Last night my buddy JayT and I took another trip to the Mercury Lounge to see Typhoon, a band from Portland, Oregon. Like I’ve said in previous entries, I’ve been trying to see these guys (& gals) for about seven months now. They just haven’t played a lot of local dates so I haven’t been able to catch them until last night. I thought I’d finally get my chance this past weekend in Newport but unfortunately it took us over two hours to get into the festival on Saturday and I just missed their set (they were one of the early acts going on Saturday). Fortunately I had this show in my back pocket so I was pretty pumped to finally see them last night.
Typhoon is a pretty unique band, if my math is decent I counted THIRTEEN people playing on stage. If you’re familiar with Mercury Lounge, this was an interesting dynamic seeing as it’s a pretty small stage. The group was pretty much broken up into groups of three: lead singer w/guitar, lead guitarist and bass guitarist; three piece horn section; three piece string section; two drummers and one guy playing percussion. Pretty sure there was also a girl playing keyboard in the back but it was difficult for me to see from my spot on the floor. For such a big band they’re extremely tight, you can tell they’ve played and rehearsed quite a bit together. Typhoon’s music has a lot of tempo and volume changes so this is an impressive quality for such a large band.
The band played about a 45 minute set consisting mostly of material off their albums but they also played a brand new song that I thought was excellent. Really entertaining set, it was almost overwhelming how much was going on and what you wanted to fix your eyes to. Highlights for me were “The Honest Truth” (my favorite song by Typhoon), “Kitchen Tile” and “CPR/Claws Pt 2” which I filmed and you can watch below.
About half way through the show, lead singer Kyle Morton remarked that this was their first show in NYC but I was really impressed and would expect that their next trip they’ll be playing a larger venue like Bowery Ballroom or Music Hall of Williamsburg. Typhoon has some more dates lined up listed below including another NYC show tonight in Brooklyn at Littlefield. Also, they'll be the muscial guest on Letterman Thursday night. I definitely recommend checking them out if you get the opportunity.
One other random note, I recognized the lead singer of Freelance Whales (Judah Dadone) in the crowd between sets and spoke with him for a bit. They’re back in town working on a second album after touring relentlessly over the last couple years off of their album “Weathervanes”. Really nice guy, enjoyed speaking with him after seeing them perform a couple times this year. Another very good band you should check out if you’re not familiar with their stuff.
TYPHOON TOUR DATES:
August 3rd Littlefield Brooklyn, NY
August 4th Sixth & Synagogue Washington, DC
August 6th Lollapalooza Chicago, IL
August 8th The Old Rock House St. Louis, MO
August 9th The Riot Room Kansas City, MO
August 10th Hi-Dive Denver, CO
August 12th Visual Arts Collective Garden City, OH
September 10th Musicfest NW @ Pioneer Courthouse Square Portland, OR
"CPR/CLAWS PT 2"
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