Concert review: Girl Talk at The Orange Peel
Reviewing a Girl Talk concert is like reviewing a party: It’s deliriously complicated. On one hand, if you stay off to the sidelines, you miss the heart of the experience. But find yourself caught in the crowd, and swaths of emotion create a subjectivity that’s hard to intellectualize. Honestly, how can one conjure up objective truths as confetti rains from the heavens on a madcap crowd as they freak out over a remix of Kelly Clarkson’s seminal “Since U Been Gone”?
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.
Girl Talk (real name Gregg Michael Gillis) specializes in sampling and remixing pre-existing songs to create new work. These mashups predate the commonality of similar works found on the internet by a good five years, and therefore can be generally viewed as pioneering. He’s had a hand in the creation and reinterpretation of work from Beck, Grizzly Bear, Ke$ha, and Wiz Khalifa (whose Full Court Press collaboration album Girl Talk is currently on tour to promote). With that rep established, it’s safe to say that a Girl Talk show is what happens when a producer plays in front of a packed hall of ravers and rockers intersecting on the dance floor.
The perverse joy of hearing the April 25 Orange Peel crowd sing along to a crossover between Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” and Ludacris’ “Move” might rank among the most surreal concert-going experiences I’ve witnessed thus far. Souped up incarnations of hits spanning the likes of Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” the Go-Go’s “We Got the Beat,” Hole’s “Celebrity Skin,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ “Pump It Up,” Nirvana’s “Lithium,” the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah,” and ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky” blared over the speakers, while dancers handpicked from the audience surrounded Gillis as he mercilessly involved himself in his own work.
Rising up more than once from behind his booth and perching himself precariously between two monitors, Gillis addressed a transfixed audience who responded in kind with deafening roars. Shirtless and covered in sweat, the man’s image of reckless abandon and passion washed like a wave over those who dared take the plunge. Accomplices in his master plan, men in masks and suits released balloons at the start of the show, before changing into more “casual” attire and raining water on patrons.
Inflatable palm trees crowd-surfed; people crashed against each other with abandon. The music only stopped when Gillis wanted it to — which, to his credit, happened rarely. By his set’s end, the venue littered with beer cups, confetti, and streamers, Gillis exited the stage, no doubt leaving everyone wanting more. Instead, they reluctantly had to shuffle out into the night, searching for either that next high or a place to settle in and gather their thoughts.
(Photos by Niko Gonzalez)
