INHALER // O2 ACADEMY, LEEDS
Formula Rock n Roll is a big hit to a younger audience
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5)
INHALER PERFORMING AT LEEDS O2 ACADEMY - 29.09.2021
PICTURE BY: | JOHN HAYHURST AT SNAPAGIG.COM
There is a large tour bus parked outside the O2 Academy tonight and not the sort you would expect for a debut album tour from a new(ish) band. Also a few roadies, nice sound desk and impressive selection of guitars, gives the impression that this is a band with some serious backing.
The fans are mostly younger student age girls, all looking for a glimpse of frontman Elijah Hewson (Eli). Although strangely there is another group of older fans (Aged 45+) who are looking to see if there is any resemblance between this band and a certain other well known band from Dublin, for which there is definitely both in appearance and sound.
Live the performance is a well honed production, and it can’t be faulted for interaction between Eli and the fans – he jumps down into the pit in the 2nd song and sings to a group of screaming girls like it has never happened before in the history of rock n roll. They clearly have the songs too, first 3 are all great danceable and singable tunes, and to divert the focus for a couple of minutes Eli introduces “Josh Jenkinson on guitar”. A fine player for a young lads band, but he doesn’t have The Edge, if you know what I mean ;-).
All joking aside, they are a great live band and ‘It won’t always be like this’ is a fine debut album, but there is that overriding feeling that I’ve seen and heard it all before. Where is the ingenious spark that we are seeing from other Irish bands like The Murder Capital or Fontaines DC. It isn’t there with Inhaler, they have great presence on stage and it all sounds arena worthy, but it also it feels a little like a formula that served older bands well in the 80’s and 90’s, now rehashed and fed to the younger masses that have endured a drought of decent rock bands recently. To really make an impact there needs to be something more – maybe that will come with album No2.
I expect to see the band climb the festival line up ladders in the next five years, and have a string of hit albums to their name, but they need to fully stretch out of the shadows of that other band fronted by Eli’s father to make a real impact.
