Blossoms and Inhaler are how bands in the same field should be, they’re good mates and seem to be helping each other out instead of being too competitive. Inhaler support Blossoms in the UK at their bigger shows, then Blossoms support Inhaler in Dublin and around Europe where Inhaler are much bigger. It’s a great way to work around European touring issues and get to new audiences.
When Steph booked tickets for this one as part of a trip to Belgium for my birthday, she didn’t even realise Blossoms were supporting! But it’s basically 2 bands for the price of 1 for us, being massive Blossoms fans.
Lotto Arena and Antwerp itself
We discovered Antwerp was a good music city when we came to see Olivia Rodrigo here last year at the bigger Sportpaleis arena, which is a modern venue with great sound. It turns out Lotto Arena is built on the side of it, and is just a smaller copy of the arena next door.
The capacity of the Lotto Arena is over 8,000, though the upper tier was closed. The floor and lower tier seats were full though, which puts Inhaler at a much higher level in Europe than their UK festival slots suggest.
The sound and facilities are just as good and it’s much more comfortable than many of the older UK venues of similar size.
Blossoms
I’ve seen Blossoms almost 30 times over the past 10 years and I’m always impressed with how they reinvent their sets so often.
I loved the opening where someone comes on stage and turns on a film reel to start the intro to ‘Perfect Me’, which is a great starting song by the way.
The set goes between the theatrical (the ‘Nightclub’ phone call which namedrops a club in the city they’re in, and the little conga during the song), to the straight up rock (‘Big Star’) and atmospheric older songs (‘Honey Sweet’).
it includes the stories behind ‘Gary’ and ‘Big Star’ and the anthems like ‘There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls’, which will always be my favourite I think, and ‘Charlemagne’, back as the set closer.
I was surprised at how the crowd reacted to Blossoms, they were really into it, cheering and clapping along. And those that didn’t know the songs were respectful and seemed to enjoy it. A lot more respectful than UK crowds for support acts!
Inhaler
They played a lot of tracks from the new album ‘Open Wide’, which sounded great live, but the best crowd reactions were reserved for the older songs with big sing alongs for both the singles and album tracks.
My favourite ‘Dublin in Ecstasy’ was played second, after the title track of the new album, and it sounded huge.
‘Eddie in the Darkness’, ‘A Question of You’ and ‘Little Things’ were all stand outs from the new album, while ‘My King Will Be Kind’ from the first album got a huge sing along.
The last half hour was packed with hits, the three singles from the second album (‘Love Will Get You There’, ‘If You’re Gonna Break My Heart and ‘Just To Keep You Satisfied’) were all played in a row to a huge reaction.
Then ‘My Honest Face’, their incredible single from the first album, finished the main set. It’s a song that sounds like it belongs in arenas of that size.
The encore had two new ones, ‘Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah)’ and ‘Your House’, with another arena size track ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’ in between. I’d have had one of the heavier songs last but that’s just personal preference.
All in all it was a great night, Inhaler kept my attention the entire gig despite only really knowing the singles from the earlier albums really well. Looking forward to seeing them again at one of the festivals in the coming months.
The Antwerp crowd has been incredible both times we’ve been to gigs in the city, so it’s worth considering seeing a band on tour over there if the chance comes up. It’s an incredible city too, so relaxed but with a nice buzz, but it’s also clean and safe.
