Picture this: You’re out on a date night with the husband/wife/whatever, and things are going well. You had a bite to eat; maybe even saw a movie–but you don’t get out as often as you once did, and you’d like to take in a bit of the nightlife while you have the opportunity. You look around for something to do, but dance clubs aren’t really your thing and you can’t stomach another college cover band churning out booze-soaked renditions of Mary Jane’s Last Dance or Sweet Caroline. Just before you decide to throw in the towel and head home, you see that a band called itchy-O is performing at a small venue as you pass it.

itchy-o-nye-2016The flyer is a tad ominous, and you can hear what appear to be marching drums blaring from inside the building. Fuck it. What else do you have going on? You enter the venue…

The first thing you notice is that everything is a goddamn mess. People are bunched up wherever they can find space, masked individuals (whom you have to assume are part of the band) are dressed in Marching Band uniforms and wearing sombreros in the middle of the floor, a few guys are parading around with giant megaphones and amps on their backs, you spot a couple of stringed instruments up on the stage, and there’s a dude whisper-screaming into some strange contraption that’s connected to a back back that looks straight out of the original Ghost Busters films. You know, if the original Ghost Busters film was on PCP and featured a screaming monkey. This is unlike anything you have ever seen, and your gut tells you to get the hell out of there, but you can’t. For some unidentifiable reason, your eyes are glued to the performers and you cannot look away. What the hell is happening? What the hell is this? This… is itchy-0

This is unlike anything you have ever seen…

We were fortunate enough to get some time with the masked musicians earlier this week. Check out our conversation with the group on the next page!!