Their mesmerising energy sends the crowd wild in London.
By Josh Ferreira
With their debut album It Won’t Always Be Like This entering the UK album chart at number one back in July, Inhaler have always been a band to follow closely. Hailing from Dublin, Inhaler’s members - Eli Hewson, Josh Jenkinson, Bobby Keating and Ryan McMahon - produce songs with relentlessly driving bass lines and electric melodies that have cultivated a mass following worldwide.
You can feel the anticipation buzzing in the air as we queue to see these talented young lads play the 2,300 capacity O2 Forum (in Eli’s words mid-concert: “this might be the largest room we’ve ever played, eh?”).
As the band walks onto stage, three words from Eli send these die-hard fans wild: “We’re back baby!”. Kicking off their set with the album’s title track, the crowd erupts with beautiful chaos to the frenzy of guitar and drums. Josh’s guitar solo gets us all jumping up and down in unified euphoria. It’s incredible to think that, within only four minutes, Inhaler have completely electrified the atmosphere in this room.
Inhaler then delight us by playing some of their early singles, each with their distinctive infectious melody. Ryan’s going crazy on the drums throughout, especially on ‘We Have To Move On’ and ‘Falling In’ - we guzzle these perfect moments with absolute joy.
The energy levels never drop and mid-way through Inhaler play the fan-favourite ‘When It Breaks’ - people jump up and down screaming out the lines "I wanna see your beautiful face / you know we're gonna be there when it breaks". I can see someone in the crowd crying with happiness at the unadulterated emotion of the lyrics, such is the nature of Inhaler’s music.
Josh's own photo.
Josh’s guitar change (now on acoustic) signifies the start of the psychedelic ‘My King Will Be Kind’. The deep bass line is constant and the crowd sways with their hands in the air in harmony.
From the rock ‘n’ roll of ‘In My Sleep’, we move to ‘Cheer Up Baby’ - the anthemic chorus roaring round the O2 Forum with such volume and ferocity that I can hardly hear my own voice screaming along. ‘Cheer Up Baby’ has such a fresh and playful personality that everyone can’t help but smile and laugh as they bob up and down.
The boys finish their perfect set with the iconic anthem (and this writer’s absolute favourite) ‘My Honest Face’. Everyone blasts out the pre-chorus “I-I-I wanna be / up-up-up on TV, yeah” to Eli’s singing whilst Bobby goes to the crowd to tease them with his bass guitar. The stage lighting spins around to show the pure bliss on the faces of every single sweat-drenched person in this passionate crowd.
The chaps are thrown an Ireland flag by their fans which reads, aptly, ‘INHALER WORLD DOMINATION’. Eli holds this up to delighted cheers and they leave the stage with their fists raised, as we’re left breathless with adrenaline.
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