Cathal McKenna and Gary Regan of The Scratch talk to MAXIM KELLY ahead of headlining Galway's new music festival Momentum next month
They say to really understand The Scratch, you have to see them live. Punters in Galway can catch them at the new Momentum Festival, in Oranmore, over the May bank holiday weekend.
The four piece, formed in Perrystown, Dublin, will play the closing night, Monday, May 4, of the four-day mini festival, in the Crescendo Tent, alongside Cliffords, Madra Salach and special guests.
Guitarist and vocalist Gary Regan doesn’t beat about the bush.
“Ah here; just look at the line-up. Madra Salach are blowing up – absolutely killing it at the moment; insanely good live. And Cliffords too – just unreal. Bands, bag-a-cans in a field, and a few tunes… It’s a long weekend as well, so come on ta fuck,” he advises.
The lads have played Galway before – raucous gigs at Monroe’s, for the folk festival, and in the Róisín Dubh – but this will be a different order of magnitude, with more than 4,000 fans expected within the big top, to be erected at Ard na Mara, in the heart of Oranmore, with the village transformed into a sound stage to kick-off the summer, as the sun sets behind, swallowed into Galway Bay.
The Scratch are not keen on being called “trad-metal” but it is fair to say their own songs bring the energy of Blues-infused hard rock, filtered through lyrics of distinctively Irish observations on the tyranny of the session, blatant blaggardism, and an irreverent celebration of the vagaries of youth as it transforms into something older, yet only maybe wiser.
They play a select few covers too, and the lads are discussing a potential Galway banger for Momentum: maybe Steve Earle, Waterboys, Saw Doctors or even ‘The Fields of Athenry’ they murmur, thinking out loud.
Influences
The recipe of influences is too long to list: Thin Lizzy, Horslips, BB King, The Dubliners, Rory Gallagher, The Pogues, Smashing Pumpkins, The Gloaming, a grungy touch of the old Eddie Vedders in lead singer and percussionist Daniel ‘Lango’ Lang, and all whipped up with a dollop of techno-infused, acoustic trash metal on a sometimes rapid, sometimes lamenting, crypto-Celtic, folk beat. This is miotaill mór, country ceol on crack, for the craic. With Conor 'Doc' Dockery also on guitar and vocals, it is Trad, yet is anything but traditional.
If their music is new to you, fire up the Youtube, because their slickly-produced videos are a joy, and the clipped lyrics are so swift, they leave the listener with little to ponder, but much to return to.
Speaking to the Advertiser, band members Cathal and Gary say they are not an overtly political act, like Kneecap or The Mary Wallopers, but they did feel compelled to speak out against the censorship of British punk-rap duo, Bob Vylan, in England, last year. They’ve played fundraisers for Palestine, and have friends there.
Playing a gig in Galway to thousands of young people on the bank holiday weekend, probably only a fortnight before the by-election to fill Catherine Connolly’s Dáil seat, though, does give them pause for thought.
“I used to think, growing up, that making music was apolitical in a way, even though all art is political – kind of – because for me, making music was about escaping all of that, and finding people from whatever side of the world, regardless of skin colour, creed or whatever, and escape; hanging out together, because ye both like the same music, and that’s the universal language and universality of music” says Cathal Mckenna, from Monaghan. “But like, yeah, of late, the world is just getting worse and worse, where it’s becoming more apparent, that people need to say stuff.
Politics
“Much as we’d love for our gigs just to be cathartic, and places where people come to sing, and dance and have a pint or whatever, and forget about stuff, we kinda don’t have that freedom anymore.” Cathal says. “The suppression of artists, and what people are saying is crazy. It’s 2026, and artists are being silenced by lobby groups for playing at a venue.”
The lads are about to set-off to launch their latest album Pull Like A Dog on a tour of Australia, before returning for Momentum in Galway, then a sold-out homecoming in Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens in July, but the US-Israeli attack on Iran has complicated travel plans, with fuel prices soaring, and a route via the Middle East problematic, if not dangerous.
“It just might not feel right, rocking through Dubai, with a guitar case on your back, when there’re rockets falling on the people in the UAE every day at the moment,” says Gary.
Asked what would be their opening tune if, perhaps in a parallel universe, they were asked to perform on opening night of Donald Trump’s new ballroom he plans to build at the Whitehouse? The answer is immediate: “Probably whatever would annoy him the most,” says Cathal.
Maybe a cover of ‘Citizen I.C.E.’ a new collaboration by Boston band Haywire, and the Celtic punk-infused Dropkick Murphys, who The Scratch toured with across America in 2024. The Dropkick’s bassist, Kevin Rheault appears on The Scratch’s third album, Pull Like a Dog, released earlier this month.
“Yeah. We’d get Ken Casey up to sing it,” chuckle Gary and Cathal, referring to the Dropkick Murphy’s front man, who famously challenged fans wearing Make America Great Again hats at his gigs, as an affront to working class solidarity. "That'd be class!"
Apolitical, or not, definitely expect some mischief from The Scratch when they play Galway this May.
Tickets €44.99 plus fees from www.MomentumFestival.ie
