1,439 IST IST, The Youth Play, Bristol Thekla, Friday 24th April 2026

 

A fiery and eventful one again! Manchester’s own brooding dark goth-adjacent post-punk types Ist Ist are becoming a fixture on my “Dance Cards” of late, so when the tour for their recently-released 5^th (!) album “Dagger” took in a date on Bristol’s splendid “Dirty Boat”, this was a “must book”! Initial listens of said album reveal a more expansive anthemic feel, with an increased prominence of 80’s sheet synth in the sound. Voluble bassist Andy Keating had indicated the intent was to write a set of songs more suited to the “live” environment, and on initial listens at least they’ve succeeded, but the proof of the pudding is, as ever, on the stage itself (to mix my metaphors somewhat). They’ve not let me down so far “live”, so let’s see… 

An early departure saw me into a sunny and busy Bristol just after 6.30 doors; however the Thekla car park was already rammed with sun-seeking beer garden punters’ motors, so I parked in the nearby Portwall Lane car park, hitting the venue for a loo stop and grabbing a house left spot, a couple of rows back, well in time for The Youth Play’s support set at 7. And glad I was of that; I’d enjoyed their October Drift support set at The Joiners last April (gig 1,379), but tonight was a whole other kettle of fish. From the off they were tremendous; opener “Maybe This Was All For Us” was a breathless cascade of tumbling drums and urgent post-punk guitar, “A Fair Life” followed with a darker, more regimental drum powered vibe, whilst “After A Moment” added an extra dimension to this dynamic post-punk sound, with a more introspective vibe recalling the shimmering soundscapes of Kitchens of Distinction. Vocalist Diego Bracho again impressed with his deep, resonant baritone, low yet expressive, although drummer Finley Bruce just pipped him for MVP honours with a series of propulsive, tumbling and almost tribal drum patterns; no surprise given his Killing Joke t-shirt! “Sunday” (“our next single; about getting drunk on Sunday,” advised Diego) was a brilliant My Vitriol like sparkling dervish hurtle, with the spoken, stream of consciousness vocals of equally frantic closer “If We Just Ever Were” closing out a quite superb set. A band melding various guitar styles (grunge, post-punk, shoegaze) into a dynamically coherent whole; Youth Play are now the real deal…

Follow that, Ist Ist! A chat with Kev, a chap I’d previously met at an October Drift gig here, passed the time until the band joined us at 9 (one minute after the p.a. had started playing “Marquee Moon”! Bah!), the undulating synth pulse of opener “Encouragement” easing us in. “We’re having technical issues; talk amongst yourselves!” announced sonorous vocalist Adam Houghton, before a pacier “Warning Signs” was followed by the more funereal, haunting “Burning” and the “Light A Bigger Fire” double salvo of the abrupt yet careering “Lost My Shadow” and regimented, Interpol-esque “The Kiss”. It all sounded fine, Adam’s voice as eerily clipped and monotone as ever, and bassist Adam Keating, leather and sunglasses firmly in place (calling out sunglass-wearing punters with a dismissive, “you can all fuck off! We should be the only ones wearing them!”) as ever looking like the indie rock star from central casting, brandishing his instrument like a flagpole; however it initially felt a little flat, particularly after Youth Play, and needed something… 

The haunting, early New Order-esque newie “Makes No Difference” promised better, the crowd finally moving along, and “Mary In The Bedroom”’s striped back moody intro build to a pacier climax maintained momentum. However slowie “Love Song” then saw a big drunk bloke barrel forward, shoving punters aside (including myself and a couple of girls in front of me – more on them later) to grab a totally underserved handshake with the singer, before, glassily eyed, barging his way back. What a twat! Ironically, thereafter Ist Ist really kicked into gear, as did (most of) the crowd, rocking along to the set mid-section. Then…

On the intro notes of the echoey, atmospheric oldie “Emily”, another hefty chap and his lady pushed through to stage front and centre, trying to initiate a slam-dance mosh. The lady dancer however piled rather aggressively into the 2 girls who’d previously been unceremoniously shoved aside by the drunk bloke, who this time pushed back; then the bloke got all up in their faces and things looked like kicking off for a sec, but sense prevailed and they moved a couple of rows back to continue dancing.

(A tough one to navigate, this; on the one hand, the dancing couple were super-aggressive in comparison to other dancing punters, plus (according to the photo guy during our post-gig chat) the guy was all, “how many gigs have you been to???” to the girls, displaying gatekeeping entitlement of the worst kind. On the other, the 2 girls never moved a muscle all night, despite folks dancing all around them, plus Adam’s repeated requests for Bristol to get moving. There’s places at gigs to stand stock still and watch, and they ain’t the front…) 

Anyhoo, back to the gig; Adam thanked the by-now much more engaged audience before the dark, savage backbeat of oldie “Nights Arm”; the widescreen and expansive, Talk Talk-esque synth-driven build of “Repercussions” was my overall set highlight; and Andy greeted the punters on the balcony, enquiring, “is there anyone behind the cages [to the sides]? I feel like Johnny Cash in Fulsom Prison…” before the almost jolly, 80’s “Hope To Love” and urgent, metronomic “You’re Mine” rounded off a set which happily had come nicely to the boil. The Kraftwerkian industrial synth sound to “Here Comes The Fear” and growling, punkier closer “Stamp You Out” were encore punctuations; band lists went early but after a little mooch I noticed one still stuck up on the stage side, a roadie unpinning it for me. Result! Extensive chats with the Youth Play boys, particularly drummer Finley about the Joke (my first ever gig, of course!), then preceded a wait outside for the Ist Ist boys to emerge; ultimately, I chatted with the photo guy who then popped backstage for signatures for my list and “Daggers” CD. Result! Again… Drove home reflecting on the gig, home at 10 past 11. Ultimately I’ll overlook the hassle and remember 2 excellent performances, with The Youth Play on fire from the outset, and Ist Ist more of an initial smoulder before the flames really took hold and built to their usual widescreen conflagration. Either way, hot stuff from both bands!

