Live Review: Typhoon at Metro 1/19

Following a lengthy 4-year hiatus, Portland indie rockers Typhoon returned to the Metro stage as part of Tomorrow Never Knows to bring their third full-length album, Offerings, to life. Centered around a man’s loss of memory and identity, the record is a grand, sweeping, and ominous instant masterpiece. Luckily, their Chicago performance did justice to both this daring conceptual opus as well as the band’s long absence from the stage.

The set opened with “Common Sentiments,” the penultimate track on Typhoon’s previous album, White Lighter. Yet as soon as the chords struck for “Rorschach” — the debut track from Offerings — the change in tone was immediate and unmistakable as lead vocalist Kyle Morton’s voice fluctuated back and forth between a haunting, static and discontented shout.

What allowed the performance to succeed with all its instrumentation was its breadth and subtlety. Staying true to the quiet moments in the live show with the same level of intensity as the loud ones, Typhoon effortlessly wove in and out of each movement with the expertise of a symphony orchestra. Artfully utilizing their two drum kits, strings, keys, and three guitars, the band played even the softest parts of each song with the utmost intention…the silences holding the same importance as the notes themselves.

Offerings, with all its grandeur and its 23,000 words, was an ambitious undertaking. Yet it’s clear that Typhoon is here to deliver a powerful live performance to match. –BY JULIET CANGELOSI