The Scratch announce major Irish tour, with 3Olympia Theatre date

The Scratch have announced an extensive Irish winter tour, which includes major shows at the 3Olympia Theatre, Cyprus Avenue, Black Box and many more.

Started as a fun experiment in the kitchen of a house in Perrystown, Dublin quartet The Scratch was born from a shared love of acoustic guitar, metal and traditional Irish music. The outfit have worked to mould triumphant melodies with the groove and intensity of metal.

A 2017 busking trip to the Rory Gallagher festival in Ballyshannon kick-started the journey, as a video of the band busking racked up an incredible one million views in just a week and was shared around the world.

An invitation to do a free show in Dublin’s Whelan’s followed, and then a string of Dublin headliners in increasingly bigger venues, each one sold out before doors. Most recently their Academy Dublin show sold out in just four days, as well as their first UK show in The Camden Assembly.

Their first EP Old Songs landed in 2018, a collection of older instrumental material. Next came stand-alone singles and crowd favourites 'Get It Right Up' and 'Punisher' that summer.

2019 saw the release of The Whole Buzz EP as well as singles 'Cúnla' and 'Flaker', with a marked development of their songwriting style and sound. The Whole Buzz further cemented The Scratch as one of the best trad revival/metal crossover acts in the country and one of the most exciting acoustic acts in the world with high energy acoustic riffs and soaring melodies littered across five tracks.

2020 was to see the band tour the UK for the first time, play their biggest shows to date around Ireland, as well as some of Europe’s biggest festivals. With the arrival al of Covid-19 changing the industry and indeed the world for a large portion of the year, the band decided to take matters into their own hands and release their debut album Couldn’t Give A Rats three months early to give their fanbase something positive in a difficult time. The album has received critical acclaim, scoring a top 10 album in Ireland, a 4 star review from The Irish Times and Hot Press describing it as one of the “boldest Irish debuts in recent memory”.

The band jut finished up their rescheduled UK/Irish tour. The tour was almost entirely sold out, including a date at London’s Boston Music Room and an unforgettable show to a sold out 3Olympia Theatre Dublin, their biggest headline gig to date. Catch them at Sea Sessions and Electric Picnic this summer.

2021 and 2022 saw the release of live album Couldn't Leave Our Gafs and singles 'Joseph Ronald Drew' and 'Another Round'.

Revisit our February 2020 interview with The Scratch here.

Check out the full list of tour dates below: