Having briefly caught INHALER at Cornwall’s Boardmasters in August, I was keen to catch them at a standalone show rather than on a festival stage and tonight was the night as they were playing at the O2 Academy in Bristol, read on to see how the evening panned out.

DYLAN FRASER opened the night with a lively performance, he didn’t  stop moving from start to finish. The set was short and sweet but songs were strong and the chat sharp. It’s well worth looking out for Dylan and checking out his brand new EP , ‘The World isn’t Big When You Know How It Works’, which consists of 7 songs, it’s practically an album!

Next up was WET LEG, after a cracking summer hitting festivals such as Latitude, Green Man and Isle of Wight (their ‘home town’) they recently released their latest single ‘Wet Dream’. The guitars are jagged and squally, the vocals are hollered and there is a distant sense of Bjork in their performance. It is still early days for this dynamic duo but after signing to Domino earlier this year and the dates for a headline tour due for release soon things are about to go crazy for them.

And then it was the moment everyone was waiting for…..

Inhaler hit the stage to ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This”, the title track to their debut self titled album and the crowd literally went wild.  This couldn’t be further demonstrated by the bra that flew from the crowd and almost hit Elijah, eventually retrieved by a roadie with a broad smile on his face. The show was sharp, the tunes were flawlessly delivered and the sound was a tight as it ever could be. Their songs are catchy and Elijah’s vocals effortlessly drift across the room, drawing everyone into the emotion. By the fourth song, the crowd were thoroughly absorbed, well, apart from the couple of lads deciding to start a fight in the middle of the hall causing the band to cut the song short and ‘have a word’. “Split up, have a sit down. And if you do it again, you’re out” delivered in the lilting Dublin accent quickly brought the fuss to an end.

And just as we all started getting into it, it was over. The songs are strong and the band carry themselves with charisma and charm. Inhaler have a very bright future ahead of them but right now, they have an album of fantastic songs that needs to be heard and they put on a killer live show, go see them if you can, you won’t be disappointed.

Words and Pictures by Glenn Morrison