Live Review: Inhaler rock Barras

The Irish, indie-rock band Inhaler returned to Scotland for two sold out nights at the beginning of the month as part of the Cuts & Bruises Tour for their sophomore album. Clad in Doc Martens, leather jackets, and cowboy hats, the excitement for the concert had fans queuing all day – as early as five o’clock in the morning – in an attempt for barricade spots.

For their Glasgow gigs, the band brought back two previous support acts, Swim School and Nieve Ella. Swim School are an indie-rock three-piece band from Edinburgh, composed of singer Alice Johnson, guitarist Lewis Bunting and drummer Billy McMahon. They delivered an electrifying performance, which included their latest single ‘BORED’ alongside their other hits.

The stage then welcomed Nieve Ella and her band, who received screams of delight as they readied the stage for their performance. With Fran Larkin on bass, Finn Marlow on guitar, and Matt Garnett on the drums, their second night performing at Barrowland marks their 20^th overall opening for Inhaler and concludes their EU tour. Performing songs from her EPs ‘Young & Naive’ and ‘Lifetime of Wanting’, you could see both the singers appreciation and sadness at the tour ending. At the end of her set, Nieve said to keep eyes out on her social media and said she would be back soon. Lucky for fans, it has now been announced that she will perform her first headline Scottish gig at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in February 2024.

Fashionably fifteen minutes late, the stage dims and their entry song ‘Lujon’ begins to play, soon revealing the band, who are faced with a wall of screams. As they pick up their instruments and prepare to start, fans begins to erupt into even louder roars.

As always, they begin their set with their single ‘These Are the Days’, and the floor begins to shake from all of the jumping fans.  The setlist was comprised of a mix of songs from both of their albums as well as the fan favourite single ‘We Have to Move On’. The band also surprised fans by adding ‘So Far So Good’ to the set, once again making them release their deafening screams.

Around halfway through the set, bassist Robert Keating stopped to apologise for the delay, saying it was a technical fault, and they weren’t sleeping, which frontman Elijah Hewson remarked was “very rock and roll” with a laugh.

Before their encore, they played ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’, the titular track from their debut album. The song had fans singing along to every word and guitar riff. The solo from the guitarist Josh Jenkinson even had them singing along like karaoke.

Their performance was staggering, and it was evident how much the fans adore their music, as well as them. One fan was seen crying with joy after being handed a drumstick by their drummer, Ryan McMahon.

Their band has now finished their tour, having closed at the 3Arena in their hometown of Dublin on the 11th November, their biggest audience to date. Having been to many concerts I can tell you that no crowd or concert will beat an Inhaler one, they are definitely a band worth seeing at least once.

feature image credit: Lewis Evans via @inhalerdublin instagram