Concert Review: Inhaler Imbued Indie-Rock Passion at Stubb’s

Irish indie-rock band Inhaler captivated its Austin crowd with a casual yet cathartic show on March 18.

Written by Janie Bickerton

Photos courtesy of Lewis Evans

In a set filled with flashing lights and pure rock ecstasy, Inhaler brought the luck of the Irish to Austin just a day after St. Patrick’s Day. The four-piece has only grown in popularity over its seven years of releasing music, reaching international fame while staying true to its Dublin roots. To share its indie-rock expertise with devoted American fans, the band has embarked on the North American leg of its ‘Open Wide’ tour while riding on the heels of its triumphant third album of the same name. Known to shuffle its setlist, the band played a mix of old and new songs, all received with equal adoration by the crowd of mostly young women at Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater.

First to grace the Stubb’s stage was benches, an all-male quartet much like the headliners. Lead singer Anson Kelly and bassist Charlie Baird donned Inhaler tour tees as a marker of solidarity, while drummer Ethan Bowers and guitarist Evan Ojeda represented the type of music to come with plain black tees. At 8:00 p.m. sharp, the San Diego natives sauntered out as Kelly gave an echoing “Hey” before sliding into the group’s latest single, “Naive.” “You were so naive / When you got too close to me,” Kelly sang with a barely coherent wail against the loud, grungy guitars. Behind a mysterious mop of hair, Ojeda shredded the guitar as Kelly channeled Alex Turner with drawling vocals and a cheeky hand on the hip. The crowd bounced to benches’ 2019 track “Common Sense,” which featured intense, impressive drumming from Bowers. After a brief technical difficulty, the crowd swayed to “It Doesn’t Have To Change” before the mellow beat culminated in a heavy rock flourish, continuing  into the crowd favorite “Monodrama.” In a 30-minute set filled with hard-to-hear lyrics and strobe lights worthy of an epilepsy warning, benches gave an overstimulating, dissonant show with a few standouts. 

In between sets, a plethora of guitars on the side stage promised the loud and proud rock from Inhaler to come. At 9:04 p.m., ambient noise and blue light filled the venue to welcome the four Irishmen on stage, who started aptly with the title track of its album and tour, “Open Wide.” In a white shirt and slim black jacket, lead singer Elijah Hewson chose a higher octave for the lyrics, “You can’t reverse the beautiful things you said,” sung in an airy tone tinged with grit — reminiscent of his father and U2 frontman Bono’s signature sound. Audience members’ arms were open wide to welcome the band, and the high persisted as red lights doused the stage, manifesting the sultry energy of “Eddie in the Darkness.” Hewson’s voice cracks felt placed to match the desirous lyrics, “I wanted to lay you down / In sacrеd light / You're brighter than the moon / As thе day suffers night.”

Next came “When It Breaks,” a dark standout from Inhaler’s 2021 album, It Won’t Always Be Like This. The pop-rock hit leaned more on its rock roots live, between Hewson’s yells and guitarist Josh Jenkinson’s riffs, which had the crowd jumping. Hewson quickly fixed an out-of-tune guitar to then shred it during “Little Things,” Open Wide’s closer, keeping the head-bobbing energy going. Inhaler took it back to 2021 again with “Totally,” which saw Hewson lead a call and response with the crowd, asking, “Why does it hurt me so much?” Hewson let out a short “Hi Austin!” before the jubilant 2024 lead single “A Question of You.” Jenkinson, who maintained a focused, contained presence on the right side of the stage for most of the night, went back-to-back with Hewson, who charmed the crowd with several curly hair flips.

Red lights returned for “The Charms,” a slower song that kept the mesmerized audience swaying. Suave bassist Robert “Bobby” Keating, wearing a black jacket to contrast his bleach-blonde hair, took his turn to speak to the audience. “We had a lot of barbeque today but we’re still feeling light on our feet,” Keating joked, urging the Austin crowd to jump to “Who’s Your Money On? (Plastic House).” Hands were up for the first half of the bouncy track, but Stubb’s became solemn as Jenkinson backed away, blue light and smoke enshrouding Hewson’s silhouette for the slow outro of the track.

Jenkinson unassumingly took off his black jacket before lightening the mood with the opening riff of ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” that smoothly transitioned to “X-Ray.” Drummer Ryan McMahon, owning the back of the stage in an unbuttoned white blouse, encouraged claps with persistent percussion. Harkening Britpop influences, Hewson channeled Oasis as he moaned the hefty line, “I will chain myself to your soul.” After stripping his jacket to reveal a white tank, Hewson teased, “I mean what do you expect from a boy band?” More angst followed in “My King Will Be Kind,” which Hewson introduced as being “about boys” before acknowledging, “We like women.” Featuring some of his best gravelly vocals of the night, Hewson spared the song’s most impassioned lyrics for the crowd to willingly yell: “She says ‘I've got no love’ / I fucking hate that bitch.”

Inhaler gave no introduction to “Dublin in Ecstasy,” the first deep cut from its 2023 album Cuts & Bruises. Colors of the Irish flag danced around the stage as the group paid homage to its hometown. Stooping to eye level with the audience, Hewson gave the mic to a front-row fan for her to inaudibly yell before the guitar-heavy outro closed out the crowd favorite.

After the strong bass line of “Love Will Get You There,” Hewson took a moment to acknowledge how far the band has come before telling people at the bar in the back of Stubb’s to “Cheer Up Baby,” transitioning into the high-energy track. Inhaler ended the set with the traditional rock sounds of “It Won’t Always Be Like This.” As the crowd yelled the title of the track in the chorus with Hewson, Jenkinson, chill and confident, gave an occasional shoulder shrug as he strummed the guitar. Also, the band’s keyboardist, Jenkinson, focused solely on guitar for the night and gave the reins to Inhaler’s touring keyboardist, Louis Lambert. During the show, Lambert kept to himself in the back, in a lightly striped button-down that did not match the band’s debonair rocker aesthetic.

Ambient sounds returned as the crowd waited patiently for the encore, delayed slightly to allow McMahon time to take off his shirt. Purple light bathed the stage for the laid-back favorite off of Open Wide, “Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah),” which the crowd easily sang along to as Keating nonchalantly plucked the bass. High spirits continued as Hewson flailed his right hand about — which he did several times throughout the concert — during “Your House.” The crowd acted as the backing choir on the recorded version of the happy hit. Inhaler ended the night with its most popular song, “My Honest Face,” a track that shined with McMahon’s percussion during the intense beats of “One, two, three, four, five” in the first and second verse. For the first and last time of the night, Keating and Jenkinson played face to face, while Hewson snatched the mic stand for McMahon to cheekily bid the audience adieu: “Love you Austin very much.” 

In just under an hour and a half, Inhaler gave an impressive dip into its discography, complete with Hewson’s undeniable control of the stage and Jenkinson’s, Keating’s, and McMahon’s taciturn charm. While they played up boy band tropes by stripping jackets and speaking little to the crowd, the cohesive energies of each band member gave the no-frills gig a promise of this generation’s rock renaissance. No graphic danced behind them, nor did anyone on stage mention Inhaler’s name, but the Irish rockers’ dedication to their craft left everyone gasping for air.