posted by Patrick on March 24, 2011
ty·phoon [tahy-foon] – a violent storm or tempest of India.
I caught Typhoon in the middle of my last show on my last day of South by Southwest, playing in a church and wedged in between two groups I really wanted to see. The band was an unknown to me but not to Austin, apparently; they had recorded an NPR “Tiny SXSW Concert” at the Driskill Hotel earlier in the day, and were performing for the eleventh time in four days. For a few minutes, the band seemed oddly named; despite having thirteen members on stage (I kept spotting new ones well into their set), their sound was plaintive, haunting, and calm. But midway through an epic ten-minute opener, the band erupted with a groundswell of noise. Two horns, two violins, three guitars, two drummers, a keyboardist, a cellist and more I’m forgetting managed to combine their disparate sounds into one surging harmony. Despite sad, often tragic lyrics, Typhoon produced an amazingly uplifting energy.
To me, Typhoon exemplified the best part about SXSW – the opportunity to hear a band you’d never experience otherwise and to be completely and utterly blown away. The Portland collective has largely toured close to home so far, no doubt due to a combination of their sheer size and relative newness, but I expect the buzz from Austin will take them to a city near you (and hopefully me) soon. Don’t miss them.
Typhoon – CPR / Claws Pt. 2 (Downloaded 752 times)
Typhoon – The Honest Truth (Downloaded 341 times)
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» Meaningless labels: Anthemic • Big Sound • Folk • Harmonic • Orchestral
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