Lauded as one of today’s most unique musical-performance groups. 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. The group disrupts traditional performance protocols with a form of chaos that unifies spectators and audiences with a powerful and immersive musical experience that features elaborate costumes, large-scale puppets, teams of provocateurs, and SpFX engineers. Drawing inspiration from many cultures – Japanese Taiko drumming to Chinese Lion dancing, Mexican street processions, ancient esoteric symbolism and American drum corps, itchy-O offers a transcendental musical experience that dissolves the divide between performer and spectator. 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 many cultural iconographies in an effort to provide a distinctive offering that 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.  Shaking all tenants of tradition, the percussive rhythms of the drum battery and taiko drums intermingle with unique custom-crafted electronic devices, providing a primal-futuristic spiritual immersion.

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.

Ethan Alexander
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Bass

Bryan Aquino
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Snare

Scott Allen Banning
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Conductor | Roto-Toms

Nicole Banowetz
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Inflatables

Julianna Beckert
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Creep Unit

Mariah Becerra
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Special Effects

Rex Blatter
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Chaos Technician

David Britton
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MicroKorg

Geoff Brent
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Vocoder

Megs Burd
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Lion Dancer

Robert Drew Burleson
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Cymbalist

Carlo Campagna
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Cymbalist

Russ Cochrane
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Guitar

Jackson Ellis
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Industrialist

Evelyn Fugate
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Creep Unit

Joe Hatfield
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Timbales | Guitar

Lucinda Herrera
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Creep Unit

Colin Elliot
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Sampler

Maristella Frisch
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Stage Manager

Elliott Grossman
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Noise Division

Nick Gonzales
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Noise Division

Ethan Klein
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Lighting Designer

Lyndsey Hays
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Creep Unit

David Kessner
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SpFX / Engineering

Micah Kessner
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SpFX / Chaos Technician

John Knudsen
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Creep Unit

Thomas Knight
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Taiko

Dave Lane
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Taiko

Andrew Linares
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Vocoder / Chaos Technician

Jackson Lynn
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Taiko

Henri Francois Mamet
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Chaos Technician

Allison Marcellus
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Lion Dancer

Mark Moffett
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SpFX Industrialist

Sean O’Malley
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Quint Tenors

Tim Pettit
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Cymbalist

Cory Phare
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Publicist

Liz Pickard
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Chaos Technician

Chey Rawhoof
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Cymbalist / Bass Drum

Toni Rib
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Taiko

Brad Schumacher
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Noise Division

Wayne Scott
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Lion Dancer

Thomas Silaghy
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Special Effects

Brad Smalling
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Audio Engineer

Erin Smith
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Lighting Designer

John Smith
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Chaos Technician

Aaron Spriggs
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Theremin

Matt Steitle
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Taiko

Will Tuttle
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SpFX Industrialist

Sara Valentine
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Creep Unit

Kirsten Vermulen
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MicroKorg

Niza Volair
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Creep Unit

Wakenyan Zyphier
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Chaos Technician

Cetan Zyphier
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Chaos Technician

“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