Review: Irish rockers Inhaler make a killer impression beyond U2 family connection

“Anybody in here Irish?”

When Elijah Hewson took count of his fellow countryman in attendance Sunday night at the Fillmore in Minneapolis, you could’ve closed your eyes and sworn a much more famous Irish rock singer had asked the question.

That certainly wasn’t the only time the frontman of the young Dublin band Inhaler sounded like his dad, Paul Hewson, better known as U2′s Bono. But it was the one time it sounded that obvious who his dad is. Better it happened when he talked more than when he sang.

A band that’s emerged strong on TikTok and other viral avenues over the past couple of years — largely with young fans as indifferent about Bono as U2 fans were Sonny Bono — Inhaler has grown strong as a live act, too.

Sunday’s show was the group’s third time in town in as many years. The quartet (a five-piece on tour) offered up an ultra-tight, polished, 75-minute set that prompted ample sing-along moments and elated reactions from the 1,200 or so fans who came out on a school night.

Already it sounds like Inhaler is coming into its own. Granted, Hewson does sing like his dad, with a dramatic vibrato that soars in the choruses and a breathy, deeper voice in the verses. Not only that, but his band also plays anthemic rock songs with loud, ambient, reverb-heavy guitars.

If you had to pick a more obvious soundalike band for Inhaler, though, it would be Las Vegas hitmakers the Killers — albeit also a heavily U2-inspired band, but at least there’s two degrees of separation.

Inhaler’s opening song, “These Are the Days,” rang out with the sort of catchy carpe diem rah-rah-ing as the Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.” From there, the group launched into “When It Breaks,” the first of many tunes centered around romantic heartbreak — which for now seems to be the band’s central topic rather than some of the grandiose spiritual and political topics Hewson’s dad took on from an early age.

“Why does it hurt so much?” the 25-year-old singer asked during “Totally,” one of a handful of tunes built around a plunky piano groove; more INXS-like than U2-ish.

One way Hewson varied greatly from his dad onstage: He played guitar throughout Sunday’s set, and thus stayed anchored to the microphone at center stage all night. He and bandmate Josh Jenkinson played some lovely, swirling guitar parts, too, especially toward the end. They built up the momentum and reverb with “Cheer Up, Baby” and the pre-encore finale “It Won’t Always Be Like This” before finishing with another ultra-Killers-y anthem, “My Honest Face,” all ecstatically received by the crowd.

Hewson and Jenkinson also played some elegant, Beach House-style drippy guitar bits in one of the night’s mellower tunes, “Dublin in Ecstasy,” the song that prompted Hewson’s roll call of Irish people in attendance.

Another humorous instance of their Irish pride: They had a T-shirt at the merch stand that asked, “Who the feck is Inhaler?” Sunday’s performance left little doubt more people will soon know Inhaler’s music with or without the U2 family connection.