for the stars whilst Repercussions simultaneously hugs and stabs you such is its glorious juxtaposition.
This was Ist Ist's fourth sold out trip to The Trades Club. The first felt a triumph selling it out, now it feels like an undersell in a venue whose independent spirit makes them perfect bedfellows. Ist Ist's chart position was a triumph of the underdog against the system, a struggle to get heard. Once they're in a room and plugged in with an audience in front of them, they win the war each and every time. If there's a better live band at their level in the country, we've yet to see them.
Ist Ist played Lost My Shadow, The Kiss, Stamp You Out, Black, Mary In The Black And White Room, I Can't Wait For You, Something Else, What I Know, It Stops Where It Starts, XXX, Something Has To Give, Fools Paradise, Nothing More Nothing Less, Hope To Love Again, Repercussions, Emily, Trapdoors, Dreams Aren't Enough, You're Mine and Ghost.
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