Okay, I had this big long spiel written up about why I haven’t posted anything for the month of September. Then my browser crashed and I lost it all to the void. So fuck it. I ain’t gonna retype that whole darn thing. Just know that I needed a break, and I took it.
That said, I’m going to reboot the blog with a quickie on NorCal chillwave favs Tycho, who performed at the Greek Theatre in Griffith Park (a.k.a. Echo Park, a.k.a. Los Angeles) earlier this month, 09.05.19 to be exact. I’ve got a bunch of these shows that have fallen by the wayside. In fact, I was originally going to return with the second half of The Cure curated Pasadena Daydream Festival, which is a work in progress at the moment, and has been for most of Sept. But it’ll come … eventually.
Anyway, Tycho seemed like a safe bet. They’re super easy on the ears, totally mellow and melancholic, in a beachy analog retro-future kind of way. They’re mostly instrumental, and feature a fair bit of electronics. But they’re also incredibly organic, with live percussion, bass and guitar, all balanced to be chilled down and downtempo, with the occasional laid-back menace and flighty moodswings.
Tycho seems to roll through SoCal on a yearly basis. And this time out, they’re sporting some new material, from their latest album “Weather,” with new flashy stage projections, and a female vocalist by the name of Saint Sinner. On that latter note, I’m still a bit on the fence. I actually purposely chose to experience these new offerings cold-turkey, rather than pre-listen to all of it in advance for familiarity’s sake. That’s my preferred way, because it allows you to really soak it all in with the purity of live performance.
But as I was saying, I’m a little undecided with the addition of a vocalist. Granted, she’s good and all. No complaints on her performance. And Tycho seems to have found a comfortable vocal fit for their sound. I guess I’m just not used to hearing lyrics to their lushly hazed sunbleached instrumentals. There’s certainly instances where it totally works. I’m thinking of tracks “Skate” or “Japan.”
There’s others that I can go either way, like “Pink & Blue” or “No Stress,” where I feel like there might be a tad bit too much compromise, in terms of sound. In other words, what’s driving what – vocals or music? I definitely don’t want to see Tycho bend their sound too far to accommodate a new voice. And for the most part, I don’t think they do. Obviously, there’s got to be some give and take. Balance, if you will. I guess, like I mentioned, it takes some getting used to. That said, I still like it. But hey, you be the judge.
I’m not going to get into a whole big rundown of their setlist, which I’ll tack onto the end of this post. The footage speaks for itself. There’s the aforementioned Saint Sinner voiced tracks, minus “No Stress,” as well as a few new instrumentals, and a whole bunch of oldies, like “A Walk,” “Awake,” “L,” “Epoch,” and the oldest of the bunch “PBS.” I went a bit crazy for this one. But I had good seats, so it was super easy to capture all these goods.
In no particular order, here’s a hefty batch of Tycho’s Greek Theatre performance, which incidentally marked the start of their U.S. tour. Enjoy!
Tycho perform “A Walk” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Awake” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Division” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Easy” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Epoch” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Glider” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Horizon” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Into the Woods” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Japan” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “L” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “PBS” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Pink & Blue” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Skate” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Tycho perform “Weather” at the Greek Theatre on 09.05.19.
Here’s the setlist, which I’m pretty sure is accurate. I had to cobble it together from memory, aided by the time stamps on my footage, as well as the handy info of the internet. If there’s any mistakes, let me know and I’ll update it. Enjoy!