1,379 OCTOBER DRIFT, The Youthplay, Coast, Southampton Joiner's Arms, Tuesday 1st April 2025

 

After a very promising band of pretenders to the throne of current post-punk last night in Thus Love, tonight here’s the real deal in Taunton’s brilliant October Drift. Not only had this lot lain waste to The Thekla last time out in October 2024 (gig 1,353), their performance nailing down a spot in my Top 5 “live” acts of the year (in a pretty darn high-quality field…), but they’d also restored my appetite for “live” music after a fraught month dealing with the news of my wife Rachel’s cancer diagnosis. So, I’d eagerly booked for this, the opening night of a seeming continuation of their tour pushing their third album, “Blame The Young”, not only to immerse myself in another potentially incendiary post-punk night out, but also to share with the boys the news that things are now generally going well with Rachel’s treatment, and prognosis seems hopeful.

A busy school parent’s evening still saw me setting off down a sun-kissed M4/ A34 route down South, parking around the corner from the excellent Joiners and hitting the scuzzy back-room venue just after 7.30. Painfully young openers Coast were already rounding off a rocking opening number in front of a busy early-doors turnout of evident friends and family. The follow-up was more slower-burn, yet “This Time”, next up, really nailed their influences to the mast with some intricate Edge-like guitar licks either side of a big yearning chorus, and the subsequent “Outside On A Friday”, an aspiring proto stadium anthem, even had a bit of an early singalong! Clearly earnest and ambitious, then, this lot (plugging their forthcoming Heartbreakers headline slot with some enthusiasm), but nowt wrong in dreaming big, I guess… Main support The Youth Play were older, more practised and accomplished, with some galloping textural mood music giving obvious nods to dour post-punk and morose shoegaze; their amphetamine-fast opener recalled My Vitriol, and more atmospheric later material touched on recent finds Soft Kill. “After A Moment” was a moody, early Ride like number and probably the best of a promising, intriguing and idea-filled set, delivered with confidence and a resonant low baritone from the vocalist.

By then, I’d once again encountered Liz from Chandlers Ford, greeted OD soundman James from Indoor Pets as he disappeared upstairs, and also enjoyed a Bunnymen-centric chat with Jonathan and Faith from Fareham, in my spot down the front, house right. At 9.20, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” swaggered out of the pa, and white-clad vocalist Kiron Roy led the band onstage, the huge swelling hook of the swayalong “Waltzer” igniting a mass singalong and getting the party started proper. “Southampton, we’re October Drift… let’s do this!” announced Kiron, already bent double and sawing away on this guitar nineteen to the dozen for the subsequent jagged and ragged “Demons”. Blowing the cobwebs away, and no mistake… 

I seem to be on a run of opening nights of October Drift tours; like that Thekla gig, last time out, they were once again “on it” from note one, delivering the kind of scarily committed and rocket-fuelled full-on energetic performance that has now become their trademark. “Hollow”’s massive anthemic hook ceded to a Bob Mould-esque squalling outro; “Blame The Young”, thrown casually in mid-set, accelerated into a hurtling, inexorable climactic build; and Kiron, who’d gestured and exhorted the crowd to get more involved from the off, had his first foray into the audience during the brooding, drum-dominated “Bleed”. A later “Airborne Panic Attack” also accelerated from a dead stop start into a thunderous intro, then dropped right back for an almost mumbled hushed verse before the massive roaring Nirvana-esque chorus, but the subsequent “Cherry Red” was the cheery on the cake and set highlight for me; this time it was wild-eyed and wild-haired guitarist Dan Young who ploughed into the centre of the mosh, initially coaxing squalling noise from his instrument as a punter fanned him, but thereafter leading the bounce-along to the dark gothy chorus.

After a fist-pumping “Oh The Silence”, Kiron again took floor central, dedicating the final number “Not Running” to his recently-lost grandmother, calling the elegiac yet soaring finale a “song for solidarity”, and ending another tremendous, incendiary October Drift set on a desolate yet triumphant note. Drummer Chris happily heard my shouts for his list, then after a short wait I caught up with the man in the bar, filling him in on our current family news. Again, Chris provided an understanding ear, typical of this band’s deep connection and genuine care for its’ audience. Pondered this on my swift drive home, back in the ‘don for 12.30. Why October Drift aren’t stadium massive already is a mystery for the ages; they absolutely deserve it not just because their canon is now chock-full of humungous oven-ready stadium bangers, but because they’re just about the nicest guys in rock’n’roll today. Indeed, October Drift are very much the Real Deal!