Tycho started as a one-man electronic project by Scott Hansen in 2002. After releasing three albums by himself, Scott Hansen added Zac Brown and Rory O’Connor to Tycho where they worked and created Awake, Tycho’s fourth album that came out on March 18th, 2014. Awake still has the iconic Tycho sound with its ambient synths and soothing melodies, but with more incorporation of guitars, drums, and bass compared to previous releases. Along with this release, Scott Hansen revamped his life performance with an amazing light show and a full band to back him up on stage. Check out what I thought of their performance along with Gardens and Villa at Union Transfer after the jump.
I was lucky enough to see Tycho on April 19th at the Union Transfer in Philadelphia, and I was even luckier to get there early. The opening band, Gardens & Villa, put on an amazing performance that blew me away. Gardens & Villa are an indie rock / synthpop band from Santa Barbara, California, and they were the perfect opening for Tycho. Their laid-back style and experimentation on the synthesizer and keyboards really stuck out to me, and they had everyone in the crowd moving back and forth. The lead singer even played the flute with incredible talent and it showed just how far the band will go to give a complete performance for its audience. Gardens & Villa just released their second album Dunes in early 2014, and played plenty of songs from it and from their self-titled release in 2011.
After Gardens & Villa’s set was done, the audience waited anxiously for Tycho to come out. After a period of waiting, the projector behind the stage lit up with a beautiful and simple projection of clouds and a bright blue sky. It is important to mention that not only is Scott Hansen the head of the band, but he also does all the visuals and programming for the live performances as well. The band came out, the clouds disappeared, and the opening guitar to “Awake” started.
Throughout their whole performance, the projector displayed a beach environment, with the sun shining and the ocean glistening. The music was an appropriate soundscape for this display, and both the sound and visuals fit seamlessly. Hansen led on the synthesizer, but often played guitar as well. Brown led on guitar, but also played bass when Hansen took over on guitar. The overall performance from Hansen, Brown, and Davancens, who played bass and keyboards, was nothing short of amazing. The guitars and synthesizers sounded just like they did on Tycho’s albums, and they even extended some songs to give it more of a punch with the guitars. However, the most notable performance to me was the drummer, O’Connor.
With the new addition of a guitarist and bassist to support Hansen, the drums helped bring their songs to a whole new level. O’Connor’s use of complex drum patterns on each song made the overall sound feel that much more alive, and it showed just how much talent this band had. When the music was soft and ambient, the drums supported it with a simple beat. When the music became loud and heavily guitar-driven, the drums became a wild display of energy, with convoluted hits on the snare and crash, and hard-hitting drum fills while keeping a steady beat intact. While Awake shows what potential Tycho can have with a studio drummer, nothing compares to what O’Connor brings to the table live.
Tycho played a lot of hits from Awake, including “Awake”, “Spectre”, “Dye”, and “L”. They also played their popular songs from previous albums, like “Hours”, “Ascension”, “Past is Prologue”, and “Dive”. They even had an encore where they played “Montana” off their new album, and “A Walk”, which is arguably their most popular song. Tycho is a band I like to listen to when I’m relaxing, but during their live performance everyone including myself were moving from side to side. They even had songs packed up with so much energy that they had the crowd jumping up and down, which was something I never thought I was going to see at this concert. Tycho’s blend of post-rock and ambient EDM made this much more than an ordinary concert. The visuals painted a perfect picture of what I imagine when I listen to Tycho, and the combination of the two made this an experience I will never forget.
You can find Tycho’s single “Montana” here, as well as Gardens & Villa’s single “Bullet Train” here.
Also, here is a picture from Tycho’s set from the concert, courtesy of Baroness:
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