Inhaler Cultivates a Perfect Storm at Their New York City Gig

Irish band Inhaler took New York City by (perfect) storm on 18 October during their ongoing tour of North America.

The lads played at the incredible sold-out Pier 17 venue, which is located on a rooftop in downtown New York City, overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge and East River, serving as an unreal spot to see live music. 

For the past few weeks, the band has been teasing their upcoming third album and as they embarked on their current tour, have begun playing some of the tracks from this new project, much to fans’ excitement. 

Opening for this run of shows is California band, Benches. Their music echoes a similarity to The Strokes’ sound and was a great opener for the headlining Inhaler. Josh Jenkinson, Inhaler’s lead guitarist even came out and played the show in a benches t-shirt, to tip his hat to the supporting guys. 

Having been a fan of Inhaler for going on five years now and having seen them live several times, I can say with certainty that this gig in New York was the best gig they’ve ever played. The production level of the music has skyrocketed since their previous tours, and vocalist Elijah Hewson’s voice has grown exponentially in sound and confidence. This ongoing tour is showing a new and improved side of the Dublin group.

Prior to the show, fans across the venue got notifications that ‘Inhaler added to their story’ and cheers were heard as the band announced the first single from their new album called Your House would be released on 29 October.

The band walks out to the enigmatic Lujon by Henry Mancini, and upon the first glimpse of the band (Ryan McMahon, Robert Keating, Hewson and Jenkinson), the crowd roared louder than I thought possible in the 3300-capacity crowd. The band jumped right into their hit song These Are The Days, leading the crowd into the energetic show.

The gig featured several crowd interactions and two unreleased songs from their upcoming third record, Your House and Open Wide. For the latter track, the band noted that it was inspired by New York City, as was the majority of the album. The band later posted photos from the gig on Instagram, and captioned the post “New York, our second home. We weren’t lying when we said the new album was inspired by your beautiful city.”

The peak moments of the show have to be what I like to personally refer to as ‘The big three’, otherwise known by tracks: Dublin in Ecstasy, It Won’t Always Be Like This and My Honest Face. These three songs consistently have the best and highest energy from both the crowd and the band. As of recently, Eli has been jumping off stage during Dublin in Ecstasy and getting into the crowd to sing with the fans below. The energy during the three of these songs were unmatched, and from a personal perspective, held such a fun and special meaning.

Inhaler put on an incredible show and I think I’m not alone in saying I can’t wait for this new album and era to begin from the Irish lads. Already seeing the growth in live performance is insane and the record is set to be defining for the foursome. And for fans in the UK/EU here’s to hoping your Inhaler tour announcement comes soon!