Event
Typhoon, Wild Ones, Youth. @IKE Box
The members of Typhoon are the improbable result of a forced breeding program instituted by an elite cabal of music snobs within the Soviet regime during the waning years of the Cold War. Intended to address a perceived progressive rock gap, the project's original goal was to produce an endless stream of communist friendly one hit wonders, flooding the world market with generic concept albums and overwhelming the West with sheer numbers. Such a brazen strategy had not been attempted since the Great Patriotic War in which Hitler's advancing infantry were stopped dead in their tracks by the murderous Russian winter and wave after wave of ballet dancers and pit musicians, the icy rivers soon choking on their corpses. Such legends of heroism do not die easily in Soviet Russia.
By the mid eighties the Improvisation Project, as it was called, had been fast tracked. Seed was harvested from every continent on the planet, often surreptitiously and without the donor's consent. Following in vitro fertilization, the embryos were implanted in hundreds of less than enthusiastic Siberian peasant girls. As a matter of national security, the pregnancies were brought to term aboard an experimental nuclear submarine patrolling beneath the ice cap covering the North Pole.
From birth the children were force fed a thorough education in the history, theory, composition and performance of classical, folk and popular music. Their instructors included Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and John Lennon who had all been political prisoners since the KGB faked their respective deaths. After only a few years the project seemed to be proving an enormous success. By 1989 Russiahad produced an unprecedented community of child prodigies with unquantifiable musical talent and unlimited potential. On November 9th of that year, however, the course of history flipped a bitch. With the fall of the Berlin Wall the Iron Curtain faded out of existence and theSoviet Union began to disintegrate. Black budget line items were stricken from the books across the board as the Russian government struggled to maintain control. Having lost it's funding, the Improvisation Project was terminated. All 328 children, ages two to six were set afloat on an iceberg in theBering Strait before the submarine, which had been the only home they ever knew, returned to port to be decommissioned.
The children were forced to work together to survive. Burning their woodwinds and stringed instruments for warmth, they fished with guitar strings and paddled due east with every horn they had with them. After a week and several dozen deaths they made landfall inAlaska. On land, but still lost and on their own, they began to walk. For years the band of musical geniuses foraged for food in the vast wilderness ofAlaskaand westernCanada. Having been born and raised on a submarine the children were not well suited to such a life of forest vagrancy. Many more deaths followed as the group made their way to the lower forty-eight. Only thirty remained when they, unknowingly, crossed the border intoWashington.
By the time they first caught a glimpse ofSalemin the distance there were only a dozen of the heartiest souls left. Their sense of direction was so poor thatSalemwas the first piece of civilization they had seen since they watched their last home disappear beneath the frigid waters of theArctic Ocean. Deliriously happy, the ragged band of feral children made their way into the city where they were placed in loving families who finished the job of raising them. Their harrowing ordeal had taken a toll, however. The years of frostbite, malnutrition and tribal politics had so degraded their motor skills and retarded their ability to communicate that their musical talents went completely unnoticed until high school.
Ever bound by their shared gifts and trauma, the twelve have for years reunited to play, write and sing. Finally formalizing their association under the name "Typhoon", the band continues to produce powerful and complex music, though the thought of revenge upon their former masters is never far from their minds. - Brad Grenz
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LocationIKE Box (View)
299 Cottage St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
United States
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| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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