In the three years since Tycho last played in Boston nearly everything for Scott Hansen has changed. In 2011 he was touring solo as support for Little Dragon and Dive was just starting to garner attention. At the time, sales Hansen seemed thankful to have an audience at all and said perhaps two words on stage.

Flash-forward to today, cialis  Awake is being talked about on nearly every outlet, here his name is commonplace, he tours with a backing band, and oh – he’s selling out shows across the country. He still isn’t one for stage banter, so like I said, nearly everything has changed.

I learned two things off the bat. For starters, I had been pronouncing opener Gardens & Villa’s name wrong for the past couple of years and secondly, my expectations for the night were not going to be my reality.

Gardens & Villa’s synth-heavy indie pop set was accessible for ears old and new alike with a tinge of sexiness. Standouts from the brief set were “Black Hills” despite Chris Lynch’s severely slurred vocals (perhaps a side effect of the steady breath streams needed for those flute solos) and the more upbeat “Bullet Train.”

As the house started to fill up I realized, “Oh, is this a dude show?” which was quickly followed by, “Do these guys listen to Dive staring at their ceiling like I do?”

I had a hard time believing it. Tycho’s set kicked off with several cuts off of Awake including a blissful rendition of “Spectre.” Years ago, Tycho entered my world as a purely psychedelic experience and it continues to be one. Hansen’s work swirls, it breathes, and it helps you let go.

He has spent the better part of the past year knee deep in graphics with the intent of making this Awake tour a truly multi-sensory experience. As a close follower of both Tycho and ISO50 (Hansen’s design blog), I’ve lusted over his work from the Past Is Prologue album art print to his signature dot logo. His work focuses on clean lines and vibrant color, leaving me anxious to see what his brain could cook up for his hand-crafted backdrop.

Photo by The Key XPN.

That’s when the grimace began. Hansen’s motion graphics could be boiled down to an hour-long Urban Outfitters ad with a touch of Gaga for good measure. Distracted and perturbed by the projections of girls walking down sand dunes in slow motion (see above), the soft cooing chords of “Daydream” shook me back into place. I furiously shut my eyes, breathed a little deeper, and replaced the wavy haired girls and trite shots of the ocean with my own mental tapestry.

A solid nod of appreciation goes to the Sinclair’s sound crew who made this dual experience possible because a sub-par mix would have prompted me to leave at that point. Hansen wrapped up the night with a brief thank-you and an encore performance of fan-favorite “A Walk.”

Ultimately I felt unattached and wanted to listen to these records in my own uninterrupted darkness. Having kept my ears peeled post-set, it became apparent that I was the anomaly here. I walked away with the acute realization that you won’t always see eye-to-eye with artists you admire, and that’s ok.