Tycho
Saint Andrew's Hall
Detroit
Jan. 23, 2025
Drop in. Tune out. Head home.
On a cold weeknight in Detroit with a live concert on the menu, that’s all I want. To be dropped off at the door, tickets waiting, carried up the stairs, placed in a chair, brought a beer, left alone, listen to music, love it, retire happily to my home.
With Tycho in town, that’s the perfect fantasy to pursue. He makes music that sounds like an electronic fantasy, like the soundtrack for a science museum after dark. (Maybe that’s too on the nose – the name itself comes from a Danish astronomer.)
Tycho has been bringing a dance party to the planetarium for over 20 years. For this set of dates, including a stop at Detroit’s vaunted St. Andrew’s Hall, he’s performing with a live band – Tycho on a range of synths, a guitarist, a drummer, a bass player. It brings a lot of body and danceability to the sound on the live stage, which I appreciate. Everything that’s emulating this sound today often sounds thin to me, like treble replaced bass and no one stopped to ask if this was a good thing.
And so… the car arrives. Hop in. Front door service. Walk up the steps to St. Andrew’s (after going through their notoriously intense security detail). Pick up tickets at will call. Attempt to charm my way into VIP seats on the second floor (“I think they really wanted me up there” / “who did?” / “they did”). It works, and that’s great because the first floor is packed.
Buy giant beers at the private bar. Remember when this renovated VIP space was a bare bones backstage where I successfully snuck into to smoke weed with a touring punk band from who knows where.
Now I’m just obsessed with sitting down as close to the stage as possible, as comfortable as possible. Getting older but still loving music. Consider the long-term effects of hearing loss throughout the night. Didn’t think about that when I was smoking weed with the punk band at age 14. I could see people dancing and headbanging at the front of the stage from my perch. They looked older than me, but hadn’t lost any sense of excitement or youth.
And truly did manage to drop in, tune out and head home.
Tycho performed music made for psychedelics, for pondering your life a little too long, scaring yourself by the rabbit hole you just thought yourself into and rushing back to reality to get lost in the stage show.
For this one, I was fairly sober. And even with that, I was impressed how well the band did in bringing their albums to life for the Detroit stage.
I’d go see them again, and would recommend it to anyone else. But a perfect setting for Tycho isn’t on a cold night in Detroit when I don’t feel like doing much. It’s probably a sunrise set in a field somewhere, coming down from the night before.
Can’t wait to drop in and tune out there, too.
This review is published in partnership with WDET.
