Kyoto three piece Typhoon Club has been hard at work making pop-rock music since 2013, and the storm shows no signs of dissipating. Their contradictory love of and desire to break away from 3-chord rock music into something more aurally and artistically interesting was apparent in their lush but grounded orchestration.

Their set at Naeba Shokudo on Sunday night saw a respectable crowd in attendance. The apparently stripped down pop aesthetic of their performance contained a lot of well thought out musicality, elevated by the vocal harmonies and driving song structures. They managed to eschew traditional song craft without ever seeming overly arty or complicated. The musical formula of sugar-coating complicated songs in easily digestible forms is what kept the set bumping and engaging. Also if all else fails a Japanese language cover of Green Day’s Basket Case is sure to get a lubed up Sunday night crowd going.

If you were looking for a toe-tapping small stage act to round out the last day of the fest, Typhoon Club certainly delivered. Although weather-wise it may have been more appropriate to have had them perform Saturday night…