Inhaler "Cuts & Bruises" at the TLA (Philadelphia) and Hammerstein Ballroom (New York)

March 16th, 2023

I had never been to Philadelphia before this past week because I never had a reason to pre-pandemic. Right before COVID struck, in late 2019, I met a friend online through mutual friends and we became close pretty quickly. At the time, I was attending community college, still in my sophomore year of basic courses, and I thought my end goal was to be an English teacher. I was good with kids, all of my previous jobs had been caregiving or nannying or camp counseling, and my mother had gone to school for the same exact thing, so I thought that was what I was meant to do, too.

It was not until I got further into my degree and transferred to a bigger university that I began to recognize teaching was not my biggest goal. I had always told people I just wanted to teach so I could "write on the side," and I had been inspired by educators I met who had done the same kind of thing. I really wanted to be a writer, and I thought teaching was the easiest way to support myself through a writing career in case it backfired.

My good friend, Alex, born and raised in Philadelphia, was one of the few people I confided in through this period of my life. The pandemic kept me from seeing just about anyone I would have typically seen, and it sparked a big turnover in personal interests and circles of friends for me as well. I shifted away from a lot of the things I used to love and out of friend groups that I was no longer connecting with, and I found myself extremely invested in my writing to distract from the lack of live music. Alex is also a writer, and I credit them to be my first real "writer friend" (without the last name of Payne). I had never been close to someone before who truly understood what I meant when I was talking about my writing and the processes, and it was refreshing and interesting to exchange thoughts with someone who I felt really understood me because I had never really had space for sharing my work in my life before. Alex was the first person I really shared my ideas with, the first person I truly trusted to give me feedback without judgment, and they were one of my biggest supporters when I made the decision to pursue writing as a career rather than just a hobby. I changed my major, I got placed in different classes, and I met loads of new people to share my brain with. I was able to build up my comfort levels and workshop my pieces in class with other students, and for the first time since high school, I had real friends to connect with in my classrooms. Alex also switched schools and majors in our time of being friends, and we are both on track to graduate in May with our matching creative writing degrees a little less than a week from each other. (So thank you, Alex, for getting me where I am now).

Conveniently, our spring breaks lined up the same way our graduations did. As I mentioned in my last Inhaler-related blog post, this tour announcement rocked my world a little bit, so I did immediately text them upon seeing the Philadelphia date. We made plans quickly, and by Christmas time, I had a roundtrip plane ticket.

In between the Texas dates and the Philadelphia date, Inhaler played Atlanta, Nashville, and two nights in DC. I spent this time talking to friends I had met at Texas shows and moping around on the Internet about how easy it would have been to go to more stops, wishing I had bought just one more ticket, and Alex messaged me at 11:09 p.m. on Monday, March 10th saying "u should just change your flight rn and I'll buy us shit balcony tickets for new york on the 17th," to which I replied, "stop." Within the hour, I called my manager, I talked to my mom, I asked my sisters for advice, I changed my return flight, and Alex and I booked the extra trip by 12:17 a.m. on March 11th, the week of the New York show.

I felt like I had been waiting years to meet them (because I had) and it had always been a dream of mine to successfully see an artist I loved several times on one tour, so this entire trip felt God-sent to me. I flew a (horrible and delayed) red-eye flight to arrive in Philadelphia at 6 a.m. on the 15th, where Alex greeted me in person for the first time in our 3 years of best-friendship. We spent the whole day doing touristy Philly things (and wore ourselves out), and we set our alarms to be up the next day for the concert.

Honestly, I had pretty low expectations for how well the concert would go for me. Just being present felt like a big enough deal to me, I just wanted to be in the front half of the crowd, and I knew from watching the tour progress in my week away from attending shows that it was getting harder and harder to be front row. I thought I already had my moment at the Dallas show, so I was planning to just be satisfied with being at a third show with my best friend.

Once again, I made a bunch of friends in line. I met several people I had already followed on Twitter or spoken to online previously, which is also something I always love doing at shows. I loved my little line group of friends and I loved having people to talk to all day, it made the waiting in the cold go by so quickly! (If any of y'all are reading this, hi, I love you, and I hope you had as much fun as I did).

Inhaler killed it. That was the most fun I have had at a concert possibly ever in my life. I was in the third row and more towards the center than either of the sides, which was a spot on the floor I had not yet stood in, and the opener for these two shows was Sun Room, a band I have followed alongside Inhaler for several months now. I will say that is not typically the kind of music I am into, but their set was so high-energy and fun that I went home and added a few of the songs back to my playlists. I could see myself really being a fan of theirs in the (very near) future. Inhaler switched up their usual setlist a bit to make it even better. While "We Have to Move On" remains one of my favorite live Inhaler performances and I was a little bummed to see it taken off the setlist, they replaced it with "In My Sleep" and replaced "So Far So Good" with "Now You Got Me," which is easily my favorite song on Cuts & Bruises. The setlist made surprise changes for the better, and I stood with my mouth hanging open for all the time I didn't spend singing along. The energy at this show was higher than ever, both from the crowd and from the boys themselves, and I had the absolute time of my life this time around. I took some of my favorite pictures and videos at this stop as well, despite the tall girls in front of my 5'5 (with the platforms on) self, which is always a bit of a miracle in itself.

