The Scratch – The Academy – Live Review
by Killian Laher

The Scratch – The Academy – 5/03/23

On the evidence of this, Sunday nights out are alive and well in Dublin. The Academy was stuffed to the brim for this, the second of two shows from trad-punkers The Scratch, on the eve of their first American tour. The show was high energy from the start with new song Latchico causing mayhem in a really boisterous crowd, complete with tin whistle solo! The band’s raucous performance incited some good old fashioned moshing and crowd surfing. The ecstatic crowd lapped it up, singing along to every word, beer and tops in the air for tunes like Faker.

They took things down a notch for The Road To Ballyshannon. While the song is a pleasant, almost country instrumental, without any words to chant along to the audience chattered until the next banger came along. At times the band almost seemed to veer into raggle-taggle territory, perhaps the derided genre is due a revival? They finished with Another Round and a rousing Pull Your Jocks Up, rounded off with a stage-dive by the guitarist.

It was clear from such a manic show that these guys have quite the following, the energy in the room was a joy to behold.