This eleven-piece band has won the hearts of Boston. Conversely, Boston has won the hearts of Typhoon. Their first show in Boston back in the fall at Brighton Music Hall has already become somewhat legendary among many indie music fans (and amongst our staff). Thus, the anticipation for their return to Boston at its (well technically Cambridge’s) newest venue, The Sinclair, for dual shows was at the top of my anticipated shows for the spring. It’s difficult for a show to live up to such high expectations, but Typhoon proved once again why the live experience of their music is so essential to the punch of what they’ve created.
Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, the stage name for Maine native Aly Spaltro, was billed to open both shows for Typhoon and provided the perfect amount of spunk and compositional complexity to set the stage for indie music’s best eleven-member band. The crowd hummed with anticipation and at the sound of the first notes of Typhoon’s opening song “The Honest Truth,” we all knew we were (once again) in for a treat. The energy in the room was palpable and you could tell Typhoon had been just as excited for the show as the awaiting fans. Kyle Morton, lead singer and frontman, was clear in emphasizing that he had been looking forward to getting to Boston since this tour began. He was so caught up in the moment that he even forgot some of the lyrics to one of his early songs. You hear about that excitement often from bands, but it was clear all of Typhoon was a bit jittery from anticipation.
The band filled the stage like a musical hurricane — including two full drum sets, a string duo, a brass trio, multi-instrumentalists and numerous scattered snare drums — only can. They quickly took the crowd into the belly of their powerful, momentous anthems, leading to lots of choral singing (really more yelling), stomping and dancing. For a band with so many members and so many compositional elements happening, they are incredibly tight and find a way of feeding off of each other more and more as the show goes on. They have described themselves as a tribe, and that feeling of unity was well on display. Typhoon expanded their set into some of their lesser-known and slower songs this time around. The song selection left a little to be desired from their most recent release White Lighter, especially when the band pulled up on their first exit from the stage after only 45 minutes. Though their set ended somewhat prematurely, I admittedly wouldn’t even have been satisfied if they had played for 2 hours.
With the show being kept fairly brief for a headlining band with a catalogue like theirs, Typhoon was committed to channeling their music to Boston, and made available a free “acoustic” show at the Emerald Lounge in the Revere Hotel on Sunday afternoon. The relaxed atmosphere of a packed lounge wasn’t exactly what you’d expect to want to see a huge anthemic orchestra perform in, but they held the space exceptionally well.
Thanks to Gunnar MacCormick for providing the photos from the Sinclair show.