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

Itchy-O creates transcendent musical experiences by blending iconographies in an effort to provide a distinctive offering. The resulting chaos dissolves familiarities, awakens possibilities, and employs the true nature and power of hive-minded ceremony. With a performance troupe of over 50+ musicians, dancers, puppeteers, and special effects experts, itchy-O creates a space where the performer and audience co-create an ecstatic artistic experience. The percussive rhythms of the drum battery and taiko drums shake all tenants of tradition and intermingle with unique custom-crafted electronic devices, providing a primal-futuristic spiritual immersion.

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

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

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

  • Ethan Alexander Bass

  • Sarah Ayako Taiko

  • Bryan Aquino Snare

  • Scott Allen Banning Producer | Director | Roto-Toms

  • Nicole Banowetz Inflatable Arts

  • Rex Blatter Chaos Krüwe

  • David Britton Synthesizer | Noise Division

  • Geoff Brent Vocoder | Chaos Krüwe

  • Megs Burd Lion Dancer

  • Claire Bellamy Wardrobe

  • Robert Drew Burleson Cymbalist

  • Carlo Campagna Cymbalist

  • Patrick Casey Chaos Krüwe

  • Jesse Dawson Sampling | Electronics | Noise Division

  • Bridget Doyle Wardrobe

  • Jackson Ellis SpFX | Pyro Technician

  • Jenny Ferry Lighting Designer

  • Grayson Fisk Bass Drum

  • Maristella Frisch Wardrobe

  • Sam Foreman Sampling | Synthesizer | Noise Division

  • Jon Frances Chaos Krüwe

  • Evelyn Fugate Kriēchén

  • Fez Garcia Taiko | Cymbals | Percussion

  • Mike Grimsley Chaos Krüwe

  • Joe Hatfield Timbales | Guitar

  • Epona Shephard Kriēchén

  • Joe Hatfield Timbales

  • Bright Hays Kriēchén

  • Chuck Holt Chaos Krüwe | Polyphonic

  • David Kessner SpFX | High Voltage Technician | Engineering

  • Micah Kessner Fog Engineer | Chaos Krüwe

  • John Knudsen Kriēchén

  • Thomas Knight Taiko

  • Andrew Linares Lion Dancer | Chaos Krüwe

  • Susan Lucia Timbales

  • Nafeesa Lynn Kriēchén

  • Jackson Lynn Taiko

  • Henri Francois Mamet Chaos Krüwe

  • Allison Marcellus Cymbalist | Lion Dancer

  • Mark Moffett SpFX | Pyro Technician

  • James Nelson Guitar

  • Jake O'Neal Quint Tenors

  • Cory Phare Publicist

  • David Poore Lion Dancer

  • Hanne Schrickx Cymbalist

  • Brad Schumacher Noise Division | Tech

  • Epona Shephard Kriēchén

  • Brad Smalling Live & Studio Engineer

  • Erin Smith Lighting Designer

  • Casper Smith Chaos Krüwe

  • John Smith Chaos Krüwe

  • Abrean Sophia Marie Kriēchén

  • Aaron Spriggs Theremin

  • Dejavia Todd Chaos Krüwe

  • Sara Valentine Kriēchén

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

  • Ian Welling Vocoder

  • Bernard Wooten Chaos Krüwe

  • Bishop Zareh Projections

  • Wakenyan Zyphier Chaos Krüwe

  • 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