Live review: Inhaler revolutionise themselves by breathing new life into UK tour and album

Being the opening date of their Open Wide UK tour in support of the album of the same name, fans of the Dubliners could be seen queuing well before the gig in hopeful anticipation for a reserved space on the barrier between them and their batch of indie heroes.

Vocalist and guitarist Elijah Hewson, bassist Robert Keating, guitarist Josh Bartholomew Jenkinson, and drummer Ryan McMahon are the genetic makeup of Inhaler - the childhood friends who established the band more than a decade ago back in the midst of 2012.

Before the main show, the army of Inhaler devotees were treated to twinkling support choices in the form of the emphatic and classy The Guest List and the formidably fiery follow-up that was the crank-wave specialists Gurriers.

Both demanded the early-onset attention of the committed spectators and certainly left a memorable note on a night of surefire hits.

It was then time for the main event, and as the clock reached every gig-goer's favourite time of the day, the glistening lights high above the stage dazzled the eager audience below before fading back into the pitch-black darkness again.

And then, with a few seconds passing, the sharply stylish set from the Emerald Isle rockers got under way as they graced the stage and opened wide their new show and tour with an old familiar, as the rushing thrill ride that was My Honest Face launched their newest passion project into touch.

Following on from the piledriver and punchy curtain lifter, they favoured for some modern material as the next two gave fans a deep dive into their new sound live, as Eddie In The Darkness and A Question Of You rang out across the Academy floor to unrivalled heights of fervour.

With the band’s catalogue now spanning three albums, the setlist saw a healthy blending of past works and the refreshingly catchy injection of their newer tracks.

This included the likes of the demandingly raw X-Ray, which saw out its emphatic live debut.

Primitive powerhouse, My King Will Be Kind, unabashedly swept out across to the swinging Yorkshire crowd, and as the attendees reverberated its ever-unforgivingly brutal yet entertaining chorus back to their alt-rock favourites, it’s certainly easy to see why it’s a staple within their packed-out setlist.

Sonically pop-influenced anthems like Love Will Get You There and the ever-so-catchy earworm that was Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah) allowed for some of the band's latest ventures of genre blending mixed with their prior endeavours into a pop-sounding collective mesh together ever so sweetly.

The childhood friends rounded out their shiningly sharp set with the modern indie classic Cheer Up Baby and the yearning earnestness of the melodically smooth Just to Keep You Satisfied.

An encore was due, of course, and an unequivocally euphoric encore was given.

Open Wide was the first of the three to see out the closing of the night, and as the album and tour namesake, its stirringly nostalgic presence feels lost to a road trip frozen in time, as its jangly guitars flow through your ears like the cool wind on a late-night summer drive.

It was then a mix of old and new as the usual set closer saw out the penultimate spot and their first single off Open Wide to pinch the ending track, as their shiny showcase of longstanding familiars and blisteringly new beloveds came to an end.

As the sentimental rock anthem in the form of It Won’t Always Be Like This and the charmingly sweet Your House finalised a radically new highlighting of the band’s glaringly ambitious step into new-fangled genres while still honing in to their alternatively stimulating roots.

• New Inhaler album 'Open Wide' is available now via Polydor Records