Tycho Prepares to Return to Hometown of Sacramento

Scott Hansen, primarily known as “Tycho”, prepares to make a valiant return to the city he calls home. Tycho has been touring the world with fellow indie-electronic band The xx, and will make a stop at Golden 1 Center on Sept. 26. 

See the message Tycho has for the people of Sacramento:

Nostalgia time! So excited and honored to be returning to my hometown of Sacramento with The xx at Golden 1 Center.

I grew up 18 miles northeast of the city in a small town on the American river called Fair Oaks, only venturing past its borders to go to Arco Arena — which people referred to as “echo arena” — to see some of my first live shows: Rush / Primus in 1992 and Megadeth / Suicidal Tenancies later that year.

By the time I was playing my own shows I was living in Downtown Sacramento, the first show was with the Stilldream guys at the original Marilyn’s for an audience of about five people. I was living at Governor’s Square apartments at 3rd & P, just a few blocks from where Golden 1 Center is now, where I wrote both The Science of Patterns and Sunrise Projector.

I used to take breaks between late night sessions, walking across the street to climb the parking garage and watch the bats fly in and out over the river and the Tower Bridge, taking pictures with my Lomo. Other nights were spent wheatpasting posters for Command Collective — a group of artists comprised of my good friend Dusty Brown (Zac’s Cousin), Tha Fruit Bat, Chachi Jones, Park Avenue and myself  — under the cover of darkness for shows at Espresso Metro where Jay Howell (a great artist who later went on to design the characters for Bob’s Burgers) would let us play after the shop closed down.

Eventually I would meet Zac through Dusty and we started playing shows together, the first one at Fool’s Foundation under The Old Spaghetti Factory on J. I moved to San Francisco 11 years ago but there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my time in Sacramento; the years I spent in that corner of downtown were some of the most formative and artistically fulfilling of my life. So it’s with great privilege that I get to return to play the new arena with Zac (who resides in Sacramento), Rory and Billy. Can’t wait to see everyone!

A note on the poster: I created this using only photos and textures I created during the years I lived in Sacramento, if you look closely you’ll see some elements from the Sunrise Projector cover in there.

About the Author