The Invitation

With a driving drum corps battery, taiko drummers, an arsenal of electronics including synthesizers, theremin, vocoders, and other custom-made sonic devices, itchy-O completely engulfs an audience from every angle in an electric bog of music, ephemera, and spectacle. Lauded as one of today’s most unique musical performance experiences, the group disrupts traditional performance protocols with a form of chaos that unifies spectators and audiences. Itchy-O performances awaken the senses, test assumptions, and create an opening for new experiences where identity and boundaries surrender and disband.

CONTENT AND FORM

IMPACT~ ARTISTIC, INTELLECTUAL, COMMUNAL, CIVIC, SOCIAL:

Societies today largely choose what to see, hear, and believe. Our lives are carefully curated and programmed by ourselves and outside influences. Itchy-O challenges that hierarchy of choice and control by inserting its one-of-a-kind creative chaos. We invite our audiences to embrace mystery by passing between knowing and unknowing, self and other. Performances create a temporary community of co-creators who surrender control as observers to become a part of manifesting a shared artistic experience.

The Calling

RADICAL, TRANSCENDENTAL, MUSICAL-PERFORMANCE, INCLUSION

Itchy-O aspires to create transcendent spiritual experiences with performances that confound the senses and disorient perceptions of place, time, order, reason and categorical identity. We invite our audiences to embrace mystery and join us in passing between knowing, unknowing, self and other.

• compel-fratorum • hyper-intentus • desumo-acoustic • artifex voluptus • celebratio professio •

• compel-fratorum • hyper-intentus • desumo-acoustic • artifex voluptus • celebratio professio •

THE PLAYERS

  • Tyler Aldridge Keys | Sampling | Noise Division

  • Ethan Alexander Bass

  • Bryan Aquino Snare

  • Scott Allen Banning Producer | Director | Roto-Toms

  • Nicole Banowetz Inflatable Arts

  • Ernie Baske Cymbalist | Lion Dancer

  • Benjamin Beardsley Resident Bard

  • Claire Bellamy Wardrobe | Chaos Krüwe

  • Evan Bowels Polyphonics | Noise Division

  • David Britton Synthesizer | Noise Division

  • Geoff Brent Vocoder | Kaos Krüwe

  • Megs Burd Lion Dancer

  • Robert Drew Burleson Cymbalist

  • Jesse Dawson Sampling | Electronics | Noise Division

  • Jackson Ellis SpFX | Pyro Technician

  • Grayson Fiske Bass Drum

  • Maristella Frisch Wardrobe

  • Evelyn Fugate Kriēchén

  • Fez Garcia Taiko, Cymbalist

  • Mike Grimsley Kaos Krüwe

  • Lyndsey "Bright" Hays Kriēchén

  • Chuck Holt | Polyphonic Kaos Krüwe

  • David Kessner SpFX | High Voltage Technician | Engineering

  • Micah Kessner Fog Engineer | Kaos Krüwe

  • John Knudsen Kriēchén

  • Thomas Knight Taiko

  • Andrew Linares Lion Dancer | Kaos Krüwe

  • Susan Lucia Timbales

  • Jackson Lynn Taiko

  • Henri Francois "Moose" Mamet Kaos Krüwe

  • Mark Moffett SpFX | Pyro Technician

  • James Nelson Guitar

  • Jake O'Neal Quint Tenors

  • Eean Ovens Lion Dancer

  • Hanne Schrickx Cymbalist

  • Epona Shephard Kriēchén

  • Brad Smalling Live & Studio Engineer

  • Erin Smith Lighting Designer

  • Aaron Spriggs Theremin

  • Dejavia Todd Kaos Krüwe

  • Sara Valentine Kriēchén

  • Kirsten Vermulen Co-Producer | Art-Director | Synthesizer

  • Bernard Wooten Chaos Krüwe | Cymbalist

  • Cetan Zyphier Lion Dancer | Chaos Krüwe

Mystery is certainly key to itchy-O, Denver’s own astoundingly large 50-member-plus percussive and electronic musical collective, whose wild, immersive shows completely tear down the walls between performer and audience, stage and dance floor. For example, there are few interviews where the band answers as a collective in the interest of keeping their individual identities secret. But in an era of ego-driven individualism, where even the most intimate personal details of our lives are ripe for peacocking on social media, there’s something refreshingly genuine and artistically rebellious about a commitment to collectivism, community, and anonymity.

Sarah Baranauskas •  Marquee Magazine

View Itchy-O's Press Kit

Since 2009, this Colorado-based meta-mystical ensemble has been thrilling audiences across the U.S. and beyond.  

A batterie of fourteen-plus power percussionists comprises the spine of the fifty-plus strong performance troupe whose orchestral arsenal of avant-instrumentation runs the gamut from guitars, gamelan, and synths to less conventional instruments including theremin and vocoders in concert with more experimental trance-inducing appurtenances.

Itchy-O dismantles assumptions of traditional performance models to break down the barriers between audience and experience, administering a blast of ceremonial chaos;  

baptizing the audience—body, mind, and collective soul—in a spectacular, pan-sensorial sea of music, mystery, and transcendental spiritual spectacle.