IST IST, The Caves, Edinburgh. 9th February 2026

Michael Bruce • 16 February 2026


Photos and review - Jai Dee Photography

It's Monday the 9th of February (it's difficult to accept it's February already!) I am back in Edinburgh, at The Caves to see IST IST play for the second time in a year! This time, it is just the band on their own. To be honest, this review is going to be quite short, as this current tour is an album launch tour, which means it is also going to be a rather short set as they are only playing the tracks from the album, plus two additional songs.

Having come through from the west of Scotland, I'm not used to the doors opening at the time stated on the ticket! 
Entering the venue, Adam (singer/guitarist) and Joel (drummer) are on the merch stall, I have a chat with the lads and buy some merch. Adam tells me the whole band will be at the merch desk at the end of the gig, to pose for photos and sign anything we want signed, I took them up on that as my other half purchased every available format of the album "DAGGER", which entered her into a draw to win a bass drum autographed skin, which was used to record the album. I'm not sure when the draw is, but thus far, we have not won.

As I said, it was a short set by the band, twelve tracks total, all ten from the album. Once again the band release an album without a poor track on it. For myself, there are two stand out tracks, "I am the fear" and "I remember everything"
Near the end of the set, Andy (bassist) announced that the album (Dagger) was sitting at number three in the midweek chart, which is fantastic to hear and well deserved for a hard working band.

The two non album played were "Lost my shadow" and "The kiss".  Speaking to a few people who have been following the tour said the last two songs have been different at each show.  I left another IST IST gig happy and looking forward to their gig in Glasgow later in the year.

As usual, if reading this and you don't know the band, head over to your favoured music streaming platform and give them a listen, you might find a "new" band to follow.

See you at the barrier. 
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