Though Inlet Sound bailed on wearing costumes to their album release show on Saturday, they can be forgiven because they dressed damn finely.

They opened their set with the album’s title track, Romantics 1. It was a strong starter, as not only is it representative of the project as a whole, but also how their sound has grown with this album: a quietly strummed guitar quickly picks up pace over the first 30 seconds to make way for pointed, more aggressive strumming.  This make sway for Wexler’s vocals, and Gore’s mandolin before the song really emerged as something much fuller and expansive than any of their songs on their earlier EP.

The on stage lineup has evolved in the past year. Michael Wexler, Sean Hardy and Steven Gore were joined on Saturday by Kate Maclean on drums and Curtis Murphy on bass.  The group played tightly and the amount of work that has gone into this release was evident. They certainly did justice to the album’s breadth of sound, and each of the set’s bigger songs carried a feeling of considerable personal investment.

A notable point on Saturday was the clear connection between Hardy’s piano and Maclean’s drumming—something that is not a very easy thing to have surface in a live show.

Stream their entire album here.

Photography by Andrew Weir