By DCist contributor Alex Schelldorf.
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of happening upon, say, the Museum of Natural History on a summer Saturday, you know the plight: endlessly surrounded by countless children, parents, and tourists—some (or all) wailing.
Now imagine packing 2,000 millennials into the Hirshhorn’s gorgeous fountain courtyard at $35 a pop (or, if you were feeling saucy, $100 for the VIP treatment). Now put an instrumental band whose main visual draw is an hour of soothing projections in front of those youths. It was basically the same thing.
On paper, San Francisco’s Tycho, led by composer and designer Scott Hansen, were the perfect pairing for the Hirshhorn’s music series. Nearly every surface on the museum’s lower level is currently covered by Barbara Kruger’s BELIEF+DOUBT installation, 15+ foot tall messages adorning the walls.
Down a nearby hall, Dan Flavin’s untitled (to Helga and Carlo, with respect and affection) 92-foot-long fluorescent light installation is a glowing sculpture beacon for too-bright selfies.
But there was something missing Friday night. It wasn’t the weather’s fault, which remained decidedly comfortable as fall swings through. It wasn’t alcohol, which was available at every turn, albeit on a ticketed system. And it wasn’t the weed—which, in a crowd tightly controlled by security, seemed to dominate the first ten rows of people in front of the stage.
It might not have been the music, either. Backed on drums by D.C.’s own Rory O’Connor (aka Nitemoves), the four-piece played cuts from their latest record, 2014’s Awake, and previous releases Dive and Sunrise Projector. Throughout, the band were bathed in scenes from California’s beaches, mountains, and sharp color palettes. Hansen is a producer who has dialed in chill vibes, producing electronic albums for warm, hazy nights—this evening was no different. It was alarmingly serene, even at an ear shattering volume up close.
Maybe it was choosing to mash a set of music, which began just after 10:30 p.m. and had no opener, with an eye-popping ticket price for a group that sold out 9:30 Club last year at half the cost. What should have put the focus back on the museum and its surroundings, or the band itself, made it just another expensive place for the young and well off to drink in the District.
