Ist Ist continued their launch week for their fifth album Dagger with a show at Bury Met on Sunday night in conjunction with local record shop Wax And Beans. Performing the album in full, their strongest work to date, with a couple of older songs added at the end before signing records, they demonstrated why their march has taken on relentless proportions.
The evening starts over the road at Wax And Beans with a Q and A session in the record shop that's promoting the show. With subjects as varied as the album's title, the band's writing and recording process, filling out the right boxes on the American visa application, jokes about the Joy Division comparisons that have followed them around and favourite venues around Manchester, the band showed their light-hearted side and stopped to sign records before heading across the road for the show.
These album release shows have become staple fayre for bands who rely on physical album sales to fight the obscene weighting given to streaming when calculating the album charts. They do however give the opportunity to hear songs live for the first time and with some bands - not Ist Ist who last time round played their whole album on tour - the only time. Over forty minutes Ist Ist played Dagger through - like a live listening party - before topping the evening off with two tracks from their catalogue Fat Cats Drown In Milk and Stamp You Out.
Dagger is Ist Ist's strongest work to date, a record that lives the old adage of "all killer no filler". It lasts just 32 minutes across ten songs but never leaves you feeling short-changed. It kicks off with lead single I Am The Fear and doesn't pause for breath until the instrumental opening of Encouragement, the sixth song on the record. It takes you through the radio-friendly Makes No Difference and Warning Signs, songs that should sit proudly on daytime radio in a world where playlisters didn't have their perennial favourites, the more experimental epic Burning and the potent The Echo that make up side one.
They don't say much other than for bassist Andy to repeat their thank yous to the fan base and to Wax And Beans for supporting an independent band fighting against the odds. Side two of the record isn't as full on as the first half, with the beautiful shimmering yet menacing Song To Someone taking the foot off the accelerator pedal for the first time. I Remember Everything, Obligations and the album closer Ambition demonstrate what Ist Ist do best - short, sharp punches to the gut that take aim and hit the target.
They finish the evening with two older songs - Fat Cats Drown In Milk still possesses the same urgency five years since its release whilst Stamp You Out is prime Ist Ist, the sort of song they specialise in and which has seen them continually grow their audience both at home and on the continent.
With a week of instores to promote Dagger, Ist Ist are hoping to improve on the top 25 official chart placing of its predecessor Light A Bigger Fire. Their strongest album to date is already knocking down doors that had previously been closed to them. They're taking the record out on tour through March and April in Europe as well as the UK.
Dagger and previous records can be ordered via their website.
An exclusive version featuring Dagger and the album performed live at Bury Met is available from Wax And Beans.
Digital versions of their previous limited edition releases and a number of live field recordings are available to download from their Bandcamp.
Ist Ist play Edinburgh Caves (February 9), Nottingham Rough Trade (10), London Rough Trade East (11), Antwerp Kavka Oudaan (March 11), Cologne Luxor (12), Amsterdam Paradiso Grote Zaal (14), Frankfurt Das Bett (15), Zurich Werk 21 (16), Milan Santeria Toscana 31 (17), Budapest Durer Kert (19), Bratislava Pink Whale (20), Krakow Klub Zascianek (22), Warsaw Hydrozagadka (23), Berlin Hole 44 (24), Esbjerg Tobakken (26), Oslo Parkteatret (27), Stockholm Kollektivet (29), Hamburg Logo (31) Norwich Waterfront (April 9, 2026), Exeter Phoenix (11), Oxford O2 Academy 2 (12), Newcastle The Grove (16), Sheffield Network (18), Nottingham Rescue Rooms (23), Bristol Thekla (24), Brighton Quarters (25), Dublin Grand Social (28), Belfast Ulster Sports Club (29) and Manchester Albert Hall (May 1)
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