I’m going to get right to the nitty-gritty: the Asheville date of Tycho’s Awake Tour was the best show I have ever attended. I came to the show already expecting to be blown away and needless to say I was that and more.
This was the first night of this leg of the Awake Tour and you could feel the anticipation upon entering the room. I had just flown in from Orlando so unfortunately I missed the opener Christopher Wiltis, but arrived just in time for Tycho to play.
Tycho’s band opened with “Adrift,” one of the later songs off of Dive, Tycho’s 2011 album. The swingy beat of the song set the mood of the night. There wasn’t one person in the room that wasn’t moving in some way.
The set consisted of mostly Awake songs; I was excited to hear my favorite, “Dye,” so early in the set. Combined with the outstanding visuals displayed on a screen behind the band this song was pure euphoria for me. The visual color palettes went along with the album art for each song that was played. For example, during Awake songs, aerial shots of the Grand Canyon would be shown. Deep oranges, light blues, and even purples can be seen in this setting, and if you notice these are the same colors in the Awake cover art. So this was a great moment of realization for me.
The rest of the set was a mix of Awake and Dive songs, “See” was even remixed at one point. The band promptly left the stage at the end of the set, and obviously everyone wanted to hear more, so the band came back out for a few more songs. They played “Past is Prologue,” the title track from Tycho’s 2006 album, and if you are familiar with this song at all you know that the tempo of the drums changes constantly throughout the song, and it was really amazing seeing the live drummer pull it off.
Altogether, I was elated to spend my first night in the beautiful city of Asheville, NC surrounded by one of my favorite bands, great people and all around good vibes. It was most certainly a night I will never forget.
