Dressed in stereotypical business attire, though wearing comically large ties, Boston Typewriter Orchestra took to the Boston Public Library’s Rabb Hall stage on Oct. 16 to perform “The Revolution Will Be Typewritten.”
Formed in 2004, Boston Typewriter Orchestra is a musical comedy group that challenges the typical notions of what an orchestra is. Instead of melodic string sections or shiny brass horns, the group’s instrument of choice is a typewriter.
With five albums and multiple singles, the orchestra uses the sharp mechanical sounds of the machine as a backdrop for tongue-in-cheek lyrics and bellowing vocals.
Brendan Quigley, a member of the orchestra, said the group wanted to create an innovative form of music, and a typewriter appeared to be the perfect “MacGuffin,” or driving force behind the band.
“We’re being sarcastic by calling it an orchestra,” Quigley said. “Everyone makes sound out of a machine, and we try to build around that.”
More than 20 years later, the orchestra has performed in a variety of settings, from house parties to street festivals to libraries. It even appeared in the 2016 documentary “California Typewriter,” a film featuring typewriter connoisseur Tom Hanks, among other artists, writers and collectors who still use typewriters.
Using ten typewriters — and every part of a fully dismembered eleventh one — the group performed a mostly original set at the Boston Public Library, with the exception of Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral,” cover, which was the group’s first time performing with an electric typewriter.
Boston University freshman Nicola Paul, who attended the performance, said her favorite song was “Mailguy,” an 11-second track featuring the sounds of hard typing and several members yelling.
“It was really entertaining, because they were so unserious about it,” Paul said. “Good emotions all around.”
One of the running themes throughout the group’s discography is the vapidness of day-to-day corporate work. The orchestra utilizes audio effects and typewriter noises to emphasize the blandness of boring staff meetings and dull office lunches.
“Some of us like The Beta Band, who used to make pretty elaborate skit videos to play behind their music live,” Quigley said. “So it’s not an original idea, but we just sort of figured we do our little spin on it.”
Alongside lyrics from “This Could Have Been An Email,” a song depicting a tedious staff meeting, visuals were projected onto a screen behind the group. These visuals portrayed a donut day at the office, satanic typewriter worship and people in gorilla suits carrying out a day’s work.
“The gorilla one is a dramatization of the, ‘If you put 100 monkeys in a room with a typewriter, eventually one of them will write “Hamlet,”’” Quigley said.
Paul said the performance was a very unique experience.
“I thought that it was cool, because it’s not something that you’ve ever heard of or seen before,” Paul said. “It is very one of a kind.”
