L'ITCH

"What do you get if you put Queens of the Stone Age and The Guru Guru in a blender… Muse on coke?"

Thomas Michiels asked that live on Studio Brussel, seconds before he played 'King Ludo'. The answer is L'itch (that's 'itch' with an 'L' in front), a Belgian four-piece that needed three references, a kitchen appliance and a drug to be described.

It started in an abandoned hospital, where the band wrote their debut, Urges (2020). The record made an impact. Stages opened up, and the band took every one with a plug and a floor: fifty shows and counting, from Antwerp Music City to The Club in Mechelen. They opened for Psychonaut and shared a bill with Brutus. Show after show they played their way into the underground scene, until it stopped being a rumour and became their address.

Those years of gigs taught the band exactly what these songs should do in a room. A Numbers Game (2024) is that education on record. Spotify put it on All New Rock and All New Punk, Humo and HLN wrote about it, and the release show was packed. The stages kept getting bigger, with Floatline Fest and Trix among them.

L'itch is post-punk, power-pop and noise rock at full volume. The songs hit hard, then leave behind a strange, almost hypnotic calm. The riffs show up first, and the hooks sneak in right behind them. And before you know it, you're humming along with something loud.

Rumour has it a new record lands in 2027.