Inhaler Live at First Avenue – Minneapolis MN – March 25th 2023

First Avenue presents Inhaler

In March of 2022, I saw the band Inhaler live for the first time. It was at First Avenue night club in Minneapolis. The concert was amazing.  Almost exactly one year later I saw Inhaler live again.  It was at the same legendary venue. It was not only amazing, it was epic. The new tour is called  the ‘Cuts & Bruises’ tour. The songs on the new album seem a little more diversified than their previous album “”It Won’t Always Be Like This.” The song “Valentine” seems to be a love letter in a way to their fans. Most of the fans at an Inhaler concert seem to be teenage girls. The rest seem to be older fans of Eli Hewson’s Dad, Bono.

Before the concert there when there was a line of people waiting outside of First Avenue.  They were literally down the block.  There was a group of three very dedicated Inhaler fans giving out paper hearts.  It was so other fans so they could hold them up during the concert when the band played “Valentine”.  After they played the song, Eli even asked who were the fans that set that up and thanked them for it. Some of the other songs on the new album  that are a little more diverse are “If You’re Gonna Break My Heart” is somewhat bluesy sounding and kinda reminds me of something that the band Primal Scream would’ve put out back in the day. Also, the song “Dublin in Ecstasy” is a unique sounding song compared to everything they had done previously.

The opening band was Sun Room which is a great band that reminded me bands from the 1960’s that would play “surfer rock”. They are based out of San Diego (which they mentioned several times) and feature a great lead singer and also some great guitar playing too. It gives me the feel of what it might have been like to see the Dick Dale & His Del-Tones back when they were first starting out.  Seeing Inhaler live was a really fun  experience.

Review and photos by Todd Johnson