Inhaler have spent a majority of their short career with something to prove. The Dublin-based band have always tackled the #NepoBaby conversation head-on, readily admitting that vocalist Elijah Hewson’s dad (AKA U2’s Bono) opened some initial doors and helped generate a lot of early buzz, but they’ve also had to work hard to keep those same doors open.
2021’s debut album It Won’t Always Be Like This topped the UK Album Charts, becoming the fastest-selling first album on vinyl of any band this century in the process, while countless gigs and festival slots soon followed. Released earlier this year, follow-up album Cuts & Bruises traded in their optimistic indie rock for something more brooding but no less electric, and the four-piece spent their summer supporting the likes of Harry Styles and Sam Fender at huge outdoor shows. Their music now sits somewhere between the grit and the glamour that those acts offer.
On Tuesday night, Hewson walked out onstage at London’s Kentish Town Forum punching the air. That sense of celebration drove the jangly opening track These Are The Days and continued through Inhaler’s polished yet raucous 80-minute set. Having spent a majority of the past two years on the road, the band clearly know how to whip the audience into a frenzy.
A catalogue of tracks that cherry-picked the best of the indie greats certainly helped as well. We Have To Move On channelled the giddy urgency of The Wombats, Who’s Your Money On (Plastic House) had the same disco stomp of Two Door Cinema Club while the whole thing was delivered with the same cocksure swagger of Arctic Monkeys. Inhaler aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but they never felt like pale imitations either, with conversational lyrics and chunky guitar riffs regularly inspiring gleeful chaos amongst the young crowd.
A twitching Valentine, the delicate Perfect Storm and Dublin In Ecstasy's sprawling, snarling nostalgia saw the band prove there was more to them than festival-ready indie while a heart-adorned headband thrown by a fan allowed them switch from serious to silly. “I’m not sure about this,” grinned Hewson before putting it on.
Later, they returned to the stage dressed as rock greats for Halloween (Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Phil Lynott, Sid Vicious) before they delivered a closing one-two of Just To Keep You Satisfied and My Honest Face that was worthy of those costumes.
Inhaler will probably never completely escape the shadow of U2, but they’re still creating a joyous legacy all of their own. The most interesting thing about the band isn’t where they’ve come from, but where they go next.