After the show, we waited outside the venue to see if any of the boys would come to meet fans. Sun Room met a few people and they seemed like the sweetest, but I was on the other side of the tour bus and the busy street, so I did not get the chance to talk to them personally. After a (seemingly short) hour of talking with other fans who were also hanging out outside, Inhaler did come out and headed straight for their bus. I texted my sisters all bummed that I had missed them again as a majority of the crowd cleared, but Alex and I chose to wait around with a few other people for just a moment longer, just in case.

The tour bus door opened and out walked Bobby. There was a small crowd of about 10 people on that side of the bus, where he stood and talked to a few fans for about 20 minutes. Bobby is admittedly my favorite member of Inhaler, the bassist, and I was very determined to meet him. The people I was standing with all made the decision to cross the street and go to him on the other side of the bus, and that was when I did finally meet him and we took our photo together. (Of course, I was so starstruck by him that I would have fully let him walk away, but Alex caught his attention on my behalf so I could speak to him). I was worried about keeping him for too long because it was getting late and I knew they planned to drive straight to New York that night, but he spoke to me attentively for a few minutes. He asked me a lot of questions and was super sweet to talk to. He signed something for me and he talked about how I was from Texas and going to New York, which he hyped up to be an amazing and very special show (because it was going to fall on Saint Patrick's Day, and Inhaler are Irish). Alex and I took our pictures with him just before Inhaler's tour manager came to call him back onto the bus. He took photos with as many fans as he could in his last minute or so outside, and we left as he got on the bus. 

So now the best show of my life had been amplified. I skipped down the street and cried in my Uber, especially knowing I had the chance to do it all over again the next night.

March 17th, 2023 (Saint Patrick's Day!)

Alex and I woke up early the next morning, packing all of our essentials (except my face wash, apparently, because I wound up in New York with no face wash) and we caught a few busses to board a train. As my mother would say, I was "giddy." I wore my green pants, which I never really could work into a day-to-day outfit otherwise, and I let Alex pick most of our New York activities since the concerts were my doing. We walked around Times Square and shopped a bit until time to check in to our hotel, and then we laid around for a few hours before the concert. We aimed to arrive around 20 minutes before the doors opened because we had balcony tickets and they were first-come first-serve. The line was wrapped around four blocks. Hammerstein Ballroom is definitely the biggest venue Inhaler had played in my personal lineup of shows, which made my balcony seat very entertaining. I am definitely a general admission kind of person, always and forever, but the balcony provided a point of view I do not usually get for shows, and I liked not having to worry about getting a good spot. We were in the second row of the second balcony, with a bird's eye view of the stage and the crowd, which was incredible. The show was amazing. I thought Rob was hyping it up to be amazing because Inhaler would change the setlist around, which they did a little, but it was nothing I had not seen before. They brought back "So Far So Good" and kept "In My Sleep," which I had expected a little because Bobby told the girl next to me that Inhaler thought it was their most "Irish-sounding" song. They added a cover of "Dirty Old Town" (an Irish song) to transition into "In My Sleep", which was amazing musically and lighting-wise. Their stage presence was through the roof and it could be seen even from the "nosebleeds" of a 2,500-capacity venue. I knew immediately what Bobby had been hyping up to me in the streets of Philly the moment it happened at the New York show: a leprechaun came on stage to introduce the encore. He tilted down Elijah's microphone stand to speak into it, which his big dress shows and green vest and big green hat, and he called them back on stage before walking off himself. (He was probably the highlight of my night on his own, but I was especially amused by him after finding out many of the young people in the room somehow thought the man was Bono).

Another amazing show. We waited around after to try to meet them again, but there were too many people hanging out in New York and the band had to get to Boston, so we only waited about an hour. The boys came out and addressed the crowds, but they did not personally meet anyone while we were there. Again, I met a bunch of nice people, saw some friends I knew from the Philly line, and found some people I had been following online, which is always an incredible thing, especially being so far from home. I left there exhausted but very content, and I know it was all money well-spent for me.

My trip felt very long and exciting. I got home and slept for a full ten hours, which is not something that happens to me very often. I had the time of my life and I will be forever grateful for the experiences I had at all of these Inhaler shows while they are still playing in small venues. I hope to see them again in the near future, and I am so thankful for all of the friends the past two weeks have brought me. Special thank you to my manager for enabling me, and to my parents for enabling me, and to Alex for enabling me. I couldn't have done it without y'all, so thank you!

(And if you actually read this whole post, thank you for that, too. I appreciate it more than you know!)